Interviewing clinicians and advocates who work with sexual assault survivors: a personal perspective on moving from quantitative to qualitative research methods

Violence Against Women. 2005 Sep;11(9):1113-39. doi: 10.1177/1077801205277085.

Abstract

This article describes the author's personal experiences of conducting a qualitative semistructured interview study, after having done predominantly quantitative survey research in the social sciences. The author describes the process of learning how to approach conducting semistructured interviews with female advocates and clinicians who provide services to sexual assault survivors in the community. The author describes making the transition from a logical positivist deductive approach to thinking about and conducting research to a more social constructionist stance in which one learns from participants about their experiences and perspectives in narrative form to discover knowledge and develop theory inductively.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Attitude of Health Personnel*
  • Battered Women
  • Confidentiality*
  • Crime Victims
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interviews as Topic / methods*
  • Interviews as Topic / standards
  • Male
  • Patient Advocacy
  • Professional Competence / standards*
  • Professional-Patient Relations
  • Survivors
  • Trust*
  • Truth Disclosure*
  • United States