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The Analysis of Child Interviews from Empirical Studies There are various types of good and bad interviewing procedures that can be used to maximize or minimize the amount of correct information. The interview conducted by Kathleen MacFarlane comprises appalling interviewing techniques. MacFarlane questions the child with suggestive questions throughout the interview. For example, MacFarlane suggestively asks the child “Oh, and it went flash?” and “Did little pictures go zip, come out of it?” without allowing the child to elaborate on his responses. Suggestive questioning remains a significant problem in interviews because it promotes bias and emboldens children to report inaccurate information. The empirical research that supports the negative influences of suggestive questioning emphasizes on preschoolers’ reports. For instance, 176 children between the ages of three and six years were interviewed with suggestive and stereotypical questions (Leichtman & Ceci, …show more content…

I would suggest that the interviewer should focus on open-ended questions that allow the child to elaborate on his responses. “Tell me everything that happened” remains a compelling open-ended prompt that also allows the interviewer to build rapport with the child. Scientific evidence shows that open-ended questions elicit more accurate information from children compared to close-ended questions (Leichtman & Ceci, 1995).
MacFarlane also does not provide the child with any social support, but behaves with hostility and unfriendliness during the interview. For example, MacFarlane called the child “dumb” and evaluated the memory of the child as “too bad” during the interview. The interviewer also made a degrading remark against the child such as “we really know you're smarter than you look,” which implies that the child does not physically appear

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