24. "Why Do Interview Role Plays?"

My secret to developing a great interview that goes smoothly is role playing. You get so much out of taking on the research participant persona, and invaluable experience getting to know your interview tool. Here are my tips on how to role play effectively.

My Experience of Role Playing to Develop an Interview Tool

In one of my research jobs, we finished a project early and had not spent all the funder's money, so they asked us to pilot a small qualitative project with the remaining funds. We were to interview children in juvenile detention about their dreams and aspirations for the future.

I did not actually conduct any of these interviews, as I was left that job to start my PhD before the interviews were scheduled. To develop the interview schedule, I took on the persona of the child in juvenile detention. I can't remember the entire interview schedule but the last question was something like 'If you had three wishes for your future, what would they be?"

I remember smiling and really thinking about what wishes I would want for my life. This was the moment I realised the power of role playing, as I was very 'in character' as I was thinking about if I was a child in custody, what would that mean for my life?

At the end of this role play experience, we both had feedback on the interview schedule. We changed the order of some questions, and removed/added questions, to make the interview flow better. I fought to ensure the wishes question stayed in, as even if we didn't use these data, it would end the interview on a positive note for the child. Also, my colleague was grateful for the experience with the interview tool before the pilot began.

Click here to read the paper we wrote from this study.

The Lessons to Role Play Effectively

The sole purpose of role playing is to improve the interview experience. There should be no egos involved, role playing is about the interview participant's experience, and making it the best it can be to ensure the data you collect is high quality.

• Know the question

If you are interview role playing with a colleague, you both need to know the question(s) the interview will answer.

If you are interview role playing with friends/family without a science background, they do not need to know the question, instead they should let you know how they felt during the interview.

• Know the interview tool

During the interview role play, it is unlikely you will know the interview tool well. But the better you know the tool, the more real the interview experience will seem. If you do the role play without really knowing the tool, any issues with the interview flow may relate to your lack of knowledge of the tool, rather than the tool itself.

• Give honest feedback

The person who plays the research participant, should take note and tell the interviewer if they felt the flow of the interview change, felt uncomfortable or had any other feelings pop up during the role play. But do not break the flow of the interview to give feedback. Instead, write down the times you felt anything during the interview, and tell the interviewer at the end.

The researcher will be interested in any emotions you felt, because anything you feel, participants will also likely feel. The interviewer should be aware of the impact the interview has on its participants, so they can change it if it may influence their results.

• Make the changes (if appropriate)

Take the interview role play seriously, and make the changes you need to make the tool better. If possible, you may be able to have multiple rounds of role playing. When you have finished role playing you may then pilot it with real research participants. During the pilot phase, make notes as to where the interview tool may be improved. Once you have made all the changes the tool should be high quality.

Of course, if the interview schedule has been validated then you cannot make any changes to the tool, as changes may invalidate it.

• Include non-academic questions

If there is a question you want to include, put it in the schedule and see how it goes during the role playing. In an interview tool some questions should be left in there simply to break the ice and build rapport, while others are required for data collection.

My Experience: In my example above the three wishes question is an example of a non-academic question which was purely exploratory. But the answers we got from that question were interesting, and left the participant feeling hopeful at the end of the interview.

Do you find role playing helpful with preparing for interviews? What are your strategies to ensure your interview tool is working before using it? Let me know your experience by leaving a comment below or emailing me at AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

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Photo by Loverna Journey on Unsplash

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