The Ratings

How straightforward was the procedure as a whole? Was it sufficiently

sensible to the interviewee for the results to be credible, or was it like pulling

teeth – clearly meaningless as an interviewing technique? Though the time

may vary a little depending on the circumstances and the reasons for doing a

grid in the first place, in most cases it’ll usually take between 30 and 60

minutes to elicit and rate between 6 and 12 constructs. Most interviewees find

it an appreciable task, since it requires some concentration. After 60 minutes,

both of you might feel a wee bit tired if all went well, and drained if it was

meaningless.

Don’t use the results, drop all further analysis, if you recall that the task wasn’t very

meaningful to the interviewee. (An hour to arrive at two constructs? Why on earth

didn’t you abandon the grid and do something that made more sense to the interviewee?)

A grid is not a test, that is, a procedure which must be completed to be

meaningful. You’ve already discovered what it means to this interviewee ^ zero,

nada, zilch!

As you worked through the grid, did you find that there were particular

elements which fell outside the range of convenience (see Section 2.1.1) of

some of the constructs? Did your interviewee comment on this, talking about

the way in which some constructs are generally applicable, while others refer

only to particular elements? If you were able to encourage the interviewee to

ruminate in this way, are there, in retrospect, any particular comments s/he

made that were worth noting?

Was it emotionally involving? Were there moments of upset; pauses for deep

thought soon after a construct was elicited, rather than during its elicitation?

The former may point to an emotional experience, while the latter may be

affectively neutral, simply a pause for thought as the best words are found in

which to express the construct. Remember the constructs in question and look

at them particularly carefully during any other analyses that you carry out on

them.

What kinds of emotion? Anger? Sadness? Regret? Impatience? Elation? What

sort of thing gave your interviewee a good giggle when s/he recalled it? And

so on.

What kinds of comments did the interviewee make during the procedure,

about the procedure? What were his or her own assessments of the process as

a whole, or of anything specific that happened during the elicitation?

Did you have to depart from your usual procedure for any reason? In fact,

overall, was this one of your more personally satisfying grid interviews, or, er,

perhaps not one of your best? How good were you?

Pause for a moment and do Exercise 5.1.