A Reflection Upon Interpretive Research Techniques: The Problem-Centred Interview as a Method for Biographic Research

While the method of the problem-centred interview or PCI has been widely
used by social researchers writing in German, a large part of the international
scientific community is not yet acquainted with this strategy of data collection
and analysis. The most significant contribution of the PCI to qualitative
research methods is its coherent combination of different interviewing styles
within one interview session: an open narrative at the beginning is followed by
a thematic interview and the collection of socio-statistical information at the
end. This paper gives an overview of the theoretical foundation and the
different stages of the PCI by introducing an example of how it is carried out
within a research project on biographical orientations in migration processes.
Finally, the PCI is compared with other types of biographical data analysis,
discussing both its advantages (such as linking the analysis to the development
of qualitative typology building) and disadvantages (eg. high demands on the
interviewed person) and giving an overview of the scope and limits of this
interpretive method.