Deck 10: The Selection Interview

Question 1

Interviewer ratings are less accurate if the interviewers receive both a high level of verbal cues and moderate to high levels of nonverbal cues from candidates.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

It has been found that relatively larger weight has been given to negative information over positive information in the interviewer's decision, even for experienced interviewers.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Validity generalization studies weakly support the validity of selection interviews.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Surprisingly, the personal liking of the interviewer for the applicant is not positively related to the interviewer's evaluation.

Question 5

An interview is better suited to measure applied social skills than other assessment methods.

Question 6

Research on nonverbal behaviors supports the idea that an interviewee can manipulate the outcome of the interview through learned behaviors.

Question 7

Attractiveness has been shown to be related to interviewers' evaluations.

Question 8

Many nonverbal behaviors, such as eye contact, head movement, smiling, etc.which could influence interviewers' decisions have not been found to be related to favorable interview decisions.

Question 9

A recent research study found that applicants clearly retained more information about the position from a mixed-focus interview than from the recruitment-only interview.

Question 10

The similar-to-me effect is much less pronounced when the interview is structured and job requirements are clear.

Question 11

An interview format that provides a formal, defined scoring system is superior in many ways to a format that does not.

Question 12

When firms send a representative to a college campus to assess applicants on general characteristics they are using a screening interview.

Question 13

A conclusion about an applicant's mental ability, arrived at during a 30-minute interview, is more efficient and accurate than one based on the administration of a 10-minute test.

Question 14

The interview is only part of the information that applicants use to form impressions about the organization and to make job search and job acceptance decisions.

Question 15

Coaching of interviewees can significantly improve their performance in the situational interview.

Question 16

The main advantage of a structured interview is that information regarding the major job topics is collected from all applicants, which makes the comparison across applicants easier and minimizes the influence of non-job-related impressions and guesses.

Question 17

One of the major weaknesses of the interview is that it is often used to accomplish too many purposes.

Question 18

It is generally better to measure more applicant WRCs than to focus on a few specific characteristics.

Question 19

Until recently, researchers had arrived at negative conclusions regarding the reliability, validity, and usefulness of the interview in selection.

Question 20

It is not appropriate to use a significant portion of the selection interview for attracting applicants, providing detailed employment information, and developing the company's image.

Question 21

The pre-interview expectations of the interviewer about the applicant has been shown to impact interview outcomes.

Question 22

Research has shown that a panel interview (two or more interviewers acting at once) has higher validity than any form of individual interview.

Question 23

Even little amounts of structure in an interview can yield a valid applicant assessment.

Question 24

As long as you have a structured or scored interview, you are safe from charges of illegal discrimination.

Question 25

Conventional wisdom holds that interviewers make an evaluation of the applicant in the last few minutes of the interview.

Question 26

In the behavior description interview, it is recommended that maximum performance dimensions be omitted from the interview and almost complete emphasis be placed on typical performance dimensions.

Question 27

There are many factors that are only marginally related to job activities but that influence interviewers' evaluations.

Question 28

Interviewers should review ability test scores, letters of reference, and other information before the interview is held.

Question 29

Prior to the Watson v.Ft.Worth Bank & Trust case, interview cases were most often heard as disparate treatment cases.

Question 30

It is appropriate to use the interview to question applicants about incomplete or contradictory statements presented on the application blank or other similar instruments.

Question 31

To measure WRCs related to sociability and interpersonal interaction, WRCs should be stated in general terms, such as "poise," "friendliness," "pleasantness," or "professional bearing."

Question 32

Research has found that rarely do interviewers allow one or two either good or bad characteristics of an applicant to influence the evaluation of all other characteristics.

Question 33

The characteristic "job knowledge" cannot be successfully evaluated in an interview.

Question 34

In a structured interview format the interviewers are not allowed to go beyond the pre-determined questions for any reason.

Question 35

Research has found that when interviewers are overconfident in their ability to evaluate applicants, hasty and inaccurate judgments are often made.

Question 36

Both the situational interview and the behavior description interview have been shown to have high validity for predicting job performance.

Question 37

In general, it is preferable to limit the use of pre-interview data that an interviewer is exposed to.

Question 38

Training programs can reduce some of the more common interviewer errors, such as contrast, halo, leniency, and central tendency.

Question 39

A recent study found that the interview and cognitive ability tests have a high degree of overlap in terms of their variance.

Question 40

Research has found that excessive talking by the interviewer does not limit the amount of job-related information obtained from interviewees.

Question 41

A selection interview focuses on all of the following EXCEPT:

A)job-related knowledge.
B)problem-solving skills.
C)checking credentials and licensure requirements.
D)interpersonal skills.

Question 42

Which of the following is not one of the numerous errors committed in conducting the interview and evaluating applicants?

A)excessive talking by the interviewee, which limits the amount of job-related information obtained
B)being influenced by the nonverbal behavior of applicants
C)allowing one or two either good or bad characteristics of an applicant to influence the evaluation of all other characteristics
D)making an evaluation of the applicant within the first minutes of the interview

Question 43

Which of the following interview methods focuses use future-oriented questions that ask applicants to imagine a work situation?

A)situational interview
C)job content method
B)behavior description interview
D)structured interview

Question 44

Which of the following is true about how information is processed by the interviewer?

A)Negative information is given a relatively larger weight than positive information.
B)Performance during the interview has little effect on interviewer evaluations.
C)Pre-interview expectations of the interviewer about the applicant have no effect on the evaluations made of the applicant at the completion of the interview.
D)Interviewers cannot usually specify why a rejected applicant would not likely be a good employee, but can explain why an accepted applicant would be satisfactory.

Question 45

What is "structured" about a structured interview?

A)Different questions are asked of each applicant, but they are determined before the interview takes place.
B)Information is collected about the same topics from all applicants.
C)The tone of the interview is formal, thereby increasing the likelihood that job-related information will be exchanged.
D)The applicant is given a list of possible questions to prepare for before the interview.

Question 46

Dipboye's model of interviewer decision making implies which of the following?

A)The interviewer controls what information is processed and how that information is processed during the interview.
B)Pre-interview data are postulated to be incorrect and always detrimental to the evaluation of a candidate.
C)The interviewer does not begin the interview in a neutral state, reacting only to information presented and the behavior of the applicant in the interview.
D)The interviewer begins each interview in a neutral state, reacting only to information presented and the behavior of the applicant in the interview.

Question 47

When using a formal scoring format, it is necessary to score each question separately.

Question 48

Which type of interview places applicants in one of five rank-order groups for each interview dimension?

A)situational interview
C)job content method
B)behavior description interview
D)structured interview

Question 49

The scope of selection interviews should be narrowed to all of the following EXCEPT:

A)applied social and interpersonal skills.
B)personality and habitual behaviors.
C)job knowledge.
D)likability, friendliness, and motivation.

Question 50

All else being equal, the more items an assessment device possesses which measure the same WRC, the greater its reliability and validity.

Question 51

Which of the following is an appropriate question of job knowledge?

A)"What are the current tax laws regarding borrowing from an IRA?"
B)"Have you ever directed a construction crew?"
C)"Explain the courses you have taken in accounting"
D)What kind of courses did you enjoy in college?"

Question 52

Impression management during an interview can be influenced by all of the following EXCEPT:

A)hand movements.
B)ingratiation.
C)self-promotion.
D)all of the above

Question 53

Because of the time involved, it is suggested that small businesses use only partially job-related, unstructured interviews.

Question 54

When are job knowledge questions appropriate in an interview?

A)when there are a large number of such questions to be asked
B)when interview questions refer to actual behaviors such as diagnosis of defects
C)for jobs that require verbalization of technical information and work procedures
D)They are appropriate for all situations.

Question 55

Why is the Watson v.Ft.Worth Bank & Trust case so important for selection interviewing?

A)It found that content validity is an inappropriate defense for the measurement of mental processes.
B)It found that it is permissible to use subjective measures of certain applicant characteristics that cannot be fully measured with objective tests.
C)It found that when a selection interview is central to the charge of discrimination, the case could be heard as an disparate impact case.
D)It found that structured interviewing with formal scoring procedures is an acceptable legal defense in a discrimination case.

Question 56

An assessment device should contain several items or parts that gather answers about the same variable in order for the assessment device to be a useful instrument.

Question 57

Which of the following is a recommended legally appropriate practice associated with the selection interview?

A)WRCs should be described in terms of personal traits rather than behaviors.
B)For lower level jobs, use personal traits as a portion of the criteria for selection.
C)Use a demographically mixed set of experienced or trained interviewers.
D)Use an unstructured interview format.

Question 58

What is similar in the development of both situational interviews and behavior description interviews?

A)the generation of critical incidents
B)review of the behavioral dimensions and identification of each as essentially describing either maximum or typical performance of the individual
C)Each question is formed with appropriate probes (follow-up questions)
D)identifying and rating critical tasks