The purpose of the interview is to interact with the course material interpersonally. In this assignment, you will interview someone who is NOT in this course. The person should be someone you think often experiences a high level of stress and does not seem to cope that well with stress, OR someone you think copes exceptionally well with stress.
The person you ask to interview should approve your VIDEO-recording of the interview with the understanding that the recording will only be used for this course assignment.
The video recording should not show face and should be at least 5 minutes long.
You are free to use any other platform to record (e.g., Zoom will make recordings of meetings) provided the recorded file is in .mp4 format. If your software creates a video file other than .mp4, convert that file to .mp4 before submitting the video.
Do NOT attempt to make the interview into some type of treatment session for you or your volunteer. It is crucial that the person you interview for this project is NOT an individual seeking or receiving services at an organization where you work or volunteer. The person you interview can be a friend, family member, peer, community member, colleague, but not someone who is receiving services from you.
Written portion of the assignment that must be completed in a single MS Word document:
(1) Important-Do NOT name the individual. Type a brief and relevant social or demographic description of the interviewee (e.g., 20 year old junior at KSU majoring in …; 32 year old single-parent working two jobs…; 67 year old retired teacher who volunteers with…). Include in your description the person’s relationship to you (e.g., an older sister, a cousin, a roommate from last year, a student in a class, a coworker on a job from last summer, a former teacher, etc.).
(2) A main idea is to encourage your interview to talk, and this is more likely if they hear you use open-ended questions or prompts. To receive credit for this part, you must type (and use in your interview) at least 5 open-ended interview questions (or prompts) designed to learn about the sources of stress for the individual as well as typical ways the person copes with stress. An open-ended question or prompt might begin with What, How, Where, Tell me, Describe, etc. You can use more than 5 questions or prompts if you want to, but for full credit, we must be able to see at least 5 questions or prompts that are open-ended. So you should avoid closed-ended questions. Closed-ended questions usually start with Do you, Are you, etc., and end up producing less interesting yes/no or other brief responses. Some of the assignments completed as part of the course, and other content in the readings or activities might be used to help you develop good open-ended questions.
(3) Type a short summary of key parts of the interviewee’s responses to each of the questions or prompts. Do not provide a verbatim transcript, just the main, specific points from each answer.
(4) Type a summary of what you learned that was new or unexpected from your interviewee. Your summary should be at least 50 words but can be longer.
Video-Recording of the Interview:
(5) Important: Do NOT use your interviewee’s name in the recording. You must submit the separate electronic file for the VIDEO-recording of the interview, and the interview must be something that you conducted this semester. The file MUST BE in .mp4 format. If your files is in some other format, you must convert it to .mp4 before submitting the assignment. Make sure that the video is clearly visible and the audio is audible before submitting the final .mp4 file.
To make sure you earn all possible points, be sure that we can open your file. Sometimes the files arrive in a restricted way, such as available only to students and not faculty, for instance. Do not put such restrictions on your file.
Do NOT upload your interview video on YouTube!
Do NOT use some other public video-sharing site!
Do NOT use a social media site!
