Moore2004

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Moore2004
BibType ARTICLE
Key Moore2004
Author(s) Robert J. Moore
Title Managing troubles in answering survey questions: respondents' uses of projective reporting
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Survey Interviews, Qualitative methods, Research Methods
Publisher
Year 2004
Language
City
Month
Journal Social Psychology Quarterly
Volume 67
Number 1
Pages 50–69
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/019027250406700106
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Standardized survey interviewing is a form of institutional talk whose special constraints often conflict with ordinary conversational practices. Although survey manuals tend to recognize the conflict between standardization and respondents' requests for clarification, an alternative strategy for managing troubles in answering—“projective reporting”—is largely missing from the literature. Respondents may report circumstances in response to fixed-choice questions rather than providing an answer option. Such reports invite the interviewer to infer its relevance for an answer. Respondents use projective reporting in two different ways: to account for particular answers and to defer judgments in answering. Speakers and recipients in ordinary conversation have a variety of options for dealing with the upshots of projective reportings, but some of these options are prohibited in standardized interviews. When respondents use reporting to defer judgment, ordinary conversation and standardized interviewing can conflict.

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