Thursday, February 17, 2011

Chapter 8: The Interviewer as a Source of Survey Measurement Error


 

Alternative Views on the Role of the Observer


-          Two approaches to observer effects

o   Replication for measurement

o   Reduction

 

Role of Survey Interviewer

 

-          Interviewer effects on survey measurement error occurs 4 ways

o   Survey interview as structured social interaction

§  Subject to social influences

o   Can administer survey in different ways

§  Psycholinquistic or cognitive science view of survey interview

o   Emphasize different words / different intonation

o   Assist respondent differently / probing etc

 

Designs for Measuring Interviewer Variance

 

-          Replication

-          Interpenetrated interviewer assignments – each interviewer assigned different but equivalent sets of respondents – same attributes on survey variables

o   In practice – randomization

 

 

Interviewer Effects in Personal Interview Surveys

 

 

Interviewer Effects in Centralised Telephone Surveys

 

-          Constant supervision

-          Magnitudes and precision of estimated interviewer effects

-          Stability of interviewer effect  estimates

o   Unstable estimates

§  Alternative responses

·         Abandon measurement

·         Alter survey design to improve precision'

o   Increase number of interviewers

o   Replication of surveys

 

Explaining magnitude of Interviewer Effects

 

-          Influence of question form on interviewer effects

-          Effect of interviewer behaviour guidelines on interviewer variability

-          Effect of computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) on interviewer variability

-          Interviewer characteristics and interviewer effects

-          Respondent characteristics and interviewer effects

 

 

Measurement of Interviewer Compliance with Training Guidelines

 

-          Interaction coding

-          Monitor listening

 

 

Experiments in manipulating Interviewer Behaviour

 

-          Effects of interviewer training

-          Experiments with interviewer feedback to respondents

 

 

Social Psychological and Sociological Explanations for Response Error Associated With Interviewers

 

-          Effects of interviewer expectations

-          Demographic characteristics of interviewer

 

Summary

 

-          Is uniformity an unattainable goal

 

 

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