You will want to first define and explain your role as an
observer of the behaviors, a participant in the interview, and or an
observer-participant. Next, you will discuss any relationships that you have
with the participants, particularly if you have a supervisory relation (this
will be a big issue for the IRB, so think if there is a way around using your
supervisees).
Next, you will discuss how your own biases will be managed.
Every researcher comes into a study with biases, if you didn’t have ideas as to
what you thought would happen, you would not do the study! You may have been
(or are) a member of the population group, how will you keep that from
influencing your interview? You will need to be impartial and unbiased, how can
you do that? One common way is to approach subjects/ participants neutrally and
keep a journal where you relate your feelings that come up for you. It is
common for new interviewers to want to engage in a social conversation with the
participants and share their own experiences. Do not do this! Your story may influence
how they respond to questions; you want to approach the topic as someone new to
the topic. Do not assume that you know what they are going to say, let them
explain the details.
Finally, you need to think through any other ethical issues,
such as, doing a study within one’s own work environment, conflict of interest
or power differentials, and justification for use of incentives. Then lay out a
plan for addressing any issues that are present.
Next time we will look at Chapter 3: Participant Selection.
Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a
future post? Would you like to be a guest
writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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