Conversations at random: survey research as interviewers see it

by Jean M. Converse and Howard Schuman.

So, my part-time summer job, (which I have in addition my regular one, which extended its summer hours for me to full time) involves interviewing people for a research study. It's studying how parents make decisions about their children's health (particularly with respect to the environment). It seems like an interesting project, and something that's important to know about. Something that might better the world, somehow. But I have no experience interviewing people - I've had classes where we talked about it, and how to avoid bias, but never really done it. I thought this might be my chance, and a chance to be inside (and not from a design perspective) a huge federal research project.

So the project director recommended a few books for me. One was a chapter from a book called "Asking Questions: A Ppractical Guide to Questionnaire Design" about how to ask threatening questions (or questions that people may feel uncomfortable answering). And another book she recommended was this one - she hadn't read it, she just picked it from our library's meager resources, thinking it looked interesting and relevant.

And it was. It talked more about the kind of social science research where you would go sit in people's homes for an hour or so and ask them questions than the type of interviewing I'll be doing, but it was fascinating. It discussed common mistakes that interviewers make (like getting too close to the respondent or trying to stay too distanced from), and injecting their own bias and expectations into their responses, or getting caught up in situations or disagreements of the respondents. I really liked the book, and I think it'll be helpful in my experience, and it made me even more excited about the job, about the peeks it will offer into other peoples' experiences and thoughts.