Clarifying question meaning in a household telephone survey
Clarifying question meaning in a household telephone survey
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DOI：
10.1086/316757
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发表时间：
2000-03-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Schober, MF
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Conrad, FG;Schober, MF
这项研究对比了两种面试技巧，它们反映了不同的沟通默契。在一种严格标准化的面试中，面试官把对问题的解释留给了受访者。在另一种对话式面试中，面试官会不惜一切代价确保问题得到统一的解释，并达到预期的效果。来自全国样本的受访者接受了两次采访。每次他们都被问到正在进行的政府调查中相同的事实问题，其中五个是关于住房的，五个是关于最近购买的。第一次面试是严格标准化的；第二次面试对一半的受访者来说是标准化的，对其他人来说是对话式的。与第二次标准化访谈中的受访者相比，第二次对话式访谈中的受访者回答问题的频率更高，回答的理由也更符合官方定义。这表明，对话式面试提高了理解力，尽管它也延长了面试时间。我们的结论是，在全国样本中的受访者可能会非常频繁地曲解某些问题，从而影响数据质量，而且这种误解不能仅通过预先测试和重新措辞问题来轻易消除。更标准化的理解可能需要不那么标准化的面试官行为。
This study contrasts two interviewing techniques that reflect different tacit assumptions about communication. In one, strictly standardized interviewing, interviewers leave the interpretation of questions up to respondents. In the other, conversational interviewing, interviewers say whatever it takes to make sure that questions are interpreted uniformly and as intended. Respondents from a national sample were interviewed twice. Each time they were asked the same factual questions from ongoing government surveys, five about housing and five about recent purchases. The first interview was strictly standardized; the second was standardized for half the respondents and conversational for the others. Respondents in a second conversational interview answered differently than in the first interview more often, and for reasons that conformed more closely to official definitions, than respondents in a second standardized interview. This suggests that conversational interviewing improved comprehension, although it also lengthened interviews. We conclude that respondents in a national sample may misinterpret certain questions frequently enough to compromise data quality and that such misunderstandings cannot easily be eliminated by pretesting and rewording questions alone. More standardized comprehension may require less standardized interviewer behavior.