Outline

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Outline

1. Definition
2. The interview as test
3. Types of question
4. Types of interview
5. Principles of effective interviewing
6. Problems the interviewer may face

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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

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2. The interview as test

• Huffcutt et al.
• Employment interviews are not like other tests

• Dont tell us something specific
• Designed to allow a conclusion e.g., should we
  hire this person?
• Outcome complex function of many dimensions

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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

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3. Types of question

• Open-ended
• Closed-ended

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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

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Closed-ended questions

• can be answered specifically

• interviewee has to recall something
• same questions for all interviewees

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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?

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4. Types of interview

• Unstructured
• Structured
• Semi-structured
• Group

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Unstructured interviews

• Questions follow from previous response theyre
  not set ahead of time

• Follow up with understanding responses to
  encourage more disclosure

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Unstructured interviews

• Advantages
• Lots of data
• Unexpected things learned

• Disadvantages
• subjective evaluation
• may wander off topic
• non-standardized cant be replicated

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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)

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Structured interviews

• Advantages
• standardized format
• objective evaluation

• Disadvantage
• one size may not fit all

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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

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Group interviews

• Usually 3 10 people at one time
• May be structured or unstructured

• Really dependent upon skilled moderator

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Group interviews

• Advantages
• rich data
• variety of views

• Disadvantages
• expensive
• loud-mouths may dominate
• conformity pressure?

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5. Principles of effective interviewing

1. Be responsible
2. Plan ahead
3. Keep the interaction flowing
4. Have the appropriate attitude

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A. Be responsible

• Interviewer sets the tone

• Interviewer is responsible for success or failure
  of interview
• Professionals accept responsibility

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B. Plan ahead

• Who will be interviewed?
• Where? When?

• What is the purpose?
• Which questions will you ask? In what order?
• Will you record?

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C. Keep interaction flowing

• Conversation skills
• Comprehension monitoring

• Verbatim playback
• Paraphrasing
• Restatement
• Summarizing
• Clarifying
• Understanding

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Types of understanding response

• Carl Rogers created a typology of interviewers
  responses to interviewee

• 5 levels varying in how well the response
  connects to what interviewee just said

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Types of understanding response

• To be avoided
• Level 1 a series of non-sequiturs
• Level 2 little connection with interviewees
  last response

• For unstructured interviews
• Level 3 interviewers response is
  interchangeable with interviewees last statement

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Types of understanding response

• Primarily used in therapeutic interviews

• Level 4 adds noticeably to interviewees
  response
• Level 5 adds significantly to interviewees
  response

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D. Have appropriate attitude

• Interpersonal attraction predicts interpersonal
  influence

• Be warm, genuine, accepting, understanding, open,
  honest, fair

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6. Problems interviewer may face

1. Social facilitation
2. Spotlight effect
3. Validity reliability issues

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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)

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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 dont

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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C. Problems of validity

• Cross-cultural interviews lots of potential for
  misunderstanding

• Be flexible introspect learn about groups you
  will be in contact with

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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

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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