Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns the professional practice of interviewing as a strategy for achieving specific objectives. It addresses a number of basic introductory issues and examines definitions and purposes of interviewing and outlines the main settings within which this activity occurs. The book presents a social interactional model of interviewing, which encompasses the main processes inherent in dyadic interaction. It develops the model to complete the theoretical foundation for the book by linking the study of interviewing directly to the discipline base of social psychology. The book concerns aspects of person perception and also examines the role of goals and goal-setting. It focuses upon a number of wider and crucially important ethical and professional issues pertaining to the practice of interviewing.