Stanton, Lucy (2010) Repetition is Interesting: An Investigation into the use of Repetition in a Qualitative Research Interview. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The aim of the current study was to investigate the use of repetition in a qualitative research interview. The first question examined the orderliness of the talk between the interviewer and interviewee to ensure that the talk was normal and adhered to basic assumptions. These assumptions included, firstly that the talk was organised as a series of questions and answers where the interviewer predominantly asked questions and the interviewee predominantly provided answers to those question in the qualitative research interview. And, secondly that the talk was orderly in that the interview participants used the ordinary properties of turn-taking, adjacency pairs and sequential organisation to maintain orderly and intelligible talk in the qualitative research interview. The second question examined how repetition was used in the qualitative research interview. That is, where repetition was located in the interviewer’s responses and the interviewees answer and what form and function it performed in the qualitative research interview. Conversation Analysis was employed to identify and analyse instances of repeated talk and to assess how they were used to advance the qualitative research interview. The current study used archived interview data from Wetherell and Potter’s (1992) project on racial issues in New Zealand. The first finding was that the interview talk did adhere to the normal and basic assumptions. That is, the talk was organised as a series of question and answer sequences. The interviewer did predominantly ask questions the interviewee did provide answers to those questions. The participants talk was orderly; the participants used the ordinary properties of turn-taking, adjacency pairs and sequential organisation to maintain orderly and intelligible talk in the qualitative research interview. The second finding was that the interviewer and the interviewee both used repetition during the question and answer sequence and the post expansion sequence. The analysis found that repetition was used to: signal alignment; it was used to encourage further talk on the current topic; it was used to fashion a reply in an efficient manner; and it was used to resolve the essential tension between relevance and redundancy felt by interview participants; and finally repetition was used to open up a closed question for further expansion. This is a new area of research activity and few studies have examined repetition talk in qualitative research interviews. More research is required on this interesting yet under researched discursive resource.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Christensen, Steven |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Mar 2026 02:13 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2026 02:13 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52780 |
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