Rapport

Rapport refers to the degree of comfort in the interactions between the researcher and research participants. For participant observation, rapport refers to the quality of the relationships that the researcher makes at the field-site. For interviewing, it refers to the relative ease of exchanges between the interviewer and interviewee(s).

Participant observation raises a unique set of issues associated with rapport due to the length and complexity of the relationships involved in this method. Once the participant observer has access to the study site and research participants, the creation and management of relationships becomes an ongoing issue with this method of data collection. In this case, the creation of rapport often begins with a process of trust building, but once relationships are established, issues of reciprocity and mutual obligation become increasingly important. In particular, the kind of “prolonged engagement” that is often seen as essential for high-quality participant observation is likely to require rapport across a web of relationships that goes well beyond the dyadic relationships that are usually considered in discussions of rapport.

In contrast, nearly all studies based on interviewing involve more transitory relationships where the collection of data is the primary basis for interaction—with extended oral histories being the most notable exception. Thus, concerns with rapport in interviewing center on the need to build an appropriate relationship within a relatively short period of time. Hence, the way the researcher describes both the nature of the project and the procedures for the interview itself sets the stage for the rapport building that occurs in the subsequent interaction. In particular, it is frequently helpful to let the participants know the extent to which the interviewer will be primarily a listener, an active questioner and facilitator, or even a relatively directive and agenda-driven data collector because the nature of rapport will be different in each of those approaches to qualitative interviewing.

Among the factors that affect rapport in both participant observation and interviewing are the topic of the research and the amount of self-disclosure that it requires from the participants, the ability of the researcher to protect the participants' privacy, the nature of the research setting, the extent to which the researcher has an “insider status” or other preexisting contacts with the participants, and the extent to which the participants perceive themselves as similar to the researcher. As this list indicates, rapport in research relationships can be a complex issue. Furthermore, these factors often occur in combinations that may have strong effects. Most notably, the combination of the research topic and the degree of similarity between the researcher and the participants can have a powerful effect on rapport, especially when the topic involves contested social boundaries such as race, gender, and sexuality.

Overall, the concept of rapport is a good illustration of the classic claim that the qualitative researcher is the “research instrument” because the quality of the research often depends on the quality of the researcher's relationships with the participants.