CMST 2A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Survey Data Collection, Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing, Social Desirability Bias

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: CMST 2A03
• Professor: Terry Flynn

Document Summary

Interview schedule: a formal list of questions that the interviewer must follow in detail: the questions must be asked in the order given. Structured interviews are used because they produce standardization in the asking of questions and the recording of answers. Variation is expected in interviews: variation should be attributable to the characteristic being measured not the interview process. This is a true" or real" variation: variation related to the interviewer or the interviewing process is variability due to error. They skew the data and thereby the findings. Structured interviews have to deal with interviewer effects: the characteristics of the interviewer may influence the responses given, sex, social class, and race of interviewer are key reactive issues. Usually one interviewer is designated for a research project: even with focus groups where there are several interviewees, this may be due to cost, reduces inter-interviewer variability, avoids distraction, reduces misunderstanding.