Shanice Mzavas
I really enjoyed this week’s readings on conducting interviews since I was planning on interviewing a “protected class” of people for my thesis. Before I began readings, I was stuck on how to proceed with my research proposal. I knew that I wanted to study the possible interdependent relationship between childhood obesity and mental health, but I did not know how I was going to begin. Previously, I created a list of interview questions that measured depression, asked questions about self-esteem, and asked if and how children used food as a coping mechanism. What I was missing from my interview questionnaire was the purpose. By purpose, I mean the ability to integrate the experiences, behavior, thoughts and feelings into my questions. My questions should be not be the focus of my efforts by are the central elements to a good interview.
It also helped me redirect my research question to a new perspective. My …show more content…
My questions provoke emotional or psychological feelings, so being perceptive would help to understand the childhood obesity from that person’s point of view. I have to careful to not insert emotions into the conversation (i.e. you feel angry, you feel happy when) because it hinders the ability for the respondent to communicate into their own words. When prompting, that is something that I need to look out for because I would find myself wanting to insert words into the respondents mouth when I was doing the interviewing assignment for class. The blank space and stuttering in their answers was hard to sit through because I had the appropriate word in my head but I had to wait for them to vocalize their feelings. I am glad that I am aware of this fault because now, I know why I should give the respondent time to think. While I am not a mental health expert, I can rely on previous literature and indexes to outline my
I really enjoyed this week’s readings on conducting interviews since I was planning on interviewing a “protected class” of people for my thesis. Before I began readings, I was stuck on how to proceed with my research proposal. I knew that I wanted to study the possible interdependent relationship between childhood obesity and mental health, but I did not know how I was going to begin. Previously, I created a list of interview questions that measured depression, asked questions about self-esteem, and asked if and how children used food as a coping mechanism. What I was missing from my interview questionnaire was the purpose. By purpose, I mean the ability to integrate the experiences, behavior, thoughts and feelings into my questions. My questions should be not be the focus of my efforts by are the central elements to a good interview.
It also helped me redirect my research question to a new perspective. My …show more content…
My questions provoke emotional or psychological feelings, so being perceptive would help to understand the childhood obesity from that person’s point of view. I have to careful to not insert emotions into the conversation (i.e. you feel angry, you feel happy when) because it hinders the ability for the respondent to communicate into their own words. When prompting, that is something that I need to look out for because I would find myself wanting to insert words into the respondents mouth when I was doing the interviewing assignment for class. The blank space and stuttering in their answers was hard to sit through because I had the appropriate word in my head but I had to wait for them to vocalize their feelings. I am glad that I am aware of this fault because now, I know why I should give the respondent time to think. While I am not a mental health expert, I can rely on previous literature and indexes to outline my