Exploratory and confirmatory goals can interfere within one interview guide
Aliases: mixed-purpose interview · interview contamination · question order
What it is
Goal interference in interview guides occurs when one session seeks unknown needs through open discovery and also tests a fixed hypothesis under comparable conditions without separating sequence or analysis. Exploration follows unexpected leads; confirmation requires equivalent stimuli and neutral prompts. Once an early module introduces concepts, teaches participants, or changes moderator expectations, later answers are no longer an unprompted test.
Why it happens
An interview is a sequential interaction: earlier questions become context for later answers. Open discussion can create vocabulary and evaluation frames; confirmatory items can make moderators select later leads around the hypothesis. Time also competes: following a new theme reduces standard coverage, while strict standardization truncates exploration. Pooling all material then misreports prompted support as spontaneous discovery.
Studying it
Prefer separate participants or rounds. When one session is necessary, collect primary outcomes that must remain unprompted before concept exposure, then mark a transition into exploration. If both orders matter, randomize or counterbalance modules to estimate order effects. Scripts distinguish standardized sections from free probes, and analysis retains module, order, and exposure labels. A reminder to “stay neutral” cannot repair a structural conflict.
Where it stops holding
A study can address multiple questions. Several exploratory aims may share an interview, and open probes after a fixed measure can explain results when not treated as independent confirmation. Qualitative confirmation may itself require probing counterexamples. Full separation also costs recruitment and loses within-person linkage, so independence must be balanced against integration value.
Applying it
- Label each question as generation or test and map how one module may prime another.
- Place primary unprompted outcomes before concept exposure; randomize or counterbalance when no order is privileged.
- Preserve module, order, moderator prompt, and exposure in records and analysis.
- During pilots, mark when participants first encounter each focal concept; reorder or split when “spontaneous” evidence follows a prompt.