The Social Work Interview

by Alfred Kadushin, Goldie Kadushin

For twenty-five years, The Social Work Interview has been the textbook of choice in social work and other human service courses, as well as an essential professional resource for practitioners. This new edition, the first in seven years, is thoroughly updated-revised, expanded, and reorganized for more thorough coverage and for more effective teaching and learning.

New to this edition:

Thoroughly reorganized chapters and sections for greater coherence and clarity

More extensive literature review

Greater emphasis on the process of communication and its role in interviewing

New or greatly expanded coverage of interviewing short-term, involuntary, and other special clients

Expanded coverage of techniques for bridging racial and ethnic differences

Greater coverage of interviewer/interviewee differences related to class, race, and gender

Chapter-end summaries throughout.

Genres: Social Work, Textbooks

480 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1983

Reviews

[Lindsay Allyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really torn on this one.

In some ways it's a really good book - especially for those who have never had any professional interviewing experience. For someone who wanted to know the subtle nuances of reflecting content and meaning and feelings when interviewing someone. It would have been a fantastic book for one of my undergraduate classes. (And, of course, the fact that it was chosen for a graduate course should not bear on the author at all.)

But then there's an entire section dedicated to detailing how messages are transmitted and received between people who are talking. And it's so spelled out as to be painful. Same for the difference between a conversation and an interview. I felt those parts could have been a lot shorter.

I think it was too long, but not all of the information presented was a waste of space or time.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt as though much of this book was comprised of tips on how to be emotionally intelligent in interviews, which was not especially useful to me but I am sure many others would find the information fresh and useful.

I enjoyed the frequent excerpts showing sample conversations between an interviewer and interviewee, as well. They are far more realistic (and thus, applicable) than the corny conversations that you most often see in textbooks.