Hello,
Assuming we have an interview guide for a semi-structured interview for a study that is qualitative where there is a question that is a leading question. What is the best way to rephrase that question for it to be a non-leading question?
Example:
How do you believe smoking contributes to lung cancer?
The question here implies that smoking contributes to lung cancer and the researcher is asking how does it contribute to that which is a leading question.
Is there a rule or a technique to format questions that are probing causation or correlation without it being close ended or leading in nature?
Using the example above, how would you rephrase that question?
Hi Ahmad Younes ,
it's not my field of expertise but I feel that you have to combine two questions and a case distinction.
If you would just ask: "If lung cancer can be caused by smoking then how do you believe smoking contributes to lung cancer?" then the truth of the condition is emphasized by the fact that no question refers to the case where the condition is false. Or from another angle: If I claim that the condition is false, my answer is very short, without being able to further demonstrate any knowledge in the field; whereas after claiming that the condition is true, I could talk some minutes and shine.
So, I think the question should be along the line:
"If you think that lung cancer can be caused by smoking, could you elaborate on the cause-effect chain or, in the opposite case, could you give reasons why the lung tissue is not affected?"
Dear Joerg Fricke
To my knowledge, firstly, your question should be neutral.
You can first ask a more general question about lung cancer and smoking. For example, what do you think can play a role in lung cancer? Or in other words, what cancers do you think tobacco can play a role in and gradually lead to the respiratory system and lungs?
In Qualitative research, the more open-ended the question, the better it is. This is because it allows the respondent freedom in expressing themselves. Hence keep it focused but open-ended.
Asking open-ended, neutral questions is especially important in the early portions of a qualitative interview. Once you have established rapport with a participant, you have more options about how you ask your questions.
One option is to say something like: "Some people say (leading content), what do you think of that?"
When you ask, "How do you think smoking contributes to lung cancer?", the interviewer is already responding that this relationship exists. I think that in a semi-structured interview, the questions can be broader. For example: "Could you talk about the health consequences of smoking"? If the interviewer does not reply what the interviewer wants to know in this broad question, other more specific questions can be asked, for example: "It is common to hear about the relationship between smoking and lung disease. What do you think about this relationship?"
Ahmad, I think you will find this recent article useful:
“Enhancing Researcher Reflexivity About the Influence of Leading Questions in Interviews ” Volume 58, Issue 1 of The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
https://doi.org/10.1177/00218863211037446
It is imperative that survey questions are crafted in a way that promotes answers that are solely based on respondents' perspectives.
In your example question, you should ask sub-questions to lead the interviewer to respond to the main question in an indirect way.
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