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5 - Evaluating Clinical Interviews: How Good Are They?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2009

Herbert P. Ginsburg
Herbert P. Ginsburg
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

American authors, who love to do things big, often publish experiments made on hundreds or even thousands of persons; they believe that the conclusive value of a study is proportional to the number of observations. That is only an illusion.

Binet, in Cairns, “Phenomena Lost”

Questions about the objectivity, reliability, validity, and replicability of findings — the standard issues of scientific research — will continue to be asked, but answers will take a form consistent with the new perspective rather than with the outworn mainstream model.

Mishler, Research Interviewing

This chapter is necessarily heavier and more technical than the rest, because evaluating the clinical interview requires some specialized “psychometric” concepts and arguments. I try to present the technical material in as clear and simple a way as possible, so that beginners can understand it. More advanced students can, I think, profit from the somewhat novel view of reliability and validity presented here. Of course, those already convinced of the method's value may wish to skip the chapter entirely and proceed to the next.

THE NEED FOR EVALUATION

I have tried to make as strong a case for the clinical interview as possible, arguing that it can be a valuable method for both research and practice.

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Entering the Child's Mind
The Clinical Interview In Psychological Research and Practice
 , pp. 159 - 208
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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