We’ve read a number of articles that discuss various meanings and life experiences individuals hold regarding health. The goal of this assignment is to put these readings to the test and explore how the average citizen thinks about health in the course of their lives.

For this assignment you are to interview 3 (three) people about their health. One respondent must be over the age of 40. You can conduct the interviews any way that you like; however I suggest that you carefully consider the following recommendations and then add several of your own questions to supplement these. The aim of this assignment is to discovery what health means to people, how they think it affects their lives, and what they do (or do not do) about it. 

Guidelines:

When you first start the interview get some general information about your respondent. This is usually referred to by social scientists as individual attributes. The most common attributes are age, sex, education, occupation, marital status, race/ethnicity. (you may of course include others) Do not ask for the names of individuals and assure your respondents of their anonymity before interviewing them for this assignment. Keep these three general rules in mind when interviewing: 

1. The most difficult aspect of conducting a good interview is to let the respondent talk without too much probing. Always remember to listen – do not speak for your respondent. Do not probe too much by providing answers or suggestions. Simply ask your lead question and WAIT for a response.
2. Begin with general questions and then get more specific as the interview progresses. I suggest you have a typed list of questions in front of you so that you may refer to them as you conduct the interview.
3. Use probes – as you are interested in knowing how people think and act about health, you will try to get respondents to clarify and elaborate their answers in their own words. Never provide your own terms or try to finish a respondent’s response. For example, if someone says, "my health is very important to me," you could follow up by asking him or her what he or she means by that remark, or to provide you with an example of why they feel that way. If a respondent says, "you know, my health is ok,” ask them to clarify what ‘ok’ means, or in what context - work or home for example. Take people at their word but try to have them elaborate and be as specific as possible. However, if they can’t DO NOT compel them to answer. One way to get a respondent to clarify is to act naïve. It is perfectly acceptable to encourage them by saying "I really don’t understand" or "let me see if I have this straight" or "could you tell me a little more about that thought".

Try to record people’s responses, as well as your own questions and probes, as nearly verbatim as possible. You may use a tape recorder if you have one available but it is not necessary. If you don’t have access to a tape recorder, I suggest that you sit down immediately after the interview is over and write down as much as you can remember. At the end of the interview, write down any comments or ideas you have about the interview. 

The Interview Tool:

These questions are meant to be a guide for your interview tool. You may use all of them or some of them. The interview questions should be open-ended: this means you are asking the respondent to provide you with more than a simple 'yes' or 'no'. Please be sensitive to your respondent and never try to force him or her to answer a question. If you think he or she is uncomfortable in answering, go to the next question. Here are some suggestions:

How is your health? What do you think of when you think of 'healthy'? How important is your health to you? Is your health as important to you as _______ (work, school, leisure time, etc.- you (the interviewer) think of ways to fill in the blank). How do you know you are healthy? When you are not? What do you do about your health? To prevent illness? To prevent disability? Why? (Or why not) How do you take care of yourself? Do you do anything that you think is harmful to your health? (Please ask them to list if response is yes, and them probe accordingly) Why do you engage in this behavior? What would make you stop? Has there been a time in your life when health was more (less) important to you than it is now? Can you tell me about this? (Be sure to ask about diet, exercised, intoxicants, but wait until the latter part of the interview and ask if they have not already mentioned them)

You should present your results to me in a paper that has two parts: the interview tool and attribute data in the first section and your analysis in the second section. The best way to begin the analysis is to read and re-read the interview (from beginning to end) several times and really think about what your respondents have told you. Try to understand what health means to your respondents, what they believe about it, what they have actually told you, and what they do (or don’t do) about it. What do you, as a novice sociologist, think about this? Are your three interviews the same, to they all have similar patterns, or do they vary?  (if they do, please consider how they differ – i.e., a good place to start might be to consider race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, income, etc., of the respondent) What does people’s talk (or semi-narrative) about their health tell you about them, as well as the various ‘meanings’ of health? How does this compare to theories we’ve discussed in class?