Cultural Comparison through Interviews

Paper Summary:

This paper describes two interview sessions with a single 22 year-old native Israeli male of Jewish decent who recently arrived in the United States to pursue an undergraduate degree leading to a post-graduate degree in marine biology at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Florida. It describes the relationship between the interviewer and interviewee. The paper provides a cultural comparison from the point of view of the interviewer.

Table of Contents:
Background of Subject
First Interview Session Description
Second Interview Session Description
Cultural Comparison Interviewer's Personal Reaction

From the Paper:

"In retrospect, I consider the interviews to have been very successful, except that with practice, I believe I could learn to employ more effective techniques for getting to substantive issues in the first session instead of using it as a preparation to do so in subsequent sessions. In part, expect that, as many suggest, (Goldstein 1995) with more practice, I will be able to recognize behavioral cues that indicate readiness to continue conversations further instead of worrying about "prying" for too much too soon. Likewise, I intend to prepare more thoroughly the next time, both before the first interview, but especially, in formulating follow-up questions and lines of inquiry for the second session based on information elicited in preceding sessions. If I had the chance to do this project over again, I would recognize the opportunities that the subject gave me during our first conversation to introduce lines of questioning that occurred to me but concerned me as being "too forward" in the first session."

Sample of Sources Used:

• DeJong, P., Miller, S. (1995). How to Interview for Clients Strengths; Social Work, 40(6).
• Dershowitz, A. (2003) The Case for Israel. Hoboken: Wiley & Sons.
• Gerrig, R, Zimbardo, P. (2005) Psychology and Life. 17th Edition. New York: Allyn & Bacon.
• Gilbert, M. (1996) Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century. Hoboken: Wiley & Sons.
• Goldstein, E. (1995). Ego Psychology and Social Work Practice. (2nd Edition) New York: The Free Press

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