Elite and Specialized Interviewing [Paperback]

First published in 1969, it remains as good a guide to the subject as the 21st century researcher can find.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.contentsNew Introductionby Alan Ware and Mart?n S?nchez-Jankowski1Editors Foreword13Acknowledgments15CHAPTER I Introduction17CHAPTER II Suggestions for Getting, Conducting, and Recordingthe Interview31CHAPTER III Working Paper on Interviewing Procedures for a Lawand Psychiatry Project73CHAPTER IV On Oral History Interviewingby Charles Morrissey93CHAPTER V What Kind of Truth Do You Get?How Do You Know if the Informant Is Telling theTruth?by John P. Dean and William Foote Whyte100Facts, Inference, and Analysis108CHAPTER VI Toward a Transactional Theory of Interviewing: SelfAssessment in the Interview Process115References and Sources133Index151The 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)lƒf