Deck 15: Observations and Interviews

Question 1

Unobtrusive observation reduces the incidence of role playing.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Participant observation is, by definition, unobtrusive.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Proximics and paralinguistics are usually more important than kinesics in transmitting nonverbal messages.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Movements of the hands and face that communicate other messages than those transmitted by the speaker?s words are known as proximics.

Question 5

The Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS) test is a measure of a person's sensitivity to kinesic and paralinguistic communications.

Question 6

Situational testing is expensive, but because of its real-life quality it is a highly valid method of personality assessment.

Question 7

Praise is much more common than criticism in letters of recommendation.

Question 8

Biographical inventories are effective predictors of performance in a variety of job contexts.

Question 9

Behavioral analysis procedures have been used most extensively in connection with assessment by psychoanalytic and phenomenological theorists.

Question 10

Behavioral analysis focuses on the antecedents and consequences of selected target behaviors.

Question 11

An interview is a dynamic, two-way interchange in which the participants mutually influence each other.

Question 12

Unstructured interviewing usually requires less skill and preparation than structured interviewing.

Question 13

One reason for the popularity of interviewing as an assessment technique is the relative ease with which effective interviewing can be taught.

Question 14

More skill is required to conduct an interview in a structured than in an unstructured, open-ended manner.

Question 15

The focus in behavioral interviewing is on obtaining information to plan a program of behavior modification.

Question 16

The reliabilities of structured interview questions are usually no higher than .80.

Question 17

The socioemotional tone of an interview is determined more by the actions of the interviewee than by those of the interviewer.

Question 18

Stress interviewing is used in administering Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Scale.

Question 19

Computers can conduct structured interviewing more effectively than unstructured interviewing.

Question 20

In general, the level of agreement between information obtained by computer interviewing and information elicited by standard psychiatric interviews and questionnaires is not very high.

Question 21

Computers usually have trouble with anything other than structured, verbal information and cannot tailor the wording of questions to the person and the context.

Question 22

The Hartshorne and May studies of character employed

A) a critical incidents technique.
B) participant observation.
C) situational testing.
D) uncontrolled observation.

Question 23

The "wall problem" and other situational tests used by the OSS were employed in the selection of

A) business executives.
B) clinical psychologists.
C) college students.
D) espionage agents.

Question 24

Which of the following types of observation is a specialty of the cultural anthropologist?

A) controlled observation
B) participant observation
C) uncontrolled observation
D) unobtrusive observation

Question 25

The most widely employed and probably the most generally understood and acceptable method of personality assessment is some form of

A) interviewing.
B) observation.
C) personality inventory.
D) projective technique.
E) rating scale.

Question 26

People often say that a certain person reveals more with his facial expressions and hands than with his words. Such a person is communicating largely by

A) culturics.
B) kinesics.
C) paralinguistics.
D) proximics.

Question 27

Tone of voice, rate of speaking, and other nonverbal aspects of speech are known as

A) culturics.
B) kinesics.
C) paralinguistics.
D) proximics.

Question 28

Which of the following statements is not true of biographical inventories?

A) Many items on them are good predictors of on-the-job performance.
B) There are no legal problems associated with requests for biographical information.
C) They are effective predictors of performance in a variety of job settings.
D) They possess substantial content validity.

Question 29

In an anecdotal record, it is important to distinguish between __________ and __________.

A) content, analysis
B) idiography, nomotheticity
C) observation, interpretation
D) theory, facts

Question 30

The greatest amount of skill on the part of an interviewer is required in conducting a(n)__________ interview.

A) controlled
B) employment
C) structured
D) unstructured

Question 31

Which of the following types of interviewing would probably necessitate the least amount of training?

A) morality interviewing
B) stress interviewing
C) structured interviewing
D) unstructured interviewing

Question 32

The usual rule of cordiality toward the interviewee is suspended in a(n) __________ interview.

A) behavioral
B) open-ended
C) structured
D) unstructured

Question 33

Which of the following questions would be legally unacceptable in an employment interview?

A) How many years experience do you have in this type of work?
B) What are your career goals?
C) To what clubs or organizations do you belong?
D) What did you like or dislike about your last job, and why did you leave it.

Question 34

Which of the following questions is legally acceptable in an employment interview?

A) Are you single, married, divorced, separated, or widowed?
B) Do you rent or own your own home?
C) What is your educational background, and what schools did you attend?
D) When were you born, and how old are you now?

Question 35

Which of the following questions is permissible in an employment interview?

A) How old are you?
B) When were you born?
C) How many children do you have?
D) Why did you leave your last job?
E) Have you ever been arrested?

Question 36

Which of the following instruments employs the method clinique?

A) Adjective Check List
B) Biographical Inventory
C) Conner?s Rating Scales
D) Moral Judgment Scale
E) Tennessee Self-Concept Scale

Question 37

Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Scale involves the use of

A) controlled observation.
B) behavioral checklists.
C) clinical interviewing.
D) rating scales.

Question 38

Judging an interviewee on the basis of a ?general impression? or a single prominent feature is known as the __________ error.

A) central tendency
B) constant
C) contrast
D) halo effect
E) leniency

Question 39

The effect of a low rating given a previous interviewee on the rating given to a subsequent interviewee is known as the

A) central tendency error.
B) contrast error.
C) halo effect.
D) leniency error.

Question 40

Behavioral theorists attempt to understand a personality by analyzing the individual?s

A) mental complexes.
B) real and ideal selves.
C) social learning history.
D) unique organization of traits.

Question 41

The easiest and most economical way of determining how frequently and under what circumstances a particular target behavior occurs is

A) participant observation.
B) self-observation.
C) structured interviewing.
D) unstructured interviewing.

Question 42

The easiest and most economical way of determining how frequently and under what circumstances a particular target behavior occurs is

A) participant observation.
B) self-observation.
C) structured interviewing.
D) unstructured interviewing.

Question 43

Experience in computer-assisted interviewing has shown that examinees usually

A) do not object to it.
B) fail to understand it.
C) object strenuously to it.
D) respond enthusiastically.

Question 44

Which of the following is not a disadvantage of computer-based psychiatric interviewing?

A) It does not permit the simultaneous determination of mental status and the diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder.
B) It has not been very useful with children and adults of limited ability.
C) It may be necessary to bypass the system in crisis cases.
D) It may not be flexible enough to use with the wide range of problems and symptoms found in psychiatric patients.

Question 45

Compared with person-to-person interviewing, which of the following is not an advantage of interviewing by computer?

A) efficiency
B) flexibility
C) reliability
D) validity

Question 46

Contrast observations with interviewees in terms of their reliabilities, their effectiveness as personality assessment methods, and their success in providing valid explanations and predictions of human behavior.

Question 47

List and discuss the shortcomings of interviewing as a personality assessment method.

Question 48

Describe and discuss four types of nonverbal behavior, how they are studied, and the utility of nonverbal behavior observations in understanding and predicting human behavior.

Question 49

What are the advantages and disadvantages of interviewing by computer, and how does the process work?

Question 50

Summarize what is known regarding the reliability and validity of interviews.