Key Concepts: Chapter 3

Questions and Their Uses

Comprehension of the following key concepts is important to your progress toward content mastery. The definitions provided here, along with additional examples, can be found in the text, Interviewing Principles and Practices, by Stewart and Cash. Consider these terms and how their definitions match your current conceptions of these ideas.

Consider reviewing the Cash-Stewart Interviewing model here

Open quesions:

are broad questions ofen specifying only a topic allowing the respondent considerable response freedom. Highly open questions offer virtually no restrictions while moderately open questions contain some restriction but offer considerable leeway.

Closed questions:

are restrictive in nature and may supply answer options. Higly closed questions offer specific answers while moderately closed questions request a specific piece of information.

Primary questions:

introduce topics or new areas within a topic and can stand alone out of context.

Secondary questions:

attempt to elicit further information following a question. They are therefore known as secondary or follow-up questions.

Types of secondary questions:

silent probes, nudging probes, clearinghouse probes, informational probes, restatement probes, reflective probes or mirror probes.

Neutral questions:

permit the respondent to select without pressure an answer of their choosing.

Leading questions:

suggest implicitly or explicitly the answer expected or desired.

Loaded questions:

provide strong direction and virtual dictation of the correct answer.

Question phrasing:

requires careful consideration of language, relevance, information level, complexity, and accessibility.

Common question pitfalls:

include the following: the bipolar trap, the open-to-closed switch,the double-barreled inquisition, the leading push, the guessing game, and the yes (no) response.

Question sequences:

the sequencing of questions within or throughout the interview. Question sequences include the funnel sequence, the inverted funnel sequence, the tunnel sequence, and the quintamensional design sequence.

Materials are borrowed from Interviewing Principles and Practices, by Stewart and Cash.

Developed by David Bodary, Comments and Suggestions
Last modified: December 26, 2000