Conjoint research interviews with frail, elderly couples: Methodological implications

In this phenomenological study, frail, rural elderly couples were interviewed as dyads. Couples participated in semistructured interviews and jointly con-structed their responses. The elderly couple or dyad was the unit of inquiry, data collection, and analysis. The study sought to maximize the understand-ing of the couple as a unit as partners negotiated and constructed their responses. The method of data collection provided opportunity to observe the verbal and nonverbal interaction of the couple, the process used to construct the conjoint dialogue, and the content of the discourse. The couple conversa-tion was richer in content and more effective in addressing the research ques-tion than were individual interviews. This article focuses on the methodolog-ical issues as they relate to the couple as the dyadic unit of research. Dialogue from the study illustrates the richness of the data gathered using this method. The literature is fraught with methodological issues pertaining t