This article examines an important and thorny problem in interview research: How to assess whether what people say motivated their actions actually did so? We ask three questions: What specific challenges are at play? How have researchers addressed them? And how should those strategies be evaluated? We argue that such research faces at least five…

Problems of obtaining a representative sample for a national survey are discussed, and the experiences of Educational Testing Service are used as examples of some methods used to cope with these problems. It is suggested that researchers: (1) capitalize on some existing program; (2) establish in the minds of the possible examinees and the possible…