Writing Strengths-Based Interview Questions

The strengths-based (or solutions-based) approach to human services considers interviewees to be resilient individuals who have coped in the past. It focuses on the positive qualities an interviewee brings to the situation, rather than the deficits.

Given this assumption, the interviewer uses a strengths-based approach, which aims to elicit the interviewee's own strategies for coping with a current situation.

This approach has the added advantage of lessening an interviewee's defensiveness. It is important to establish a foundation of strength.

It is also important for an interviewer to gather needed information, to focus the interviewee on the pertinent issue needing to be addressed, and to clarify issues and feelings. Interview questions must lay a foundation of strength while accomplishing these goals.

To prepare for this Assignment:

Review the section titled "Strengths-Based Approach to the Helping Process" in Chapter 1 in your course text, The Helping Process: Assessment to Termination.

Review the section titled "Questioning" in Chapter 4 of your course text, The Helping Process: Assessment to Termination. Focus on page 77, particularly the examples of questions after each appropriate use of questioning.

Review the article titled "Implementation of a Strengths-Based Approach in the Practice of Child and Youth Care."

Review the article titled "Learning Solution-Focused Interviewing Skills: BSW Student Voices."

Consider the following scenario:

A woman has come to you to see if she qualifies for a program that offers reduced child care fees to lower income parents. You need to determine her income from a variety of sources to see if she meets program criteria.

The woman tells you she is not married and that she is working as a cashier at a convenience store. She seems nervous, however, and is reluctant to go beyond these bare facts.

The Assignment:

Using the scenario provided, submit a 1 1/2 page paper that includes the following:

A set of two strengths-based questions that will help you achieve the goal of obtaining the information you need

A set of two strengths-based questions that will help you achieve the goal of focusing the interview (you and the interviewee) on the pertinent issue

For each set of questions, an explanation of your strategy for reaching the goal listed.