The use of depth interviewing with vulnerable subjects

Tim Booth and Wendy Booth

Social Science and Medicine, 39(3), 1994, pp. 415-424.

This paper explores the practicalities of using the technique of depth interviewing with people who have learning difficulties. The authors set out to provide other researchers with guidance in the use of the life story approach and to demonstrate its utility with this vulnerable and devalued group of informants. They conclude that depth interviewing can provide new knowledge not accessible through other methods of data collection, and offers a way of giving people with learning difficulties a voice in the making of their own history.