Page 67 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

When you as the interviewer sense that too many questions are being asked and the respondent may be
developing a feeling of interrogation, you may introduce some questions as a statement or directive. For
example: “How has your diet been going?” may be changed to “I’d be interested in hearing how your diet has
been going.”

“How did you become interested in this position?” may be changed to “I’d be interested in some of the
reasons you decided to apply for this position.” This makes the interview more conversational. Questions
should be asked one at a time and the interviewer should concentrate on listening carefully to the answers
rather than thinking ahead to the next question.

Sequencing Questions
Questions can be arranged in a “funnel,” “inverted funnel,” or “tunnel” sequence. A funnel sequence begins
with broad, open questions and proceeds to more restrictive or closed ones.3,26 The funnel sequence is a series
of questions, each covering a different topic to gain specific information. It may be an appropriate choice in a
nutrition interview.

EXAMPLE “Please tell me about the foods you eat during a day’s time.”
“What do you have for snacks between meals?”
“We haven’t discussed beverages—what do you like to drink?”

Beginning the interview with open-ended questions poses the least threat to the person and encourages a
response.28 The person then volunteers information, making it unnecessary to ask additional questions. An
inverted funnel sequence may be preferable. In preemployment interviews, for example, an apprehensive
applicant may feel more comfortable initially dealing with a specific closed question than with a broad, open
one, such as “Tell me about yourself.” As the meeting progresses, questions may become more open.26

In taking a food and nutrition history, questions or statements starting with “What” or “Tell me about”
elicit better responses than “Do you . . .?” Review diet history examples in Box 3-1. Questions that do not
require a sufficient answer or may be answered with one word or “yes” or “no” are less productive, as in the
following examples:

EXAMPLE “Do you eat breakfast?” “Yes.”
“Do you like milk?” “No.”
“How often do you eat meat?” “Every day.”

A series of short, sequential, dead-end questions from the professional’s list of information to be gathered
prevents people from telling their story and information may be omitted as a result. Instead, gather this
information using a broad opening question or directives, as follows:

EXAMPLE “Please tell me about the first foods and drinks you have most days, what you eat, and the
amount.”

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