INTERVIEWER VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY: AN INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS APPROACH

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Abstract
Interviewer reliability, validity, and strategy for information integration were studied by analysis of data across interviewers and, also, by within, individual interviewer analysis. Candidates (N= 412) for selection to a military division of a national defense organization were interviewed by 10 female interviewers and assessed on nine behaviorally anchored dimensions. Candidates (N = 131) subsequently admitted to officers' training school were evaluated, for the purposes of this study, on 19 dimensions and on an overall evaluation taken at six and twelve week points. Results of analyses of data across interviewers indicated that interviewers functioned in a similar fashion, using few of the dimensions in their decisions whereas analyses of individual interviewers indicated higher reliability and individual differences among interviewers' strategy formation. Analysis across interviewers of the relationship of the interview decision to six and twelve week training performance evaluations indicated no validity for the interview decision. Analysis of individual interview strategies revealed differences among the interviewers only at the six week point. Results are discussed with regard to methodological problems, interview strategy differences, criteria dimensionality, fruitfulness of individual, within interviewer analyses, and purpose of the interview.