A proposal for the analysis of the relational dimension in the interview techniques: a pilot study on in-depth interviews and focus groups

Several current scholars of sociological methodology put increasing emphasis on the centrality of the relational dimension in the process of collecting information. But what are the interactional mechanisms involved in the construction of data? In order to answer this question, this study will use the relational analysis, applying it to two specific families of interrogation techniques: the focus groups and the in-depth interviews. Therefore, a pilot study is conducted analysing a small number of focus group transcriptions and in-depth interviews on the base of the Interaction Process Analysis (Bales in Interaction process analysis: a method for the study of small groups, Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1950), a classic of social psychology. The aim of the pilot study is to understand whether and what can be the sense of considering the interview (involving two or more subjects) as a social interaction, identifying the relational characteristics of the two techniques taken into analysis.