The Constructs
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The qualifying phrase helps the interviewee to address constructs which are
especially relevant to the topic. How did the interviewee respond when you
introduced it? Hopefully, s/he received it as a useful but otherwise
unremarkable part of your technique.
How useful did s/he find it during elicitation? Was it followed or avoided?
For example, if the qualifying statement was ‘from the point of view of how
you feel about them’, and at the end, none of the constructs related to feelings,
and your steering in that direction was ignored, it could be very informative!
More generally, which constructs required more thought than others?
Constructs don’t just sit there in a heap inside the interviewee’s skull. Some
are available at the top of their repertoire, as it were, and are readily
articulated, while others represent distinctions that the person may not have
found it necessary to make before, in making sense of what life was
presenting. S/he may struggle to express the distinctions in words. Where are
the hesitations and why?
And now, the constructs themselves! What are they, what are they saying,
what are they like? You may have formed an impression of the kinds of
constructs being offered during the process of elicitation, and feel there’s
something significant there. Let’s leave that issue over for more detailed
consideration in Section 5.3.3.