The assessment of life events: self-administered questionnaire versus interview

Two methods of assessing life events (interview and self-administered questionnaire) were applied in a study attempting to determine the range of application of the 2 procedures. The results obtained in 55 psychiatric in-patients indicate that in a number of categories more events were detected by self-report questionnaire than by interview, while in a few categories more were reported by interview. In the discussion it is delineated that, although both methods have their own importance, the problems of differences of events reported by interview and by self-report are likely to be mainly in the use of self-report methods. It would seem that the sensitivity of both methods differs in relation to the character of the event: acute or process-related.