1. Outline Definition The interview as test Types of question
Types of interview
Principles of effective interviewing
Problems the interviewer may face

2. 1. Definition An interview is a conversation with a purpose
Purpose: gathering information about the person being interviewed.
Outcome: data for description, evaluation, and prediction

3. 2. The interview as test Huffcutt et al.:
Employment interviews are not like other tests
Don’t tell us something specific
Designed to allow a conclusion – e.g., should we hire this person?
Outcome: complex function of many dimensions

4. 2. The interview as test Huffcutt et al. (2001) Meta-analysis
Reviewed 47 studies of the employment interview
Concluded that interviews tell us about:
Personality
Social skills
Mental ability
Huffcutt, Conway, Roth, & Stone (2001) reviewed 47 studies of the employment interview to find out what underlying psychological constructs these studies focused on. They found 338 ‘dimensions’ measured in these studies, of which 35% fit into the category personality tendencies (e.g., assertive, dependable, friendly), 28% fit into the category applied social skills (e.g., communication skills, working with others, leadership), 16% assessed mental ability (e.g., analytical ability, problem solving, creativity), and 10% focused on knowledge and skills (e.g., technical knowledge, use of tools, grades in school). In other words, between them, those 47 studies found that the most common ‘target’ of the employment interview was the category personality characteristics while the second most common result was measurement of social skills.

5. 3. Types of question
Open-ended
Closed-ended

6. Open-ended questions tailored to individual interviewee
cannot be answered specifically
responsive to what interviewee just said
interviewee decides what is important to discuss, which tells you something about them

7. Closed-ended questions
can be answered specifically
interviewee has to recall something
same questions for all interviewees

8. Comparison of the two types
Open-ended
What kinds of cars do you like?
Tell me about your father
Closed-ended
Do you like sports cars?
Is your father strict?

9. 4. Types of interview
Unstructured
Structured
Semi-structured
Group

10. Unstructured interviews
Questions follow from previous response – they’re not set ahead of time
Follow up with understanding responses to encourage more disclosure

11. Unstructured interviews
Advantages:
Lots of data
Unexpected things learned
Disadvantages:
subjective evaluation
may wander off topic
non-standardized – can’t be replicated

12. Structured interviews
same procedure for all interviewees
same questions asked in same sequence
closed, short, clearly-worded questions
follow a flow-chart (include/exclude some questions depending on answers to others)

13. Structured interviews
Advantages:
standardized format
objective evaluation
Disadvantage:
one size may not fit all

14. Semi-structured interviews
Shares some features with structured interview, some features with unstructured interview
Guided by a script which gives focus
Allows you to explore interesting responses

15. Group interviews Usually 3 – 10 people at one time
May be structured or unstructured
Really dependent upon skilled moderator

16. Group interviews Advantages Disadvantages: rich data variety of views
expensive
“loud-mouths” may dominate
conformity pressure?

17. 5. Principles of effective interviewing
Be responsible
Plan ahead
Keep the interaction flowing
Have the appropriate attitude

18. A. Be responsible Interviewer sets the tone
Interviewer is responsible for success or failure of interview
Professionals accept responsibility
This principle of being responsible for your work sets professionals apart from non-professionals.
If a bridge falls down, the engineer who supervised its construction is personally responsible for that failure. An engineer “signs” his work. Psychologists are professionals

19. B. Plan ahead Who will be interviewed? Where? When?
What is the purpose?
Which questions will you ask? In what order?
Will you record?

20. C. Keep interaction flowing
Conversation skills
Comprehension monitoring
Verbatim playback
Paraphrasing
Restatement
Summarizing
Clarifying
Understanding
Verbatim playback: repeat the interviewee’s last response
Paraphrasing: accurate rewording of interviewee’s last response
Restatement: rewording interviewee’s last response – less similar than paraphrase, but does not add new meaning
Summarizing: integrates meaning of several of interviewee’s responses
Clarification: clarifies interviewee’s response – interviewer states how he understands response, so interviewee can rephrase if necessary
Understanding: shows that interviewer understands how the interviewee feels

21. Types of understanding response
Carl Rogers created a typology of interviewer’s responses to interviewee
5 levels varying in how well the response connects to what interviewee just said
Each level represents a degree of empathy
Levels 4 and 5 primarily relevant for therapeutic interviews

22. Types of understanding response
To be avoided:
Level 1 – a series of non-sequiturs
Level 2 – little connection with interviewee’s last response
For unstructured interviews:
Level 3 – interviewer’s response is interchangeable with interviewee’s last statement
Each level represents a degree of empathy
Levels 4 and 5 primarily relevant for therapeutic interviews

23. Types of understanding response
Primarily used in therapeutic interviews:
Level 4 –adds “noticeably” to interviewee’s response
Level 5 – adds “significantly” to interviewee’s response
Each level represents a degree of empathy
Levels 4 and 5 primarily relevant for therapeutic interviews

24. D. Have appropriate attitude
Interpersonal attraction predicts interpersonal influence
Be warm, genuine, accepting, understanding, open, honest, fair

25. 6. Problems interviewer may face
Social facilitation
Spotlight effect
Validity & reliability issues

26. A. Social facilitation
Occurs when people act like other people around them
May not know you are doing this
May communicate something
E.g., Goldstein & Cialdini (2007) – spyglass effect
Chartrand & Bargh (1999) – chameleon effect
Akehurst & Vrij (1999)
Interview may include not only deliberate spoken communication, but also subtle, unspoken communication participants may not be aware of. Imitation has been shown to build bonds, improve affect, social feeling.
Akehurst & Vrij (1999): If one participant in an interview is more active, the other one becomes more active, too. They observed police officers interviewing criminal suspects and reported that when the officers moved (e.g., fidgeted) more, the suspects moved more, too – and the suspects’ fidgeting was interpreted as ‘suspicious’ so that the suspect was regarded as less credible.

27. B. Spotlight effect Gilovich et al (2000):
People tend to believe that the social spotlight shines more brightly on them than it really does.
You think other people notice all your mistakes and silliness
But they don’t
Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky (2000). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78 (2),

28. B. Spotlight effect
Especially common in people who feel “different” to others around them on some dimension
E.g., one student in a room full of professors; one woman in an office full of men
Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky (2000). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78 (2),

29. C. Problems of validity
predictive validity scores for interview data range from .09 to .94 (Wagner, 1949)
consider interview data as tentative – a source of hypotheses to be tested against other data

30. C. Problems of validity Halo effect (Thorndike, 1920)
tendency to judge specific traits on the basis of a general impression
generalize judgments from limited experience
Generalize judgments from limited experience – some information is better than none.
Making objective, accurate observations is not natural.
That’s why we invented science!

31. C. Problems of validity General standoutishness (Hollingworth, 1922)
general judgment made on basis of one notable characteristic
beautiful people often rated as more witty, likable, socially skilled, intelligent, warm (Feingold, 1992)
Controllable characteristics (e.g., grooming) most important – were they controlled?
Feingold, A. (1992). Gender differences in mate selection preferences. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 304 – 341.

32. C. Problems of validity
Cross-cultural interviews: lots of potential for misunderstanding
Be flexible; introspect; learn about groups you will be in contact with

33. C. Problems of validity
E.g., Darou et al. (2000): northern Quebec Cree ejected 7 of 8 psychologists who came to study them.
Researchers asked Cree for self-disclosure, which is socially inappropriate among the Cree
So the Cree were offended and the researchers didn’t learn anything (except about the taboo on asking for self-disclosure). (Darou, Kurtness, & Hum, 2000)

34. C. Problems of reliability
inter-interviewer agreement
twice as high for structured as for unstructured interviews
may be low because 2 interviewers spontaneously focus on different things
if so, train interviewers to focus on specific things that matter