Listening for Culture: Using Interviews to Understand Identity in Context

There is an inextricable link between humans and their cultural environments, as each reciprocally creates and is created by the other. This chapter discusses interviewing as a critical methodological tool for understanding culture as intricately intertwined with subjective meaning making and identity processes. We start from the premise that the stories gathered through research-based interviews serve as repositories of shared cultural knowledge as experienced and interpreted by individuals. After briefly examining the historical position of interviewing in the field of psychology, the chapter will draw on examples from the authors’ own research in the United States and Germany to offer guidance on (a) designing interview protocols that allow for cultural analysis, and (b) conducting analysis to see culture through interview data. Empirically guided suggestions for fostering researcher reflexivity, acknowledging power, and dismantling hierarchies are provided throughout the chapter, all in service of truly “hearing” culture in the stories participants tell.