Understanding interview
The understanding interview (French original title: L'́Éntretien compréhensif ) is a method of qualitative social research in which data from informants is collected, evaluated and interpreted through recorded interviews . The focus is on the interpretative understanding of social actions . The aim of the methodology is to produce hypotheses and theory based on the surveyed and interpreted data of the respondents. The understanding interview was developed and tested by the French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann , who used it in his work, for example, Dirty Laundry. On the conjugal construction of everyday life and the female body - male views himself applied and in his textbook The Understanding Interview. Describes theory and practice methodically.
The understanding interview can be viewed as an inductive methodology, in which, based on a concrete terrain, the formulation of hypotheses is rooted in the empirical data observed . It can therefore be seen as a development of the grounded theory research style and as such tries to minimize the discrepancy between theory and practice. The term understanding was not chosen by Kaufmann at random. It is about “understanding, in the strictest Weberian sense, that is, that the“ intropathy ”only serves as an instrument that is supposed to lead to explanation and is not in itself the goal and purpose, so no intuitive understanding that is self-sufficient. “The researcher should see himself in the role of the intellectual craftsman who constructs his theory and methodology on the basis of the respective research field.
A special feature of the understanding interview is the conduct of the interview itself, which can have a loose degree of structuring with regard to the questions asked, but also with regard to the random samples. On the basis of a short guide , the informants are asked open questions about the field of investigation. However, these questions should only serve as a guide for the researcher. Ideally, the guidelines will no longer be needed in the course of the rest of the interview, as the research-relevant questions should arise from the dynamics of the conversation itself. Some of the researcher's most important tools are spontaneity, empathy and commitment. The aim is to give the informant the impression of a conversation between equals in order to convey his deepest knowledge to the outside world. In order to achieve this, Kaufmann turns away from the principle of complete neutrality of the interviewer. The researcher has to take over some of the informant's thought patterns and cognitive processes in order to be able to interpret them, but he must not lose his authenticity. You are allowed to laugh in a discreet way, express your own opinion, analyze or criticize statements made by the informant, which is ultimately intended to effect the authenticity of the informant. In this way, an atmosphere can be created in which anonymity and familiarity equally prevail.
literature
- Jean-Claude Kaufmann: The understanding interview. Theory and practice . Translated from the French by Daniela Böhmler. UVK Universitätsverlag Konstanz, Konstanz 1999, ISBN 3-87940-612-X .
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean-Claude Kaufmann : The Understanding Interview. Theory and practice . Translated from the French by Daniela Böhmer. UVK Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1999, p. 12