Turning tapes into text: issues surrounding the transcription of interviews

Transcription of interview data is a common practice in qualitative health research. However, there has been little discussion of the techniques of transcription and the issues inherent in the use of transcription as a strategy for managing qualitative data in nursing publications. The process of transcription may disclose or obscure certain information. Researchers need to question practices of transcription that have been taken for granted and make transparent the processes used to preserve the integrity of data. This paper first examines research reported in nursing and allied health journals employing interviews for data collection and the attention given to the transcription phase. It then deals with issues of concern regarding the transcription of interviews, and offers suggestions for promoting validity.

The Εffects of censoring and the spiral of silence on focus group interviews: a case study of discussions on immigration

Focus groups assess the oral expressions of opinions of participants on a particular topic under discussion. They have several advantages over other qualitative research methodologies such as depth interviews because focus groups can discover people's attitudes and motivations while revealing the underlying views or values held by them. However, as focus groups elicit more socially expressed and contested opinions and discourses than Individual opinions, their discussions can be contaminated by the situational constraints and social pressures within the group. These include group dynamics, confonnity, censoring, the Group Leader Effect, the Groupthink Syndrome, the effects of the Spiral of Silence, characteristics of group members, and the climate of opinion within the group and in society at the time. This case study examines the effects of these factors on the 'horizontal interactions' between group members during a discussion with undecided voters about immigration, using two situations where focus group members took offence at comments made by another and challenged them, when the topic under discussion was personally relevant to them. Other members of the group, offending or otherwise, then remained silent, retracted their opinions to placate the challenger, and expressed neutral or conciliatory opinions in an effort to return the discussion to a state of equilibrium. It then examines some measures that can reduce such contaminations, including
methodological triangulation, where several methods and methodological
approaches are used to examine a given phenomenon, instead of just one method, such as the sole use of transcripts of focus group discussions.

Police perceptions of interviews involving children with intellectual disabilities: a qualitative inquiry

This study employed a qualitative method to explore the experiences of 20 police officers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities. Three main themes were interpreted as representing challenges to the officers when interviewing special-needs children: police organizational culture, participants' perceptions of these children as interviewees, and prior information. Participants in this inquiry mentioned poor organizational priority within the police force for child abuse cases and children with intellectual disabilities, as well as inadequate support for interviewing skills development and maintenance. Participants also attempted to equalize these children by interviewing them in the same way as their mainstream peers. Finally, participants viewed interview preparation as influential in determining an interview's successful outcome, but recognized that preparedness could bias their interviewing techniques. Increased attention towards these issues will provide a basis for developing strategies to minimize such challenges and thus improve the quality of interviews with children with intellectual disabilities.

The effect of events context on children's recall of non-experienced events across mutiple interviews

Purpose: The current study examined whether young children's willingness to assent to, and provide details about, a false (non-experienced) activity differs depending on whether the activity was allegedly embedded within (a) a specific event or (b) a broad (non-specified) time frame.
Method:  Ninety-nine children aged 4--5 years (from both low and high socioeconomic backgrounds) either (a) participated in a staged event that consisted of two activities or (b) did not participate in the staged event. One or two days later, all children were given false suggestions about a non-experienced (false) activity that had either high or low plausibility. Approximately 8, 15, and 22 days after the event, children were asked to recall the activities, and to answer a series of specific cued-recall questions.
Results: There was no effect of event context on assent rates, and the rate at which children reported interviewer suggestions. However, children who participated in the staged event provided fewer details about the false activity. Further, among those children who assented to the false activity, fewer subjects, objects, actions, temporal markers, locations, fantastic/improbable details, and confabulation errors were reported when the activity was embedded within the specific staged event.
Conclusion: The degree of error in children's accounts of a completely false activity is reduced when the activity is suggested to have occurred within a specified event as opposed to a broad (non-specified) time frame.

The effect of intra- versus post-interview feedback during simulated practice interviews about child abuse

Objective
This study compared the effectiveness of two types of instructor feedback (relative to no feedback) on investigative interviewers’ ability to adhere to open-ended questions in simulated practice interviews about child abuse.
Method
In one condition, feedback was provided at the end of each practice interview. In the other, the instructor stopped the interviewer at various stages during the practice interviews to provide feedback. The relative effect of these conditions was examined by measuring interviewers’ performance in a standardized mock interview paradigm immediately prior to, immediately after, and 12 weeks after the practice and feedback sessions.
Results
Prior to and 12 weeks after the practice sessions were administered, there was no significant difference in participants’ adherence to open-ended questions irrespective of the nature of the feedback, or whether feedback was received. At the immediate post-practice assessment interval, however, the participants who received feedback during the practice interviews performed better (M proportion of open-ended questions = .85, SD = .13) than the other participants (post-interview feedback M = .67, SD = .18, p < .001; no feedback M = .56, SD = .16, p < .001). This heightened use of open-ended questions was associated with a greater tendency among the interviewees to provide abuse-related details in response to open-ended questions (M = .91, SD = .11) compared to the other participants (post-interview feedback M = .77, SD = .15, p < .05; no feedback M = .69, SD = .16, p = .001).
Conclusions
Different types of feedback can be differentially effective in training child abuse investigators to adhere to open-ended questions. The benefits of any training program, however, are likely to be short-lived without ongoing practice.
Practice implications
A single study compared the relative effectiveness of two types of instructor feedback (relative to no feedback) on investigative interviewers’ ability to adhere to open-ended questions in simulated practice interviews about child abuse. This research is relevant to trainers of investigative interviewers because there is currently large variability in the type of feedback employed in training programs. This study is one of the first to empirically demonstrate that different types of feedback may be differentially effective in improving the performance of investigative interviewers.

The effect of using trained versus untrained adult respondents in simulated practice interviews about child abuse

Objective
A single study tested the hypothesis that simulated practice interviews for investigative interviewers of children are more effective when the role of the child respondent is played by trained actors (i.e., postgraduate psychology students) than untrained fellow participants (i.e., child protection workers).
Method
The interviewers included 50 child protection service workers. Each interviewer received instruction in the use of open-ended questions and then engaged in two simulated practice interviews. The role of the child respondent in the practice interviews was played by either a trained psychology student or an untrained fellow participant. The key outcome measure was the proportion of open-ended questions, which was assessed immediately prior to and after the practice sessions, as well as 12 weeks post-training.
Results
Interviewers who had practiced with trained actors had higher post-training performance (M = .83, SD = .12) compared to those who had practiced with untrained fellow participants (M = .73, SD = .13, p < .05), even at the 12-week follow up (M actors = .66, SD = .25; M untrained actors = .49, SD = .23, p < .05).
Conclusions
Training programs that make better use of practice opportunities (e.g., by using trained respondents) will be more effective in improving the performance of investigative interviewers.
Practice implications
A single study investigated the relative effectiveness of two simulated practice exercises for professionals who interview children about abuse. This research is relevant to professionals who design investigative interviewer training programs because it indicates that practical exercises, which are currently chosen on an ‘ad hoc’ or convenience basis, can vary markedly in their effectiveness in encouraging adherence to open questions.

Improving the competency of police officers in conducting investigative interviews with children

Despite the provision of 'best-practice' guidelines regarding conducting interviews with children, research indicates that most investigative interviews do not adhere to these guidelines. To date, there has been little discussion in the literature of the conditions that are needed to promote and sustain expertise in forensic interviewing. The current paper addresses this limitation by describing the main factors preventing the adoption of 'best-practice' interview guidelines. A description of these barriers (and the literature that supports them) forms the basis for the review component of this paper as well as the subsequent recommendations for change.

An examination of police officers' notes of interviews with alleged child abuse victims

This study provided a critical examination of handwritten records (notes) of interviews contained in a sample of 89 police case files about alleged child abuse. Some of the notes examined related to initial disclosure (complaint) interviews which were not electronically recorded and were meant to be recorded verbatim. Notes of electronically recorded interviews, which merely constituted a convenient summary of the case details, were also examined. Collectively, the analyses focused on the accessibility, completeness and accuracy of the notes, and the degree to which the interviewers' questions and witnesses' answers were differentiated. In relation to the disclosure interviews, a substantial proportion of these were not accessible. Of those where the notes were obtained, the detail recorded was not a complete record of conversation, and there was often poor delineation of questions and responses. Analysis of the electronically recorded interviews showed that these were not an entirely accurate summary of event details even though the note takers' sole task was to document the interview. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Professionals' perceptions of electronically recorded interviews with vulnerable witnesses

This study presents a qualitative evaluation of the Video and Audio Taped Evidence (VATE) process involving vulnerable witnesses, introduced by Victoria Police in 1996. Specifically, this study presents an analysis of individual in-depth interviews with a diverse group of 25 key Victorian stakeholders (police officers, prosecutors, solicitors, defence lawyers, and members of the judiciary). The aim of the interviews was to provide an overview of the stakeholders' perceptions of the VATE system, with particular focus on the usefulness of VATE interviews viewed or used in the stakeholders' practice. The findings revealed unanimous support for electronic recording of witness statements. However, the stakeholders also perceived that the effectiveness of the system was impeded by several factors. These include: (a) frequent absence within the interviews of a coherent account and detail needed to prove the various offences, (b) inability to scrutinise questions asked prior to the VATE interview, (c) lack of feedback regarding how well the VATE system is working, and (d) the recording medium itself which produced statements of poor sound and visual quality. Three broad recommendations arising from the interviews are discussed.

Effects of repeated interviews on children's recall of an event

The results of three studies suggest that repeated interviews assist in retaining information over a 6 week interval without increasing suggestibility. In addition prompting was also efficient in retaining information over 6 weeks. The implications of this study were that repeated interviews at intervals less than 4 weeks, could assist children to improve recall at a court appearance.