groups of Anglo-Indians. It offered respondents an
opportunity to comment on the interview. It was
instrumental in enabling the researcher to vary the style
of interviewing. As the environment was constantly
changing a degree of flexibility had to be introduced.
The framework developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham
called the Johari window (taken from the first names of its
authors) was used, in order to learn to build effective
relationships. A decision was taken to offer information
about the researcher and only after rapport was established
the questions were asked. (41) The Johari window (42) was
used because in the past two researches completed by the
researcher in 1986 and 1988 because the researcher
experienced empathy difficulties.
Rescue and salvage work in communication is tough and
time-consuming. It often comes too late to do much good.
It was important at the beginning of the interview to make
some personal disclosures in order to encourage feedback.
The next section describes the sample population. It
summarizes the broad characteristics of the population
under four headings of age group, gender, city and
community.
7. An overview of the sample population
The two sets of tables on pages 192 to 194 give an overview
of the six hundred and twenty eight respondents by gender,
age group (adults and students) and communities (Anglo-
Indian, Indian, Indian Christian, Khasi and Europeans).
The data are also broken down in a similar way for each of
the twelve cities visited demonstrating the researcher's
aim of attempting to be as objective as practicable.
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