Elite and Specialized Interviewing

by Lewis Anthony Dexter

Overview

Lewis Anthony Dexter (1915-1995) pioneered the use of specialized interviewing as a tool in the social sciences. He argued that interviewing persons who have specialised information about, or who have involvement with, any social or political processes is different from standardised interviewing. In 'elite' interviewing the investigator must be willing to let the interviewee teach him what the problem, the question, or the situation is. He demonstrated that interviewing was a useful tool, but he also argued that it was not always the most appropriate method for revealing the information required. In Elite and Specialized Interviewing decades of his practical experience, of both how to interview and how to use interviews, was distilled into a readable, yet rigorously analytical, book. First published in 1969, it remains as good a guide to the subject as the 21st century researcher can find.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780954796679
Publisher:	ECPR Press
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Series:	Ecpr Press Classics
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Lewis Dexter undertook extensive policy research throughout his career in addition to holding visiting professorships at numerous universities. He was the author of several books including The Sociology and Politics of Congress (1969), The Tyranny of Schooling: An Enquiry into the Problem of 'Stupidity' (1964) and (as co-author) American Business and Public Policy (1963), which won the prestigious Woodrow Wilson prize. In addition, he wrote dozens of articles published in both professional and academic journals.

Table of Contents

contents New Introduction by Alan Ware and Martín Sánchez-Jankowski 1 Editor’s Foreword 13 Acknowledgments 15 CHAPTER I Introduction 17 CHAPTER II Suggestions for Getting, Conducting, and Recording the Interview 31 CHAPTER III Working Paper on Interviewing Procedures for a Law and Psychiatry Project 73 CHAPTER IV On Oral History Interviewing by Charles Morrissey 93 CHAPTER V What Kind of Truth Do You Get? “How Do You Know if the Informant Is Telling the Truth?” by John P. Dean and William Foote Whyte 100 Facts, Inference, and Analysis 108 CHAPTER VI Toward a Transactional Theory of Interviewing: SelfAssessment in the Interview Process 115 References and Sources 133 Index 151