Multi-disciplinary approaches to survey interviews are presented in this collection of papers which developed from a project begun at a workshop in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in November 1995. Employing approaches used by survey methodologists, ethnomethodologists, and conversation analysts, the papers examine aspects of standardized surveys, telephone surveys, the survey as talk-in- interaction, recruitment of participants, interviewer-respondent interaction, and survey data quality. Appendices provide transcribing conventions, and a transcript for interview used in the Wisconsin Continuous National Survey. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
An interdisciplinary look at interaction in the standardized survey interview
This volume presents a theoretical and empirical inquiry into the interaction between interviewers and respondents in standardized research interviews. The editors include a range of articles that showcase the perspectives of conversation analysts, ethnomethodologists, and survey methodologists, to gain a more complete picture of interaction in the standardized survey interview than was previously available.
This book is the first to focus solely on the interactional substrate or conversational architecture of interviewing. It offers a range of insights into standardized interviewing as interaction and forms a bridge between survey methodology and the study of interaction and tacit practices. The articles are arranged into four subject groups: theoretical orientations, survey recruitment, interaction during the substantive interview, and interaction and survey data quality. Articles include:
* Interactions in telephone surveys
* Recruitment of respondents
* Respondent laughter
* Interaction coding
* Impact of technology on interaction
* Occasions for interviewer intervention
Standardization and Tacit Knowledge serves as a one-of-a-kind reference for survey methodologists, linguists, and researchers and also as a postgraduate coursebook in survey interviewing.
