Respondents rate public opinion interviewers

Abstract

During a national opinion survey, respondents (N = 1276) were asked to complete, at the end of the interview, an interviewer-respondent relationship rating scale. "Respondents' ratings were compared with six criteria of good interviewing and found to relate significantly with the number of non-legitimate 'don't know' answers obtained and the number of usable answers given to free response questions… . A high relationship was found between the same question asked at the beginning of the questionnaire and as the last item on the rating scale. There was also a significant positive relationship between interviewers' ratings of the things they did during the interview and respondents' indications of the same things." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)