Issue of Interview Bias

Individual interviews are used to obtain information because the process is effective for that purpose. The use of the individual interview process, however, is characterized by both advantages and disadvantages, as follows (Isaac & Michael, 1991):

a. Individual interviews may be personalized.

b. Individual interviews permit in-depth, free responses.

c. The individual interview format is both flexible and adaptable.

d. The individual interview format allows interviewer to record respondent gestures, voice tone, environment, and so forth.

a. Individual interviews are both expensive and time-consuming to conduct.

b. Interviewees may be hostile to the interviewer for reasons of interviewer background·racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic, if that background differs from that of the interviewee.

c. The individual interview format is susceptible to manipulation by the interviewer.

d. The individual interview format is vulnerable to interviewer biases.

e. The individual interview format is susceptible to personality conflicts between interviewer and interviewee.

. . .
d has no significant effect on socially neutral variables" (p. 303). Bias Introduced Into Interviews Through Interviewer Values The role of values in scholarly and other inquiry is a source of dispute (Sechrest & Figueredo, 1993). Specifically, the issues are whether evaluation is, or ever could be, value free, and if it is not, whether evaluation should not operate openly in the service of particular values. Some theorists insist that evaluation can never be value free (Sechrest & Figueredo, 1993). Choice of perspectives, criteria, measures, methods, an so forth, they contend, must necessarily reflect values. Therefore, such theorists urge researchers and interrogators to be "partisan and carry out research in the service of values" (Sechrest & Figueredo, 1993, p. 650). These theorists, however, also appear to be biased as to which values should be served in the conduct of research and interrogation. Justice is the most frequently mentioned value. While many conceptions of justice exist, some researchers insist on the explicit incorporation of a politically liberal conception of justice into scholarly research, while a more conservative concept of justice typically may be pursued in criminal interrogations (Sechrest & Fi
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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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