Interviewing Techniques

A directive type of interview occurs when the

interviewer directs, guides and control the
course of the interview.
A nondirective is when the interviewer let the
interviewee determine the direction of the
interview.

 Selection interview is designed to elicit

information pertaining to qualifications and
capabilities for particular employment duties.
Diagnostic interview is centered on Marias
emotional functioning rather than her qualifi
cationsthat is, the clinical psychologist is
interested in uncovering feelings, thoughts, and
attitudes that might impede or facilitate
competence

 Interview is a method for gathering data or

information about an individual.
Most prevalent selection device for
employees.
Essential in clinical, industrial,
counseling, school.

Reciprocal Nature of Interviewing

All interviews involve mutual interaction
whereby the participants are
interdependent - that is, they influence
each other.
Interview participants also affect each
other's mood.
social facilitation (we tend to act like the
models around us)

Principles of Interviewing
Techniques

PROPER ATTITUDE
RESPONSES TO AVOID
EFFECTIVE RESPONSES
RESPONSES TO KEEP THE
INTERACTION FLOWING
MEASURING UNDERSTANDING

Proper Attitude
Interpersonal influence (degree to which a person
can influence other) is related to interpersonal
attraction (degree to which people share a feeling
understanding, mutual respect, similiarity).
Warmth, genuineness, acceptance,
understanding, openness, honesty,
fairness.
The most important factor in the patients'
evaluation is their perception of the
interviewer's feeling.

Responses to Avoid
Avoid making paasa. (false reassurance)
Avoid judgmental/evaluative statements.
good, bad, excellent, terrible, disgusting, etc
Avoid probing statements.
"Why?" questions
except for MR, highly anxious, withdrawn

Effective Responses

A closed-ended question brings the interview

to a dead halt, thus violating the principle of
keeping the interaction fl owing.
The closed-ended question to recall
something.

 Open-ended questions give the interviewee

wide latitude in choosing the topics that he or
she feels are important.
The open-ended question requires the
interviewee to produce something
spontaneously.

Responses to Keep the

Interaction Flowing

 Use minimum effort to maintain the fl ow,

such as using a transitional phrase such
as Yes, And, or I see.
example
Maria: I graduated from high school in June of 1990. I majored
in history and social studies.
Psychologist: Yes, I see.

 In a verbatim playback, the interviewer

simply repeats the interviewees last
response.
example:
Maria: I graduated from high school in June of 1990. I
majored in history and social studies.
studies.

Psychologist: You majored in history and social

The verbatim playback as well as

transitional phrases generally leads to an
elaboration of the interviewees previous
response.

Paraphrasing and restatement responses

are also interchangeable with the
interviewees response.
A paraphrase tends to be more similar to the
interviewees response than a
restatement, but both capture the meaning
of the interviewees response.

 Restatement:
Maria: My masters degree should help me assume the duties
of the new position.
Psychologist: You feel that your masters degree is a useful
asset in your application.

Paraphrase:
Maria: My masters degree should help me assume the duties
of the new position.
Psychologist: You feel that your masters degree will be an
important aid in taking on the responsibilities of the
new position.

 Summarization:
Maria: Whenever I get the chance I like to drive up to the lake
all by myself and just think.
Psychologist: As a youth you never had much time to yourself
because you were responsible for taking care of the
three younger children. Today you enjoy those few
moments you have to be alone. Whenever you get a
chance to be alone you drive to the lake all by yourself
and just think.

verbatim playback + paraphrasing+

restating.

 Clarification statement serves to clarify

the interviewees response.
Maria: Not that I resented it. Well, maybe sometimes. Its just
that I never had much time for myself.
Psychologist: And having time for yourself is important to you.

Psychologist:
Kerry:
Psychologist:
Kerry:
Psychologist:
Kerry:
Psychologist:
Kerry:
Psychologist:
Kerry:
Psychologist:
Kerry:
Psychologist:
erry:
Psychologist:

Whats been happening today, Kerry? (open-ended)

My physics teacher yelled at me in front of the whole class.
Th ats embarrassing. (understanding)
Not only that, she seems to pick on me all the time.
That must make you angry. (understanding)
Yeah, I guess so. It seems like shes always fi nding fault with my
work. No matter what I do, she just doesnt like it.
That is really frustrating, Kerry. You just cant seem to please her.
(understanding)
The other day we had an exam and I got an F. I checked my
answers with Hector, and mine were the same as his. Yet I got an F
and Hector got a B.
Hey, that doesnt seem fair. (clarifi cation and understanding)
You bet it isnt fair. But when I tried to talk to her about it, she
refused to listen.
Thats scary. (understanding)
It sure is. If I get one more F, Ill be kicked out of school.
This is really serious. (clarification)
Yeah. If I got kicked out of school, I couldnt face my parents or
friends.
This whole thing has got you really upset. (understanding)

One good way to accomplish this involves what

we call understanding statements.
To establish a positive atmosphere,
interviewers begin with an open-ended
question followed by understanding
statements that capture the meaning and
feeling of the interviewees communication.

Measuring Understanding
Measure understanding or empathy originated
with Carl Rogerss seminal research into the
effects of client-centered therapy
It culminated in a 5-point scoring system
Each level in this system represents a degree of
empathy.

Level-One Responses
Level-one responses bear little or no
relationship to the interviewees response.
Sarah:
Victor:
Sarah:
Victor:
Sarah:
Victor:

Victor, look at my new dress.

I sure hope it doesnt rain today.
See, its red with blue stripes.
If it rains, my baseball game might get canceled.
I really love this dress, its my favorite.
Its sure going to tick me off if that game gets
canceled.

*The two are really talking only to themselves.

Level-Two Responses
The level-two response communicates a superfi- cial
awareness of the meaning of a statement, never
quite goes beyond his or her own limited
perspective, impede the flow of communication.
Sarah:
Victor:
Sarah:
Victor:

Boy, I feel good. I just got a beautiful new dress.

I feel bad. Its probably going to rain.
Ill wear this dress to your baseball game.
If it rains, there wont be a game.

*The conversation is related, but only superfi cially.

Neither person really responds to what is going on
with the other.

Level-Three Responses
A level-three response is interchangeable with
the interviewees statement.
According to Carkhuff and Berenson (1967),
level three is the minimum level of
responding that can help the interviewee.
Paraphrasing, verbatim playback,
clarification statements, and restatements are
all examples of level-three responses.

Level-Four and Level-Five Responses

provide accurate empathy
go beyond the statement given
In a level-four response, the interviewer adds
noticeably to the interviewees response.
In a level-five response, the interviewer adds
significantly to it.

Sarah:
Victor:
Sarah:
Victor:

I just got a new dress.

You feel happy because you like new clothes.
This one is beautiful; it has red and blue stripes.
You really love that new dress. It is a nice addition to your
wardrobe.

ACTIVE LISTENING- foundation of good interviewing skills for

many diff erent types of interviews

Types of Interviews
Evaluation Interview
Structured Clinical Interviews
Case History Interview
Mental Status Examination
Developing Interviewing Skills

Evaluation Interview
Maloney and Wards (1976) Evaluation
Interview Guide
beginning with an open-ended question
interviewer listening, facilitating, and
clarifying during the initial phases of the
interview
recommend that the powerful tool of
confrontation be included in the process.

 A confrontation is a statement that points out a

discrepancy or inconsistency.
Carkhuff (1969) distinguished among three types:
(1) a discrepancy between what the person is and what
he or she wants to become,
(2) a discrepancy between what the person says about
himself or herself and what he or she does, and
(3) a discrepancy between the persons perception of
himself or herself and the interviewers experience of the
person.

 Direct questions can be used toward the end of

the interview to fill in any needed details or gaps
in the interviewers knowledge.

Structured Clinical Interviews

provide a specific set of questions presented in a
particular order
there is usually a carefully specified set of rules for
probing so that, as in a standardized test, all
interviewees are handled in the same manner
lend themselves to scoring procedures from which
norms can be developed and applied.
cutoff scores are used so that a particular score
indicates the presence or absence of a given
condition

 With specifiable criteria for mental disorders,

one could develop a specific set of questions
to determine whether or not a person met the
criteria.
For example, Spitzer and colleagues
developed a comprehensive interview specifi
cally for making diagnoses from the DSM-III-R
called the Structured Clinical Interview for the
DSM-III-R, or the SCID

 There are countless structured interviews for just about

every imaginable problem. Interviews are available to:
assess disorders in children such as the Diagnostic Interview
Schedule for Children (DISC) and various revisions (DISC-R,
DISC-2; Hodges, 1994; Shaff er, 1994), DISCO-9 (Leekham,
Libby, Wing, Gould, & Taylor, 2002), and the Child Assessment
Schedule (CAS; Allen, 1994);
assess personality disorders such as the Structured Clinical
Interview for DSM-III-R-Personality Disorders, or SCID-II
(Spitzer, Williams, Gibbon, & First, 1990b); and
do preliminary screening of mental illness in jails through the
Referral Decision Scale (RDS; Teplin & Schwartz, 1989).

 the Structured Clinical Interview for Separation

Anxiety Symptoms (Cyranowski et al., 2002), which is
used for both children and adults;
the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS;
Garcia-Esteve, Ascaso,Ojuel, & Navarro, 2003);
the Diagnostic Interview Schedule;
the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV;
and
the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I
Disorders (Summerfeldt & Antony, 2002).

*Structured interviews offer reliability but

sacrifice flexibility.
*A major limitation of the structured interview is
that it relies exclusively on the respondent.
*It assumes that the respondent is honest and
capable of accurate self-observation and that
the respondent will provide frank, candid
answers, even to embarrassing questions.

Case History Interview

Case history data may include:
a chronology of major events in the persons life,
a work history,
a medical history, and
a family history.
A family history should
include a complete listing of the ages and genders
of each member of the immediate family.
including parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and
siblings

 In obtaining a case history, the interviewer often

takes a developmental approach, examining
an individuals entire life, beginning with
infancy or the point at which the given type of
history is first relevant.
The purpose of obtaining a case history is to
understand individuals backgrounds so that one
can accurately interpret individual test scores.
Lifestyle information such as smoking behavior,
use of alcohol, exercise patterns, and current
stressors can also be useful.

 If a child is the focus of the interview, then

information about the parent as well as the
child should be obtained (Kefyalew,1996).
begins with an open-ended question
followed by level-three and
perhaps level-four responses can yield a
wealth of data about an individual

Mental Status Examination

used primarily to diagnose psychosis, brain
damage, and other major mental health
problems
to evaluate a person suspected of having
neurological or emotional problems in terms
of variables known to be related to these
problems.

 Areas covered are:

persons appearance,
attitudes, and;
general behavior.
*Keep in mind that to make proper use of the mental
status examination, you must have a broad
understanding of the major mental disorders and the
various forms of brain damage.
*There is no room for amateurs or self-appointed
practitioners when a mental status examination is
needed.

Developing Interviewing Skills

Step 1:
Become familiar with research and theory
on the interview in order to understand the
principles and underlying variables in the
interview.
Step 2:
Supervised practice.
*Experience truly is the best teacher

Step 3:
Make a conscious eff ort to apply the
principles involved in good interviewing
such as guidelines for keeping the
interaction flowing.

SOURCES OF ERROR IN THE

INTERVIEW
Interview Validity
Interview Reliability

Interview Validity
halo effect
tendency to judge specific traits on the basis
of a general impression
halo effects occur when the interviewer forms
a favorable or unfavorable early impression
halo effects impair objectivity and must be
consciously avoided

 Hollingworth (1922) first called this error

"general standoutishness"
People tend to judge on the basis of one
outstanding characteristic.
A well-groomed, attractive individual might be
rated higher in intelligence than would a poorly
groomed, unattractive individual, even if the
latter was actually more intelligent than the
former.

 Cross-ethnic, Cross-cultural, and Crossclass interviewing

 In the international business community,

ignorance of cultural diff erences is becoming
increasingly apparent.
Japanese and Arabs consider direct eye contact
a sign of aggression.
The Japanese person avoids eye contact as a
sign of deference and respect.
In the middle-class United States, by contrast,
direct eye contact is expected as a sign of
honesty and sincerity.

Interview Reliability
One reason for fluctuations in interview
reliability is that different interviewers look
for different things