Note-taking in the employment interview: Effects on recall and judgments.

Although note-taking in the employment interview is highly recommended, little research has examined its effects. This study investigated the effects of note-taking styles, review of the notes, and content of the notes on participants' cued recall of information and decisions made from videotaped employment interviews. Note-taking increased recall accuracy but not judgment accuracy. Being able to review notes resulted in increased judgment accuracy for those taking conventional-style notes. The content of the notes also had important implications for conventional note-takers, suggesting some benefits of recording notes using the key-points style. The findings suggest that the act of note-taking may be more important for memory and legal reasons than for improving the decisions made by interviewers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Initial evaluations in the interview: Relationships with subsequent interviewer evaluations and employment offers.

The authors of this study examine how evaluations made during an early stage of the structured interview (rapport building) influence end of interview scores, subsequent follow-up employment interviews, and actual internship job offers. Candidates making better initial impressions received more internship offers (r = .22) and higher interviewer ratings (r = .42). As predicted, initial evaluations of candidate competence extend beyond liking and similarity to influence subsequent interview outcomes from the same interviewer (ΔR2 = .05), from a separate interviewer (ΔR2 = .05), and from another interviewer who skipped rapport building (ΔR2 = .05). In contrast, assessments of candidate liking and similarity were not significantly related to other judgments when ratings were provided by different interviewers. The findings of this study thus indicate that initial impressions of candidates influence employment outcomes, and that they may be based on useful judgments of candidate competence that occur in the opening minutes of the structured interview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confirming first impressions in the employment interview: A field study of interviewer behavior.

Examined behavioral styles used by interviewers to confirm their 1st impressions of job applicants. Three interviewers in a corporate setting formed 1st impressions based on application blank and test score information. They then conducted audiotaped interviews. Coders independently coded 79 interviews and found that 1st impressions were related to confirmatory behavior. Interviewers followed up positive 1st impressions, for example, by showing positive regard toward applicants, "selling" the company and giving job information, and gathering less information. Applicants' communication style and rapport with interviewers also differed. Significant differences in confirmatory behaviors also occurred among the 3 interviewers. A number of interviewer behaviors, especially positive regard, were related to applicant behavior in interviews. Although previous studies of expectancy confirmation have produced mixed results, the present results suggest that interviewers in natural settings do use confirmatory strategies, underscoring the importance of additional research on "self-fulfilling prophecies." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal and verbal content behaviors in the prediction of interviewer effectiveness.

Assessed the ecological validity of previous research (e.g., M. B. LaCrosse, 1975; J. R. Graves and J. D. Robinson, 1976) that has suggested that an interviewer's nonverbal behaviors predominate over verbal content in the prediction of interviewer effectiveness ratings. In contrast to earlier investigations, the current study assessed naturally occurring rather than manipulated interviewer behavior and used "client" ratings of effectiveness rather than observer ratings. Data were collected from analog interviews conducted by 40 counseling students with 80 undergraduates. Results indicate that nonverbal interviewer behaviors do not clearly predominate over verbal content behaviors in the prediction of effectiveness ratings. It is suggested that earlier findings of nonverbal superiority are not generalizable to more ecologically valid interview settings. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived interviewer expertness and attractiveness: Effects of interviewer behavior and attire and interview setting.

80 undergraduate students had a brief interview with 1 of 2 female interviewers in 1 of 8 conditions defined by interviewer role (expert or attractive), interviewer attire (professional or casual), and interview setting (professional or casual). Following the interview, students rated the interviewers on a counselor rating form. Data indicate that only counselor role behavior significantly affected Ss' perceptions of interviewer attractiveness, while perceptions of expertness seemed to have been affected jointly by role and attire. Within-cell comparisons revealed that for nearly all Ss, the relative magnitude of expertness as compared to attractiveness ratings was determined by interviewer behavior. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of visual, vocal, and lexical cues on judgments of counselor qualities.

75 female and 55 male undergraduates rated Carl Rogers on a number of counseling-relevant dimensions. Experimental treatment groups received information via the visual, lexical, vocal, or vocal-lexical communication channels; a control, or reference, group received information via the nature visual-vocal-lexical channel. Lexical cue seemed particularly important in creating favorable impressions among females, but results were less clear-cut for males. When experimental Ss were later exposed to visual-vocal-lexical cues in combination (as control Ss had been earlier), they tended to rate Rogers as warmer and less distant than they had earlier on the basis of limited information. In some instances, however, ratings made with additional information were less favorable than those made partial information. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewer predictions of applicant qualifications and interviewer validity: Aggregate and individual analyses.

The relative effects of varied interviewee cues on line managers' hiring decisions were examined, as was the relative predictability of various criteria by line managers' interview impressions. Aggregate and individual regression analyses revealed that 3 nursing directors' impressions of 186 nursing applicants shaped their hiring recommendations more than did the applicants' resume credentials. Moreover, managers' interview impressions significantly predicted employees' job attitudes, though predictions of attitudes did not exceed predictions of performance. Finally, individual managers based hiring decisions on different interview impressions, and these impressions forecast employees' job attitudes with differential validity. Implications for future interviewing research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why visual and vocal interview cues can affect interviewers' judgments and predict job performance.

Using videotaped interviews with 60 managers in utility companies, the authors found that a composite of vocal interview cues (pitch, pitch variability, speech rate, pauses, and amplitude variability) correlated with supervisory ratings of job performance (r?=?.18, p?r?=?.20, p?r?=?.20, p?r?=?.14, p?r?=?.21, p?     

Effects of interview length and applicant quality on interview decision time.

Investigated the impact of applicant quality (high vs low) and expectation of interview length (30 vs 15 min) on interview decision time using 60 experienced employment counselors from private employment agencies as Ss (30 males average age 35.5 yrs; modal education level 4 yrs of college). Ss were shown a videotape of a staged interview and were asked to make a hire/not hire decision as soon as they felt they had sufficient information. As predicted, Ss required significantly more time to decide when viewing the high-quality applicant. They also required more time to decide when they expected the interview to last 30 min. An examination of the correlations between ratings and decision time for the high-quality-applicant condition showed most of them to be negative. However, correlations in the low-quality-applicant condition were mostly positive. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation between speaking times and decision in the employment interview.

Is a job applicant more likely to be hired if the personnel interviewer does the most talking? "A sample of 115 employment interviews conducted by six Army personnel officers was examined. The applicant was accepted by the interviewer in 70 cases and rejected in 45 cases. From a recording of each interview measures were taken of the time the applicant spoke, the time the interviewer spoke, and the total time. The time vacant of speech was determined by subtracting the speaking times from the total time of the interview… . The interviewer influences both the amount the applicant talks and the amount of the time free of speech that accumulates during the interview. The amount the interviewer talks appears to be directly related to his decision to accept an applicant." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Policy capturing in the employment interview.

Employed an information-processing perspective to analyze the judgments of individual employment interviewers in a corporate setting. Linear policy-capturing equations were estimated from 3 interviewers' ratings of 120 job applicants in live and audiotaped interviews. The equations were evaluated across interviewers to identify sources of predictive validity and consistency in information use. In competition with the interviewers from whom they were derived, regression models displayed higher predictive validities in a majority of instances. Following training on selected rating dimensions, interviewers' predictive validities improved. After interviewer training, the regression models of the training dimensions yielded higher predictive validities than all 3 interviewers. Results suggest specific directions for enhancing the effectiveness of interviewing in the employee-selection process. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational control in the employment interview.

This exploratory study compared communication behaviors and patterns in successful and unsuccessful initial recruiting interviews. Subjects were 28 university seniors interviewing for jobs with seven corporate recruiters who held interviews on campus. The interviews were videotaped and subsequently analyzed for applicant and interviewer behavior. Applicant behavior was significantly different when successful interviews were compared with unsuccessful ones. Unsuccessful interviews were approximately two-thirds as long as successful interviews. Successful applicants dominated the conversations more. When interviewers attempted to structure the conversation, unsuccessful applicants tried to structure the conversation in return. Successful applicants tended to be submissive when the interviewer dominated and to dominate when the interviewer was submissive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applicant decisions in the employment interview.

237 college students who had been interviewed for jobs at a university placement service completed a questionnaire concerning their reactions to an interviewer and their subsequent decisions. Factor analysis of their impressions of the interviewer yielded 6 factors. Factor scores were computed, and multiple regression analyses were used to relate these factor scores to applicant decisions. Perceived interviewer personality, manner of delivery, and adequacy of job information affected interviewee evaluations of the interviewer and his company and the interviewee's likelihood of job acceptance. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparability of interviewer, group, and individual interview ratings.

Compared interview trait ratings made by individual and groups of managers following exposure to videotaped interview playbacks with ratings made by experienced interviewers participating in 34 live interviews couched in a typical entry-level managerial employment setting. A convergent and discriminant validity analysis was made to assess the adequacy of the interview rating procedure. Mean ratings made by groups of managers were similar to mean ratings made by the interviewers. Agreement between the 2 dissimilar rater types using direct (face to face) and indirect (videotaped) stimuli indicated that perceptual distortion was now a strong factor. Individual managers' mean ratings suggested a leniency effect. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unfair discrimination in the employment interview: Legal and psychological aspects.

Reviews the psychological and legal literature concerning evidence of bias or unfairness in the employment interview with regard to Blacks, females, handicapped persons, and the elderly. This review indicates that (a) the interview is highly vulnerable to legal attack, and one can expect more litigation in this area; (b) the mechanisms and processes that contribute to bias in the interview are not well specified by researchers; (c) findings based predominantly on resume research show that females tend to receive lower evaluations than males, but this varies as a function of job and other situational characteristics; (d) little evidence exists to confirm the notion that Blacks are evaluated unfairly in interview contexts; (e) a relative dearth of research exists investigating interview bias against the elderly and handicapped individuals; and (f) evidence concerning the differential validity of the interview for these minority and nonminority groups is virtually nonexistent. A number of research needs and directions are specified. (79 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal cues for anxiety: An examination of emotional leakage.

20 silent 1-min video segments of psychiatric patients ranging in anxiety levels were shown to 46 psychology seniors serving as raters. Results show that raters were able to identify the presence of anxiety and discriminate varying intensities of anxiety on the basis of nonverbal cues alone. Nonverbal cues identified as most salient in communicating anxiety were the hands, eyes, mouth, and torso. Additional microanalysis examined how these body areas cued anxiety. Discussion of nonverbal cues for anxiety is presented in terms of P. Ekman and W. V. Friesen's (1969) theorizing regarding nonverbal masking and leakage. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring faking in the employment interview: Development and validation of an interview faking behavior scale.

An Interview Faking Behavior (IFB) scale is developed and validated in 6 studies (N = 1,346). In Study 1, a taxonomy of faking behavior is delineated. The factor structure of a measure is evaluated and refined (Studies 2 and 3). The convergent and discriminant validity of the measure is examined (Study 4). The IFB scale consists of 4 factors (Slight Image Creation, Extensive Image Creation, Image Protection, and Ingratiation) and 11 subfactors (Embellishing, Tailoring, Fit Enhancing, Constructing, Inventing, Borrowing, Masking, Distancing, Omitting, Conforming, and Interviewer Enhancing). A study of actual interviews shows that scores on the IFB scale are related to getting a 2nd interview or a job offer (Study 5). In Study 6, an experiment is conducted to test the usefulness of the new measure for studying methods of reducing faking using structured interviews. It is found that past behavior questions are more resistant to faking than situational questions, and follow-up questioning increases faking. Finally, over 90% of undergraduate job candidates fake during employment interviews; however, fewer candidates engage in faking that is semantically closer to lying, ranging from 28% to 75%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal cues for depth of depression: Set versus no set.

100 psychology undergraduates and 15 clinical graduates viewed a silent videotape of depressed and nondepressed patients, rated depression on a 10-point scale, and indicated which of 10 body areas conveyed depression. Results show that Ss, even when given no informational set (the depression label), can discriminate depth of depression by nonverbal cues alone, suggesting that it may be an unobtrusive diagnostic technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)