Anyone who has worked in counseling can how difficult it is to word questions in a way that will get to the information really needed, especially if it is an area that is difficult to talk about.

How then can we gather this type information? Thomas R. Williams in his book Field Methods in the Study of Culture suggests... "There are several techniques of eliciting information during interviews. 

Anthropologists ask direct questions concerning a topic ("Why do some married women wear a necklace of shell?").

Sometimes, as with topics considered in Dusun culture to be embarrassing or harmful (gossip for example, and magic) questions can be put in an indirect form of a general statement about some other persons ("Some people talk bad about other people doing this or that. What do you think?").

It is also informative to begin an interview with a broad statement concerning a topic, then allowing informants to talk as they please ("Agriculture seems important here. Can you tell me about it?") It also is possible to get informants to talk in detail through asking them to give an event analysis of some occurrence in the community, and then recording their comments in verbatim form. The verbatim accounts provide a view of an event which is difficult to obtain through questioning.

"In addition to the techniques used, successful interviewing depends also upon the conditions of the discussion between the informant and the anthropologist. In some societies it is difficult to talk with one person alone, for a group may always gather.

This was typically true in our Dusun work. There was always a background of noise. It was often too warm, damp, or windy for a lengthy discussion of a complex topic. Dusun onlookers have the habit of inserting nonrelevancies, or turning the conversation in a direction more interesting to them.

Sex, age and prestige often became involved when a Dusun informant answered questions in front of others. Women would not talk about childbirth before non related males, adolescent boys did not want to talk about their games before young men for fear of being held childish, and most informants did not wish to appear to be questioning the status of a senior man or woman among the onlookers." (Field Methods in the Study of Culture, pp.25-26)

The key then in gathering information through interviews lies not in the methodology alone but in the way those questions are asked... the mentality.