Hanging by a Thread: The Telephone Interviewers Tell (Their) Story

From behaviourism to cognitivism and to constructivism the role attributed to the interviewer changes but remains central. Specific methodological studies have shown that during the interview it is rare to find the strict application of the behaviouristic dictates which, still today, impose a passive role on the interviewer; often, the interviewers act in a non-programmed manner and reformulate the questions, adapting them to the needs of the interviewees. In order to get more insight on interviewer’s typical interventions (distinguish between opportune and inopportune), and on intervierwers’ performance, we asked 26 telephone interviewers to relate their experiences; to say what they think about the structured questionnaire; and to express their opinion of surveys. In the first phase of the research we listened (with semi-structured interview) to 20 interviewers. The situation they described highlights a series of problems which should encourage serious reflection among researchers. The second phase (6 focused interviews) concentrates on best practice: the telephonic interviews on sensitive themes entrusted by the National Institute of Statistics to some opinion-research companies. Analyzing the focused interviews we have highlight problematic deviations and non deviations. Furthermore, we focused on the role of telephone as a medium of interview; on the effect of selection and training procedures; and on the consequences of the interest of the interviewer in the research theme.