On the application of interview in psychological research.
Paper Keywords: interview method; Psychological research; Computer interview; Behavioral interview
Starting from two basic paradigms of psychological research, this paper discusses that interview is not a patent of qualitative research, and it can be used for both qualitative research and quantitative research. Then, it discusses the specific application of interview in psychological research: looking for evidence for the application of other methods, looking for computer interviews and behavioral interviews for psychological counseling and treatment.
Quantitative research and qualitative research are two basic paradigms of psychological research. Quantitative research generally refers to the research method of measuring and analyzing the quantifiable part of a thing to test the researcher's own theoretical assumptions about it; Qualitative research is to use written, oral and observation methods to obtain descriptive information about psychological characteristics and behavior performance, and make qualitative analysis of these information. [1] The main methods of quantitative research and data collection are experiment, investigation, testing and structural observation. The main methods of qualitative research and data collection are observation, interview, file literature analysis, audio-visual data analysis and so on. Because of the above distinction, people often think that quantitative methods can not be used in qualitative research, and qualitative methods can not be used in quantitative research. In fact, with the development of psychological research, quantitative research and qualitative research can complement each other. The advantage of quantitative research is the deficiency of qualitative research, and the advantage of qualitative research is the disadvantage of quantitative research. [2] As far as methods are concerned, qualitative research can use quantitative research methods, and quantitative research can use qualitative research methods.
What is the interview method? Qualitative? One of the research methods has made an indelible contribution to the research and development of psychology. With the development of psychological research methods, interview is no longer a patent for qualitative research, but also often used for quantitative research. This paper discusses the application of interview (qualitative and quantitative) in psychological research.
First, interview method and its characteristics
Interview is a research method, and researchers collect data about subjects' psychological characteristics and behaviors through oral conversation. [3] Through the interview method, we can understand the interviewees' subjective feelings, attitudes and emotions towards an event and object, and thus analyze their psychological state and behavioral characteristics in many aspects. An obvious feature of interview method is interactivity. Interview means that the interviewer and the interviewee discuss a certain issue? Talk? . In the process? Talk? Both sides are living people with thoughts and feelings, so both sides' words and deeds will have an impact on each other. This requires that the interview should be conducted in a harmonious interview atmosphere. If the interview atmosphere is tense, the effect of the interview can be imagined. For the smooth progress of the research and the authenticity of the research results, it is very necessary for the interviewer to use some interview skills in this process.
How to talk in the interview? It is a purposeful and planned activity, not a aimless chat. In the interview process, the interviewer should be the leader of the interview, with a general? Home? Start with the problem, cut into the theme in time, and collect research data. The information collected by the interview method is comprehensive. Besides verbal information, behavioral information can also be collected, such as eyes, gestures, sitting posture and so on.
Second, the types of interview methods and problems that should be paid attention to
According to different standards, interview methods can be divided into different categories. This paper mainly discusses the types of interviews according to the strict standards of interview structure: structured interviews, unstructured interviews and semi-structured interviews. The distinction between the above three can be made by determining the characteristics of interview questions and the respondents' answering methods. The interview questions are structured, and when the respondents answer structured questions, the interview is structured; When the interview questions are unstructured and the respondents' answers are unstructured, the interview is unstructured; When the interview questions are structured and the respondents' answers are unstructured, or the interview questions are unstructured and the respondents' answers are structured, the interview is semi-structured.
Structured interview is a more formal interview according to the unified design requirements and the problems with certain structure. There are uniform requirements for questions, questioning methods, questioning order, respondents' answering methods and interview recording methods in structured interviews. The results of this interview are conducive to statistical analysis, but there is little interaction between the interviewer and the respondent, and the enthusiasm and initiative of the interviewer and the respondent are not enough. Unstructured interview is an informal interview conducted by both parties according to certain interview purposes. In the unstructured interview, there are no uniform rules and requirements for the questions, the ways of asking questions, the order of asking questions, the ways of respondents' answers and the ways of recording interviews. This kind of interview result data is not conducive to statistical analysis, but it is beneficial to the enthusiasm and initiative of both parties. At the same time, the requirements for the interviewer are also very high, and the interviewer must have strong interview skills and skills. Semi-structured interviews are between these two kinds of structured interviews and unstructured interviews. Either there are uniform rules and requirements for interview questions and no uniform rules for answers, or there are uniform requirements for answers and no uniform rules and requirements for interview questions.
It is worth noting that according to different research purposes, these types of interview methods can be used alone or in combination. First, different studies use different interviews. The above structured interviews and unstructured interviews can be used for quantitative and qualitative research respectively. The results of structured interviews are easy for statistical analysis and suitable for quantitative research. Qualitative research pays more attention to participants' viewpoints, aiming at understanding psychological phenomena and how different people understand the meaning of their own lives, thus revealing the internal motives of various psychological situations and the characteristics of human experiences that are ignored or abandoned by quantitative research. [4] The structural information of unstructured interviews is not easy to quantify, focusing on describing the local situation at that time, so unstructured interviews are suitable for qualitative analysis. Second, the above methods are often used comprehensively in the same research, which is conducive to the complementary advantages of various methods. If you use unstructured interviews at the beginning and end of the interview, use structured interviews in the middle. The second method is widely used for two reasons: first, psychological research is mostly a combination of quantitative and qualitative research, and there are few single quantitative and qualitative research; Second, the unstructured interview in the interview gives the interviewer a relaxed feeling, so starting from the unstructured interview can make the interviewer easily enter the structured interview.
Third, the application of interview in psychological research
As mentioned above, the interview method can be used for both quantitative and qualitative research. Structured interviews are mainly used for quantitative research, while unstructured interviews are mainly used for qualitative research. With the development of psychological research, the information obtained through interviews tends to be quantitative. The application of interview method in psychological research is mainly reflected in the following two aspects.
First, look for evidence for the application of other methods. This paper mainly discusses it from two aspects: questionnaire survey and experiment. One is to collect information for compiling the questionnaire. In order to improve the quality of the questionnaire, before compiling the questionnaire, it is necessary to interview the research object or relevant personnel to find the key points to be measured, and then form a two-way detailed list of the questionnaire. In this way, the questionnaire compiled according to the two-way breakdown table has strong pertinence and high quality. The second is to collect information for the hypothesis or inference of experimental research. Experimental research has its own research hypothesis or a theoretical inference. There are many sources for this hypothesis or inference, one of which is summarized through interviews. In addition, interview can also collect some data for existing assumptions or inferences, which is more conducive to experimental research.
Second, it provides a basis for psychological counseling and treatment. Interviews are widely used in psychological counseling and treatment, and are often used in the diagnosis, counseling and treatment of psychological disorders. This paper mainly introduces the application of computer interview and behavior interview in psychological consultation and treatment.
One is a computer interview. Computer interview is a process in which visitors talk with computers and then make psychological diagnosis. Its realization is accomplished automatically through a series of questions and instructions stored in the computer. The computer asks a question for the visitor to answer, and then the computer decides the next question according to the answer given by the visitor. The advantages of computer interview are high efficiency, flexibility and credibility. Computer-based interview greatly saves time and allows a lot of topics, even more flexible than the questions asked in manual interview. For sensitive issues such as suicide and sexual problems, the information obtained by computer interviews is more real. In other words, people are more willing to talk about their sensitive issues through computer interviews. There are also some shortcomings in computer interview: first, the use of mentally retarded children and adults is restricted; Second, mental patients are not flexible enough to find problems and symptoms on a large scale; Third, speech processing must be structured, and it is difficult to process information without structure.
The second is behavior interview. Behavioral interview is a kind of clinical interview, which emphasizes collecting information to make a behavior correction plan. This requires an objective description of the problem behavior, previous situation and enhanced results of the respondents. [5] Then we can understand behavior by analyzing its experience, including the history of social learning, the current environment and the results of behavior. Finally, make a behavior correction plan to change individual inappropriate behavior into more appropriate behavior.
In a word, the application of interview method in psychological research includes both qualitative research and quantitative research, and most of the data collected by interview method can be quantified for statistical analysis.
References:
[1] Cui,. Review and reflection on the research methods of psychology in China in the past 20 years [J]. Journal of Psychology, 200 1, 33(6).
[2] Qin Jinliang, Guo Xiuyan. On the integration trend of two research paradigms in psychology [J]. Psychological Science, 2003,26 (1).
[3] Dong Qi. Research methods of psychology and education (revised edition) [M]. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2004.
[4] Dai Binrong. The development trend of psychological research methods combining quantitative and qualitative methods [J]. Journal of Yancheng Teachers College (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 2005,2,25 (1).
[5] Lewis R Aiken, Gary grotte-Manat. Psychological testing and evaluation. /kloc-version 0/2, 2006.
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