THE INTERVIEWER ROLE
GENERAL RULES
• Ask questions as worded unless explicitly
given scope for change
• Try to ask questions in order
• Avoiding leading the respondent
• Use pauses to punctuate the interview and
stay in control of the interview rhythm
INTERVIEWER
CHARACTERISTICS
• Race and Ethnicity
• Sex: cross sex interviewing often optimal when topics not overly
personal. Women interviewers find it easier to gain rapport but not
measurably better than males in gaining respondent compliance and
frankness
• Social Status: difficulty obtaining honest answers to controversial
questions when interviewer is higher status than respondent
• Age: approximately same age whenever possible; age-sex
interaction
• Clothing and Grooming. Similarity to the way the respondent
dresses rather than dressing up is the default option. But many
exceptions to this when the respondent expects the interview to be
dressed in a certain way– uniform, business attire, etc. [Respectful]
INTERVIEWER EFFECTS
• Variations in establishing rapport and trust
• Familiarity with the instrument
• Thoroughness of briefing (and debriefing)
• Stake of interviewer in the study
• Conscious and unconscious leading of the
respondent
• Social desirability. Masking of disapproval
• Cases of interviewer fraud
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS
• A highly attractive and growing technique largely because of cost
efficiencies
• With the growing near universality of household phone coverage,
concerns about sampling bias have diminished but not disappeared.
But area code based demographics also make it possible to use
phone sampling to develop sophisticated complex stratified
population samples
• You have 30 Seconds to show you aren’t selling anything.
• Keep your phone interviews SHORT, SHORT, SHORT!!!
• Open ended questions can be used but only in small numbers
• Cold calls and warm calls: The value of the intro letter
QUALITY OF LIFE AND MOOD
• Convergent and Discriminant Validity
• Discriminate from:
– Transitory good mood
– Upbeat disposition
– Situational stimulii
– Ideological alienation
– Religious rejection of the world
Karl Schuessler’s “Social Life
Feelings Multi-dimensional Scale
• Citation: Karl F. Schuessler, Measuring
Social Life Feelings. 1982. San Francisco:
Josssey-Bass.
• Discovered cross-cultural differences in
the importance of ascribed characteristics
(German sample) versus achieved
characteristics (American sample) as the
basis for positive social life feelings.
Schuessler: Feeling Up Scale
• I sometimes feel I have litte control over the direction my life is
taking
• When I make plans, I’m almost certain I can make them work
• I was happier as a child than I am now
• I couldn’t be much happier
• I get a lot of fun out of life
• I am satisfied with the way things are working out for me
• The future looks very bright to me
• Things get better for me as I get older
• I have a great deal in common with most people
• I seem to be marking time these days
• There is much purpose to what I’m doing at present
Schussler: Feeling Down Scale
I feel that I’m not a part of things
I feel somewhat apart even among friends
I sometimes feel forgotten by friends
At times I feel that I am a stranger to myself
I just can’t help feeling that my life is not very useful
Very lonely or remote from other people
Depressed or very unhappy
Bored
So restless couldn’t sit long in a chair
Vaguely uneasy about something without knowing why
Schuessler People Cynicism Scale
• In a society where almost everyone is out for himself, people soon
come to distrust each other
• Most people know what to do with their lives
• Too many people in our society are just out for themselves and don’t
really care for anyone else
• Many people in our society are lonely and unrelated to their fellow
human beings
• Many people are friendly only because they want something from
you
• Many people don’t know what to do with their lives
Schuessler Demoralization Scale
• I have little influence over the things that happen to me
• I consider myself to be in good physical condition
• The world is too complicated for me to understand
• Compared to others, my life is not too good
• I find it difficult to be optimistic about anything nowadays
• I seem to be marking time these days
• I can’t do much for other people
• I’m feeling on top of the world
• Pleased at about having accomplished something
Schuessler’s Future Outlook Scale
• We are slowly losing our freedom to the government
• I have little confidence in the government today
• Many things our parents stood for are going down the drain
• The lot of the average person is getting worse not better
• The future looks very bleak
• Most people will be out of work in the next few years
• Friends are easy to find
• Taking everything into account, the worlkd is getting better
• In my opinion, this country is sick