The Science and Art of Interviewing

by Kathleen Gerson, Sarah Damaske

Qualitative interviewing is among the most widely used methods in the social sciences, but it is arguably the least understood. In The Science and Art of Interviewing , Kathleen Gerson and Sarah Damaske offer clear, theoretically informed and empirically rich strategies for conducting interview studies. They present both a rationale and guide to the science-and art-of in-depth interviewing to take readers through all the steps in the research process, from the initial stage of formulating a question to the final one of presenting the results. Gerson and Damaske show readers how to develop a research design for interviewing, decide on and find an appropriate sample, construct a questionnaire, conduct probing interviews, and analyze the data they collect. At each stage, they also provide practical tips about how to address the ever-present, but rarely discussed challenges that qualitative researchers routinely encounter, particularly emphasizing the relationship between conducting
well-crafted research and building powerful social theories. With an engaging, accessible style, The Science and Art of Interviewing targets a wide range of audiences, from upper-level undergraduates and graduate methods courses to students embarking on their dissertations to seasoned researchers at all stages of their careers.

Genres: Sociology, Research Methods, Academia

292 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2020

Reviews

[Judd Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Science and Art of Interviewing" by Gerson and Damaske is a decent, if somewhat standard, primer to conducting interviews. I found it a bit drier of a read than the later "Listening to People" I reviewed, but still found it chock full of decent introductory material for designing, conducting, and analyzing interviews.

I appreciate their introductory framing to interviews as "search[ing] for answers to empirical and theoretical puzzles" and emphasizing discovery over verification, even if I disagree slightly with their exclusion of the role of hypotheses (p. 9). They elaborate on this distinction by offering a dichotomy between 'explanatory' and 'predictive' analysis (p. 14), which I think is helpful, but I do think this can sometimes downplay the fact that these are just two different paradigms seeking to understand the question 'why?'.

I really like their identification of the importance of "strategic comparisons" in sampling (p. 27). This idea of choosing with intentionality can sometimes be hard to communicate to novices, and the language here was useful. Their later notes on applying this strategy and diversifying starting nodes in snowball sampling (p. 63) is, again, language I think I'll try to use with future undergrads. This also comes up in their astute observation to be careful about moments where you've reach saturation in some subcategories but not others (p. 121), which again suggests really understanding the purpose of purposive sampling.

I also really liked their notion of "accounts" versus "explanations" (p. 165). I think this offers a very useful challenge in analysis, suggesting we really stay with the moments where people offer what they /think/ are explanatory stories, but actually explain many different possible outcomes with the same rationales.

Overall, I'm probably more like to include this on a list of "suggested additional reading" for my classes rather than a core requirement, just because I think there are some slightly more animated alternatives especially for undergraduates. But, I think it's a treasure trove of excellent information and am so glad I read it.

[Cambria Siddoway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that outlines qualitative research design and execution. Writing was good, as exciting as a book about research methods can be haha. I kept thinking about the qualitative studies I’d like to do someday. Due to the authors’ personal focus on life trajectories and career choices, I felt the style and type of interviews used as examples may have been limited and not fully encompass all the different types of interviews researchers could do.

[Marketa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on interviewing, highly recommended to fellow social scientics.