If you are like most people, you have at some point in your life played the game, 20 Questions. In this game, Player 1 thinks of a person, place, or thing, and Player 2 tries to guess what it is, but can only ask closed questions that Player 1 can only answer with Yes or No.
For this assignment, you will conduct two separate role-played interviews (You can use the same volunteer for both be sure to have all volunteers complete a consent form). Have your volunteer think of any two problems they might be facing in their life (preferably not real but imagined). They can be as wild and crazy as they would like, such as, My llama ate my dining room table, so now I wont get my deposit back on the apartment and, My roommate is a werewolf.
For Scenario 1, you must play 20 Questions to determine what your interviewees imaginary Problem #1 is. You only get 20 questions, and only Yes-No answers are allowed.
For Scenario 2, you must determine what your interviewees Problem #2 is, but you are allowed to ask open-ended questions. Based on your two mock interviews, imagine you have been asked to speak to an undergraduate Counseling Skills course. Create a PowerPoint presentation to compare the results of the two mock interviews. Include the following in your presentation:
Explain how different kinds of questions are used for different purposes in interviews.
Compare your experiences with both types of questions in this exercise. Which method of questioning felt more natural to you, and which felt like more work? Explain how your interviewees responses differed across the two sessions.
Recommend questioning strategies to obtain needed information from clients, and then relate them to your future work as a helper.
