Abstract
I began reading Witzel and Reiter’s 2012 book, The Problem-Centred Interview this past Fall as I prepared to collect data for the qualitative strand of my mixed methods dissertation study. I didn’t have any prior knowledge of problem-centered interviews, but hoped that the method might prove instructive as I embarked on my first major study, and I was certainly not disappointed. (As someone who already appreciated the merits of mixing research methods, I was perhaps the perfect audience for this book.) I ended up employing the “problem-centered interview” approach for all 30 of my interviews, and I wholeheartedly recommend the text to both emerging and established social science researchers who use—or are considering using—interviews in their work.
The book gives a detailed yet concise guide to planning, conducting, and “processing” a particular type of interview: the problem-centered interview or “PCI.” Such interviews not only acknowledge deductive and inductive modes of reasoning but are, in fact, dependent on these seemingly contradictory sources of knowledge. PCIs give equal weight to a researcher’s prior academic and theoretical knowledge and a participant’s prior practical and “everyday” knowledge. Thus, rather than situating a priori theories and past empirical findings in opposition to open-ended narratives, the PCI values both approaches equally.
The dialogue between an interviewer and a study participant in PCI is meant to be egalitarian, a conversation predicated on trust in which the meaning ascribed to a socially relevant research question (or “problem”) is reconstructed collaboratively. Using the metaphor of a “well-informed traveller” Witzel and Reiter make the convincing case that a researcher should openly acknowledge and strategically use his or her prior knowledge (deductive reasoning) in order to prepare for an interview and actively engage with participants and their stories (inductive reasoning).
In the context of the problem-centred interview, interviewers . . . have certain priorities and expectations and start the journey on the basis of background information obtained beforehand. Yet the trip they will finally make, and the story they will tell about it afterwards, is dependent on the people they meet on the road and on their insider knowledge. (p. 2)
While some interview methods advise against interrupting a participant’s narrative account, PCI encourages interviewers to engage in active listening with open-ended queries and more specific follow-up “clarifying” questions based on knowledge of the field. Such prompts are meant to stimulate participants’ memories, narratives, and thoughts; in this way, participants are involved in a process of active understanding, with the interview helping to deepen their own knowledge of the “problem” at the same time that the researcher’s understanding is enhanced.
Apart from a very short English-language piece that Witzel wrote on PCI in 2000, 1 this text is the only English-language publication on PCI and makes the approach available to a broad international audience for the first time. In fewer than 200 pages, the book is a quick read. However, its relatively short length belies rich content, helpful additional “Boxes” with supplementary material, and numerous examples of how to apply the PCI in real-world contexts. In addition, the authors weave selections from three of their own past studies throughout the book, using these exemplars to show how the PCI can be applied in diverse studies.
Chapter 1 introduces key terms and principles and offers a helpful synopsis of subsequent chapters; Chapter 2 includes a succinct overview of research paradigms and “world views”; Chapter 3 describes how to prepare for a PCI, emphasizing the importance of developing a “sensitizing framework” (similar to a “conceptual framework” 2 ); and Chapter 4 describes how to actually do PCIs, offering specific strategies to elicit participant narratives and generate understanding. Chapter 5 gives suggestions for data interpretation and Chapter 6 is composed of actual interview excerpts from Witzel and Reiter’s past studies. Chapter 7 is devoted to common PCI “errors and pitfalls” drawn from the authors’ prior work and is particularly candid and valuable; and Chapter 8 (the Appendices) includes two complete sample PCI interview guides.
I did my best to adopt the role of a “well-informed traveller” in my own study and followed Witzel and Reiter’s advice for planning and conducting PCIs. I am working on “processing” the data now, but so far the entire PCI procedure has proven highly useful. First, I developed a “sensitizing framework” that incorporated my prior knowledge of emerging adult development, psychiatric disabilities, and educational trajectories; next, I used this to create a discussion guide. I then explained to study participants that I had read a lot about the topic at hand (emerging adults with psychiatric disabilities transitioning into college), but that they have unique lived experience and expertise that I hoped to glean in our conversation. Following this introduction, I moved between Witzel and Reiter’s “strategies for storytelling” and “strategies for comprehension” to elicit participants’ narratives and co-create meaning with them. My interviews were certainly not perfect, but many of them ended with participants remarking that they had enjoyed the process and had thought about an aspect of their own mental health, recovery, and college experiences in a new way because of our dialogue. I like to think that in every instance, participants and I learned something from and with each other, and ended our conversations with new knowledge created together.
In sum, this book is more than a simple description of a technique for conducting interviews; it is—in the language of its authors—“a qualitative, discursive-dialogic method of reconstructing knowledge” (p. 4) that elegantly addresses “the apparent contradiction of deductive and inductive aspects of qualitative research” (p. 30).
If you are considering using interviews in your next research venture, I highly recommend consulting The Problem-Centred Interview before embarking on your journey.