Since I’ll be late to class on Wednesday (I have a meeting at my daughter’s school that will last until at least 8:00, probably later knowing the school), I am posing my answers to the exercise to this Tripod site. Enjoy.
· Ethnicity may play a role in defining my reaction to what others might say, especially if they are from different ethnicities/cultures.
· Maleness; may engender me to some other people, or bias me against others. For instance, I was never a “jock” in school (and in fact was beat up by several of them). That may bias me against extremely athletic persons, especially males. On a similar note, attractive females may engender some bias also.
· Socio-Economic Status (SES): may be a perceived bias due to SES of interviewee. Unclear how exactly to define this (see below also)
· Gender of Interviewee (see above)
· Education level of Interviewee; since I am well educated, bias might exist among less-educated and/or those who do not value education.
· As a father of girls, I may be biased against boys (I don’t trust them. I know what they’re like—I was one once. No, you may NOT date my daughter…)
· Write all questions beforehand
· Interview in a neutral setting
· Audio and/or video-tape interview
· Written questions might not be balanced
· Written questions will need to be aligned so as not to introduce bias of SES, ethnicity, education level, etc.
· Questions may not be open-ended enough to allow proper responses by some interviewees
· Setting might be more comfortable for me, and may in fact may not be “neutral” for all participants. For instance, a “neutral” coffee shop would be different than a “neutral” meeting at Starbucks.
If I have read the assignment correctly, the rest of this exercise is to be done in dialogue (presumably in class). I will get to class as soon as possible, but certainly not before 8, and perhaps as late as 8:45.
-David