Several research situations, especially research in social sciences and qualitative research often require data to be collected from people. The process of data collection from human respondents is called interview. Interviews may be formal or informal. Formal interviews are well planned and arranged in advance; the interviewer knows the respondents by their name and has their other details like address profession, etc. Informal interviews are conducted on the spot and the interviewer does not have any details of the respondents at the time of interviewing.
Interviewer first needs to identify the respondents from the sample, correct people need to be chosen for the interview who would be willing to cooperate, generally group leaders, opinion leaders and people with sense of responsibility and authority should be sought, for example a teacher or principal might be the correct respondent for an education based research. The respondent should understand the importance and relevance of research being conducted and acknowledge the credentials of the interviewer/researcher, there should be a feeling of mutual respect, trust and reciprocity, the respondent should feel motivated and like an important participant in the research process.
Fixing the interview with the respondents is the next step. In this difficulties may arise if the respondents are spread over a wide geographical area or are not easily available. It may be advisable to fix interview time, date and venue beforehand. The interview can be conducted at the respondents’ place or at the interviewer’s place depending upon the situation.
While conducting the interview the interviewer should take the respondent into confidence and make him/her feel safe and at ease, interviewer should look out for negative responses and body language like inadequate response, unwillingness, shrugging of shoulders etc. In such cases if the respondent is otherwise cooperative then reasons for negative signs can be in ability to understand or communicate properly, such situations should be handled gently and the respondent should be guided appropriately.
