interview
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
in·ter·view
(ĭn'tər-vyū') 
n.
v., -viewed, -view·ing, -views. v.tr.
To obtain an interview from.
v.intr.
To have an interview: interviewed with a publishing company.
interviewee in'ter·view·ee' n.
interviewer in'ter·view'er n.
n.
- A formal meeting in person, especially one arranged for the assessment of the qualifications of an applicant.
- A conversation, such as one conducted by a reporter, in which facts or statements are elicited from another.
- An account or a reproduction of such a conversation.
- Informal. An interviewee: "I had been warned that [he] was a tough interview-that he doled out flip answers ... to questions he was tired of being asked" (David Roberts).
v., -viewed, -view·ing, -views. v.tr.
To obtain an interview from.
v.intr.
To have an interview: interviewed with a publishing company.
[French entrevue, from Old French, from feminine past participle of entrevoir, to see : entre-, between (from Latin inter-; see inter-) + voir, to see (from Latin vidēre).]
interviewable in'ter·view'a·ble adj.interviewee in'ter·view·ee' n.
interviewer in'ter·view'er n.
Barron's Marketing Dictionary:
Top
interview
1. Formal consultation or meeting for the purpose of ascertaining and evaluating the qualifications of a person, group of people, or company to fill a particular job situation.
2. Formal or informal meeting between two people or among a group of people for the purpose of obtaining information about something in particular. The interview is a successful tool in advertising research and may be conducted in any number of ways, including the depth interview and the focus group interview.
Barron's Business Dictionary:
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interview
Conversation between two or more people for the purpose of yielding information for guidance, counseling, treatment, or employment.
| Interval Scale, Interstate Land Sales Act, Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) | |
| Interview Expenses, Interview, Structured, Interview, Unstructured |
Oxford Companion to the Mind:
Top
interviews
People seek interviews with their bank manager or their doctor, they are interviewed for a job or for promotion, and at work they may have an annual 'appraisal interview'. Some are interviewed as they apply for Social Security or other benefits, and others may be interviewed by a journalist or a market researcher.
These different encounters all have as defining characteristics a certain formality and an asymmetry. Participants' roles are specified, in that one person is the interviewer and the other is the interviewee (although in practice more than two people may be involved) and each has a fairly clear idea of the type of behaviour which is expected. The objective is for the interviewer to obtain and interpret information from the interviewee in order to make a decision or take some action.
Let us look particularly at interviews in personnel selection, where an official of an organization has to decide which candidate to select for a job from among a number of applicants. Such interviews are often criticized on the grounds that different interviewers can reach different conclusions about the same candidate, and a number of experiments have examined the ways in which interviewers can be 'calibrated' so that they reliably form similar impressions. One approach has varied the degree of structure imposed upon the interview, in terms of the requirement to obtain certain kinds of information and to draw inferences only about pre-specified attributes or likely behaviours. Results indicate that increased structure yields significantly greater uniformity between interviewers. Similar outcomes can be achieved through training schemes which aim to make interviewers aware of possible biases and which stress the need to identify goals and important issues in advance. For example, the 'seven-point plan' encourages interviewers to define job requirements carefully and to obtain information about candidates in terms of physique, intelligence, aptitude, attainments, interests, disposition, and circumstances.
Although reliability can be enhanced in these ways, there remains the question whether interviewers can validly predict subsequent work behaviour. A major research problem is the difficulty of establishing acceptable measures of 'good' or 'bad' behaviour in an occupational role. Limited measures of skilled performance or of output levels may be available for some manual jobs, but professional and managerial work is much less open to quantification, and it is in those areas that interviews are particularly widespread. This problem, of adequately measuring the behaviour we wish to predict, is endemic in all areas of personnel selection, and is often referred to as 'the criterion problem'.
However, despite the commonly expressed doubts, selection interviews are here to stay, if for no other reason than that they provide an opportunity for the candidate to ask his own questions and to reach his own conclusions about a potential employer. The interpersonal processes at work during an interview are subtle, complex, and fascinating. Consider the ways in which an interviewer will search for and integrate information about the applicant. Research has established clearly that people form impressions of each other through the application of previously established expectancies or 'inference rules'. Evidence that a person has a certain characteristic (anxiousness in the interview situation, for example) sets up a network of inferences about other characteristics. These networks are sometimes referred to as 'implicit theories of personality', and perceivers apply their own implicit theories to even the most limited pieces of evidence. Indeed, some people take pride in 'summing him up as soon as he comes through the door', whereas others may devote their energies to fighting a similar form of stereotyped perception, where extensive inferences are drawn from single cues such as 'black', 'female', or 'handicapped'. In general terms, manifested features have been found to make their greatest impact during short encounters, when other evidence is meagre. Thus many perceivers initially take the wearing of spectacles to imply intelligence and thoughtfulness (see halo effect). Conventional wisdom has it that 'first impressions count', and research has looked in detail at this question. It seems that the initial impression is tested through subsequent investigation. However, there is often a predisposition in an interviewer to obtain negative information, material which suggests that the candidate should not be selected. This is understandable in the light of the interviewer's regular need to reject most of the applicants, but it is important for the 'first impressions count' thesis. This needs to be refined to suggest that an early negative impression is readily reached and is difficult to change, whereas an early positive impression is less easily made and is liable to be overridden if negative evidence becomes available subsequently.
One interesting research finding bears upon this issue. There is typically a significant positive correlation between the proportion of time during which the interviewer talks and the probability that a candidate will be offered the job. This may be interpreted in terms of an early implicit decision by an interviewer which tends to make later questioning redundant and perhaps suggests that the desirable candidate should be encouraged through conversation to maintain his interest in the vacancy.
The skills of interviewing extend to coordinating the interaction through verbal and non-verbal cues at the same time as gaining and integrating a variety of items of information. Recent research has placed emphasis on the non-verbal cues which contribute to impression formation and management: they may be relatively unchanging — as with general appearance, clothes, facial expression, and so on — or they may be dynamic — as in eye contact, bodily movements, or loudness of speech.
How can people learn to be good interviewers? We all have relevant experience, talking with and acquiring information from others, and there is a tendency to feel that we are quite competent. But experience without detailed feedback is often of limited value: we need to learn with some precision about the effects of our actions and impressions so that we can improve upon them. This requirement has been the basis of recent experiments in interviewer training, and powerful procedures are now available. These have as their core the use of feedback about performance, often through the replay of videotaped practice sessions. In this way, trainees are able to chart and improve their performance over a series of practice interviews, assisted both by their tutors and by their fellow trainees. Behaviour category systems are often applied to generate profiles of an interviewer's style in a way that points up strong and weak points, providing in a striking manner the feedback that is necessary for learning.
(Published 1987)
These different encounters all have as defining characteristics a certain formality and an asymmetry. Participants' roles are specified, in that one person is the interviewer and the other is the interviewee (although in practice more than two people may be involved) and each has a fairly clear idea of the type of behaviour which is expected. The objective is for the interviewer to obtain and interpret information from the interviewee in order to make a decision or take some action.
Let us look particularly at interviews in personnel selection, where an official of an organization has to decide which candidate to select for a job from among a number of applicants. Such interviews are often criticized on the grounds that different interviewers can reach different conclusions about the same candidate, and a number of experiments have examined the ways in which interviewers can be 'calibrated' so that they reliably form similar impressions. One approach has varied the degree of structure imposed upon the interview, in terms of the requirement to obtain certain kinds of information and to draw inferences only about pre-specified attributes or likely behaviours. Results indicate that increased structure yields significantly greater uniformity between interviewers. Similar outcomes can be achieved through training schemes which aim to make interviewers aware of possible biases and which stress the need to identify goals and important issues in advance. For example, the 'seven-point plan' encourages interviewers to define job requirements carefully and to obtain information about candidates in terms of physique, intelligence, aptitude, attainments, interests, disposition, and circumstances.
Although reliability can be enhanced in these ways, there remains the question whether interviewers can validly predict subsequent work behaviour. A major research problem is the difficulty of establishing acceptable measures of 'good' or 'bad' behaviour in an occupational role. Limited measures of skilled performance or of output levels may be available for some manual jobs, but professional and managerial work is much less open to quantification, and it is in those areas that interviews are particularly widespread. This problem, of adequately measuring the behaviour we wish to predict, is endemic in all areas of personnel selection, and is often referred to as 'the criterion problem'.
However, despite the commonly expressed doubts, selection interviews are here to stay, if for no other reason than that they provide an opportunity for the candidate to ask his own questions and to reach his own conclusions about a potential employer. The interpersonal processes at work during an interview are subtle, complex, and fascinating. Consider the ways in which an interviewer will search for and integrate information about the applicant. Research has established clearly that people form impressions of each other through the application of previously established expectancies or 'inference rules'. Evidence that a person has a certain characteristic (anxiousness in the interview situation, for example) sets up a network of inferences about other characteristics. These networks are sometimes referred to as 'implicit theories of personality', and perceivers apply their own implicit theories to even the most limited pieces of evidence. Indeed, some people take pride in 'summing him up as soon as he comes through the door', whereas others may devote their energies to fighting a similar form of stereotyped perception, where extensive inferences are drawn from single cues such as 'black', 'female', or 'handicapped'. In general terms, manifested features have been found to make their greatest impact during short encounters, when other evidence is meagre. Thus many perceivers initially take the wearing of spectacles to imply intelligence and thoughtfulness (see halo effect). Conventional wisdom has it that 'first impressions count', and research has looked in detail at this question. It seems that the initial impression is tested through subsequent investigation. However, there is often a predisposition in an interviewer to obtain negative information, material which suggests that the candidate should not be selected. This is understandable in the light of the interviewer's regular need to reject most of the applicants, but it is important for the 'first impressions count' thesis. This needs to be refined to suggest that an early negative impression is readily reached and is difficult to change, whereas an early positive impression is less easily made and is liable to be overridden if negative evidence becomes available subsequently.
One interesting research finding bears upon this issue. There is typically a significant positive correlation between the proportion of time during which the interviewer talks and the probability that a candidate will be offered the job. This may be interpreted in terms of an early implicit decision by an interviewer which tends to make later questioning redundant and perhaps suggests that the desirable candidate should be encouraged through conversation to maintain his interest in the vacancy.
The skills of interviewing extend to coordinating the interaction through verbal and non-verbal cues at the same time as gaining and integrating a variety of items of information. Recent research has placed emphasis on the non-verbal cues which contribute to impression formation and management: they may be relatively unchanging — as with general appearance, clothes, facial expression, and so on — or they may be dynamic — as in eye contact, bodily movements, or loudness of speech.
How can people learn to be good interviewers? We all have relevant experience, talking with and acquiring information from others, and there is a tendency to feel that we are quite competent. But experience without detailed feedback is often of limited value: we need to learn with some precision about the effects of our actions and impressions so that we can improve upon them. This requirement has been the basis of recent experiments in interviewer training, and powerful procedures are now available. These have as their core the use of feedback about performance, often through the replay of videotaped practice sessions. In this way, trainees are able to chart and improve their performance over a series of practice interviews, assisted both by their tutors and by their fellow trainees. Behaviour category systems are often applied to generate profiles of an interviewer's style in a way that points up strong and weak points, providing in a striking manner the feedback that is necessary for learning.
(Published 1987)
— Peter B. Warr
- Bibliography
- Anstey, E. (1977). An Introduction to Selection Interviewing.
- Argyle, M. (1973). Social Encounters: Readings in Social Interaction.
- Mackensie D. D., and McDonnell, P. (1975). How to Interview.
- Sidney, E., Brown, M., and Argyle, M. (1973). Skills with People: A Guide for Managers.
Word Tutor:
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interview
IN BRIEF: A meeting of one person with another to talk about something.
I’m notorious for giving a bad interview. I’m an actor and I can’t help but feel I’m boring when I’m on as myself.
— Rock Hudson (1925-1985), U.S. screen actor.
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
Quotes About:
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Interviews
Quotes:
"The politician being interviewed clearly takes a great deal of trouble to imagine an ending to his sentence: and if he stopped short? His entire policy would be jeopardized!"
- Roland Barthes
"Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are."
- Oscar Wilde
"The media no longer ask those who know something to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it."
- Serge Daney
"I'm notorious for giving a bad interview. I'm an actor and I can't help but feel I'm boring when I'm on as myself."
- Rock Hudson
"The best interviews -- like the best biographies -- should sing the strangeness and variety of the human race."
- Lynn Barber
"It rots a writer's brain, it cretinises you. You say the same thing again and again, and when you do that happily you're well on the way to being a cretin. Or a politician."
- John Updike
See more famous quotes about Interviews
The Dream Encyclopedia:
Top
Interviews
Facing an interview in a dream carries the same connotations of anxiety as dreams about exam taking. The dreamer may feel that he or she is being judged by others or by herself.
Mosby's Dental Dictionary:
Top
interview
n
1. a question-and-answer conference at which the parties concerned state the principles and facts regarding their relationship. In dental practice, this usually refers to the relationship between dentist and employee, and between dentist and patient. v 2. to query a potential employee.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'interview'
- Broadcast Journalism - interview: questioning of individual by one or more reporters, esp. on personal views or activities
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Interview
For other uses, see Interview (disambiguation).
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010) |
An interview is a conversation between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.
|
Contents
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Interview as a method for qualitative research
"Definition" - The qualitative research interview seeks to describe and the meanings of central themes in the life world of the subjects. The main task in interviewing is to understand the meaning of what the interviewees say.(Kvale,1996)
Aspects of qualitative research interviews
- Interviews are completed by the interviewer based on what the interviewee says.
- Interviews are a far more personal form of research than questionnaires.
- In the personal interview, the interviewer works directly with the interviewee.
- Unlike with mail surveys, the interviewer has the opportunity to probe or ask follow up questions.
- Interviews are generally easier for the interviewee, especially if what is sought are opinions and/or impressions.
- Interviews are time consuming and they are resource intensive.
- The interviewer is considered a part of the measurement instrument and interviewer has to be well trained in how to respond to any contingency.
Types of interviews
- Informal, conversational interview - no predetermined questions are asked, in order to remain as open and adaptable as possible to the interviewee’s nature and priorities; during the interview the interviewer “goes with the flow”.
- General interview guide approach - intended to ensure that the same general areas of information are collected from each interviewee; this provides more focus than the conversational approach, but still allows a degree of freedom and adaptability in getting the information from the interviewee.
- Standardized, open-ended interview - the same open-ended questions are asked to all interviewees; this approach facilitates faster interviews that can be more easily analyzed and compared.
- Closed, fixed-response interview - all interviewees are asked the same questions and asked to choose answers from among the same set of alternatives. This format is useful for those not practiced in interviewing.
Others
- Cognitive interview
- Computer-assisted personal vs. telephone interviewing
- Investigative interview
- Ladder interview
- Mall-intercept personal interview
- Mock Interview
- Multiple mini interview
- Online interview
- Parent-teacher interview
- Psychiatric interview
- Reference interview, between a librarian and a library user
- Repertory grid interview
- Structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interview
- Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV
Stages of interview investigation
- Thematizing, the why and what of the investigation
- Designing, plan the design of the study
- Interviewing, conduct the interview based on a guide
- Transcribing, prepare the interview material for analysis
- Analyzing, decide on the purpose, the topic, the nature and methods of analysis that are appropriate
- Verifying, ascertain the validity of the interview findings
- Reporting, communicate findings of the study based on academic criteria
Publications
Several publications give prominence to interviews, including:
- Interviews with novelists conducted since 1950 by The Paris Review
- Interviews with celebrities conducted by Interview magazine, co-founded by Andy Warhol in 1969
- The Rolling Stone Interview, featured in Rolling Stone magazine
Famous interviews
- 1957-1960: The Mike Wallace Interview - 30-minute television program interviews conducted by Mike Wallace
- 1968: Interviews with Phil Ochs - an interview of folk singer Phil Ochs conducted by Broadside Magazine
- 1974: Michael Parkinson/Muhammad Ali - television interview of Ali in his prime
- 1977: Frost/Nixon interviews - 1977 television interviews by British journalist David Frost of former United States President Richard Nixon
- early 1980s: Soviet Interview Project - conducted with Soviet emigrants to the United States
- 1992: Fellini: I'm a Born Liar - Federico Fellini's last filmed interviews conducted in 1992 for a 2002 feature documentary
- 1992: Nevermind It's an Interview - interviews with the band Nirvana recorded in 1992 on the night they appeared on Saturday Night Live
- 1993: Michael Jackson talks to Oprah Winfrey. This became the fourth most watched event in American television history as well as the most watched interview ever, with an audience of one hundred million.
- 1993: Birthday Cake Interview - an interview of Dr. John Hewson that contributed to the defeat of his party in the 1993 Australian federal election
- 2002-3: Living with Michael Jackson - a 2002-3 interview with Michael Jackson, later turned into a documentary
- 2003: February 2003 Saddam Hussein interview - Dan Rather interviewing Saddam Hussein days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq
- 2008: Sarah Palin interviews with Katie Couric - Katie Couric interviewing Sarah Palin
See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interviews |
 |
Look up interview in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
References
 |
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2012) |
 |
This article lacks ISBNs for the books listed in it. Please make it easier to conduct research by listing ISBNs. If the {{Cite book}} or {{citation}} templates are in use, you may add ISBNs automatically, or discuss this issue on the talk page. (February 2012) |
- Campion, M.A., Campion, J.E., & Hudson, J.P., Jr. “Structured Interviewing: A Note on Incremental Validity and Alternative Question Types”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 998-1002, 1994
- Dick, Bob. Convergent Interviewing. Session 8 of "Areol-Action Research and Evaluation", Southern Cross University, 2002
- Foddy, William. Constructing Questions for Interviews, Cambridge University Press, 1993
- General Accounting Office. Using Structured Interviewing Techniques. Program Evaluation and Methodology Division, Washington D.C., 1991
- Groat, Linda & Wang, David. Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Inc
- Hollowitz, J. & Wilson, C.E. “Structured Interviewing in Volunteer Selection”. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 21, 41-52, 1993
- Kvale, Steinar. Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing, Sage Publications, 1996
- McNamara, Carter, PhD. General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews [1], Minnesota, 1999
- Pawlas, G.E. “The Structured Interview: Three Dozen Questions to Ask Prospective Teachers”, NASSP Bulletin, 79, 62-65, 1995
- Trochim, William, M.K. "Types of Surveys", Research Methods Knowledge Base, 2002
- Watts, G.E. “Effective Strategies in Selecting Quality Faculty”, International Conference for Community College Chairs, Deans, & Other Instructional Leaders, Phoenix, Arizona, 1993
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Top
Interview
Dansk (Danish)
n. - interview, møde, samtale
v. tr. - interviewe, udspørge, afhøre, have samtale med
v. intr. - foretage et interview, interviewe, udspørge
Nederlands (Dutch)
interview, (persoonlijk) onderhoud, sollicitatiegesprek, interviewen, spreken met, sollicitatiegesprek afnemen
Français (French)
n. - entretien, (Journ) interview
v. tr. - faire passer un entretien à (un candidat), convoquer (qn) pour un entretien, (Journ) interviewer, interroger (par la police)
v. intr. - passer un entretien, faire passer des entretiens, (Journ, TV) interviewer
Deutsch (German)
n. - Interview, Gespräch, Vorstellungsgespräch
v. - interviewen, Vorstellungsgespräch führen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (δημόσια) συνέντευξη, συνάντηση, ραντεβού (για δουλειά)
v. - παίρνω συνέντευξη από
Italiano (Italian)
intervistare, intervista, intervista (di lavoro)
Português (Portuguese)
n. - entrevista (f)
v. - entrevistar
Русский (Russian)
интервью, беседа, интервьюировать, брать интервью, проводить беседу
Español (Spanish)
n. - entrevista, interviú, entrevista de empleo
v. tr. - entrevistar
v. intr. - entrevistarse con
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - intervju, samtal, sammanträffande
v. - ha ett samtal med, intervjua
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
面谈, 接见, 访问, 会见, 面试
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 面談, 接見, 訪問
v. tr. - 接見, 會見
v. intr. - 面談, 面試
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 회견, (신문기자의)방문면담
v. tr. - ~와 회견하다, 방문하여 의견을 묻다
v. intr. - 회견하다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 会見, インタビュー, 面接, 会談, 取材訪問, 会見記
v. - と面接する
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مقابله, حديث صحفي (فعل) يجري مقابله
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ראיון
v. tr. - ראיין
v. intr. - השתתף בריאיון
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
Buckminster: Grandfather of the Future
(1983 Science & Technology Film)
Succeeding in Your Interview
(1988 Business Film)
Group Interview
(business term)
Interview, Structured
(business term)
Interview, Unstructured
(business term)
» More