Interview schedule development for a Sequential explanatory mixed method design: complementary-alternative medicine (CAM) study among Indonesian psychologists

Abstract

Sequential explanatory mixed method design is the most frequently applied in both health and social sciences literature. It is denoted by ‘QUAN → qual’ which represents the quantitative study occurs first and has greater weight in addressing the study’s aims, and the qualitative study follows to explain quantitative results. Despite the extensive use of sequential explanatory design, there are limited references to this design. Therefore, this methodological paper attempts to fill the gap by providing an illustration in developing a sequential explanatory interview schedule based on complementary-alternative medicine (CAM) study among clinical psychologists in Indonesia. The most important step to develop sequential explanatory interview schedule was the construction of aspects and questions that were immensely grounded on the most notable quantitative results. In this study, eight aspects of interview schedule were constructed after analyses of the nationwide survey. The interview schedule then piloted among participants with fairly similar characteristics to the participants in the main interviews. This process enhanced the quality of questions through feedback from participants and improved the interviewer’s skills through familiarization with questions. It is expected that this reflection report could be adopted as a practical guideline in developing interview schedule for sequential explanatory mixed method design, particularly in the field of psychology.

Keywords:

• Sequential explanatory
• interview schedule
• mixed method
• clinical health psychology
• complementary-alternative medicine
• Indonesia

Acknowledgments

The author is supported by Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Scholarship (LPDP RI) under a doctoral degree scholarship (20150122082410). The author thanks Annie Pohlman, PhD and Rachmania P. Wardhani for the proofreading of the manuscript draft. The author would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive feedback to improve the quality of the paper.