The Survey Interview and Social Science

Social scientists developed the survey interview as a tool for understanding broad patterns of belief and behaviour across large populations, prioritising standardisation and comparability over the depth that a single, unstructured conversation might otherwise achieve. Comparability across very different respondents mattered more here than any single rich, individual account.

This tradition contributed considerable methodological discipline to interviewing generally, including rigorous attention to how question wording can subtly bias an answer, and how sampling choices shape what conclusions can reasonably be drawn from the material gathered. A poorly worded question could distort an entire dataset without anyone immediately noticing the problem.

Though its aims differ from more narrative interviewing traditions, its emphasis on methodological care offers a useful discipline that other interviewing traditions can draw on, even when depth rather than comparability remains the primary goal. That careful discipline remains valuable even to interviewers whose primary aim is depth rather than comparison.