Project excecuted at: Department of Social Research Methodology, Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam

Project financed by: VU University Amsterdam

Project running from: 15 November 2001 – 15 November 2006

Promotores: Prof. dr J. Van der Zouwen, dr H. Van den Berg

Summary:
This research is a comparative research in interview-strategies in open interviews, which are being used in pilot studies for preparation and development of new questionnaires, or assessment and correction of used questionnaires in standardised survey research. The research is focussed on the effects of distinguished interview-strategies for open interviews on the quality of acquired in­formation. To compare interview-strategies the research question concentrates on one dimension of interview-strategies: ways of respondent’s treatment by the interviewer in question and answer sequences. Two topics are considered, to determine whether the effects of interviewer-strategies are topic-dependent: Ethnic categorisation, as a controversial topic, and categorisation of primal relations.

What is the influence of ways of respondent’s treatment by the interviewer in open interviews in question and answer sequences on the quality of the acquired information about ethnic categor­isation and categorisation of primal relations?

Date of defence: 16 April 2010

Title of thesis: Probing behaviour in open interviews