The different types of interviews and their characteristics

A summary of the different types of psychological interviews.

The interview is a qualitative information-gathering technique involving two individuals (although more may participate). It is not considered an informal conversation, as it it has an intentionality, an objective. For an interview to take place, it is necessary that at least one interviewer and one interviewee participate, with the agreement of both. The first is the one who will obtain information about the other person.

The word interview derives from Latin, specifically the term is composed of inter (between) and videre (sight) which means "to see". Therefore, it refers to observing in the middle, i.e., hitting the target. This term first appeared in French as "entrevoir" and later in Spanish. But beyond nominalisms, the truth is that there is no single concept of interview, but several. That is why we talk about types of interviews, each with its different utilities and strengths and weaknesses.

Different types of interview

The interview has different fields of application and that is why there are different types of interview depending on what it is used forJob interview, clinical interview, cognitive interview, journalistic interview, etc.

On the other hand, the classifications used are varied: according to the content, the participants, the procedure... Below you can see a list explaining the different types of interviews. types of interviews.

1. According to the number of participants

There are many ways to distinguish the different types of interviews from each other, and taking the number of participants as a reference is one of these criteria.

1.1. Individual interview

The individual interview is the most commonly used and is also known as a personal interview. personal interview. 

When a person is looking for a job and meets face to face with the interviewer, when a psychologist receives his patient to find out first hand the reason for his behavior or when a personal trainer receives his client to find out his degree of motivation for sports training, the individual interview is used.

1.2. Group interview

The group interview is often used in the field of employment, as it allows different competencies of job applicants to be assessed.

This type of interview involves several interviewees and an interviewer (although sometimes another member of the company may assist). In addition to the information that the individual can provide verbally, the group interview allows to observe the interaction between the different candidates, thus providing relevant information for hiring. This is very important, because in most work contexts in an organization you have to coordinate with others and sometimes even the task itself is of a group nature.

There are rare cases where working consists of going to a cubicle every day of the week and not talking to anyone else in the company during this period, and small mistakes in this kind of situation can have serious consequences. Therefore, an interview that more closely resembles the real work context provides more valuable information..

In clinical practice, this type of interview is known as a family interview. However, in this field it is distinguished by having fixed objectives in the relationships between the people involved (as a form of psychological intervention), while in other contexts of psychology this objective does not have to be given. In fact, it is sometimes used simply as a way of saving time and resources, almost as if they were individual interviews taking place at the same time and place.

1.3. Panel interview

The panel interview is also a group interview used in the workplace. On this occasion, and unlike the type of interview mentioned above, several interviewers interview a candidate.

Each interviewer will evaluate the candidate according to his or her own criteria and, once the interview is over, the criteria will be unified and a common decision will be made as to whether the interviewee is a suitable candidate for the position.

Of course, one of the main advantages of this type of interview is that it is possible to contrast different points of view in a single session, thus getting a more balanced view of the candidates. For example, it is possible for the interview to involve both the HR technician and one of the candidates. the HR technician as well as one or more heads of departments, those whose work processes depend on the candidate's skills.Those whose work processes depend on the vacancy to be filled.

This makes it possible to have points of view from people specialized in the different aspects of the job to be taken into account: soft skills and personality aspects according to the organizational psychologist, technical knowledge according to the department head, etc.

2. According to the procedure

Beyond the number of participants, we can also We can also categorize the types of interviews according to their formatThe structured interview is the way in which the interviewer communicates with the interviewee and asks him/her one type of question or another.

2.1. Structured interview

This type of interview, the structured interviewThis type of interview, the structured interview, follows a series of fixed questions that have been prepared in advance and the same questions are applied to all interviewees. This type of interview emphasizes the need to create a context as similar as possible between the different interviews conducted, in order to be able to better compare the results obtained without non-relevant variables contaminating the conclusions.

In the case of job interviews, scoring systems are often used to evaluate candidates. This greatly facilitates the unification of criteria and the evaluation of the interviewee.

2.2. Unstructured interview

The unstructured interview is also known as a free-form interview. It works with open questions, without a pre-established order, acquiring the characteristics of conversation and allowing spontaneity. This makes it one of the types of interviews that most resembles an informal conversation, although it still has a method and clear objectives.

This technique consists of asking questions according to the answers that arise during the interview.

2.3. Mixed interview

The mixed interview o semistructured interview is a mixture of the two previous ones. Thus, the interviewer alternates structured questions and spontaneous questions.

This type of interview is more complete than the structured and the unstructured one since, having the benefits of both, it allows a comparison between the different candidates and also makes it possible to go deeper into their specific characteristics.

3. According to the mode (or channel)

We can also classify the types of interviews according to the type of channel in which the communication between interviewer and interviewee is established.

3.1. Face-to-face interview

The face-to-face interview is the face-to-face interview. Both actors in the interview face each other. This means that non-verbal communication is taken into account.

3.2. Telephone interview

The telephone interview is used in personnel selection because it is used as a filter in the recruitment process if there is a high volume of candidates.

Through this, a recruitment expert can rule out a candidate if he/she considers that he/she is not suitable for the position, as it is usually assessed whether he/she meets the requirements of the job on offer. It also allows to know their concerns and their degree of motivation.

3.3. Online interview

Although it is increasingly used in clinical or educational settings, online online interview is characteristic of personnel selection processes when there are many candidates for a job offer. It is common in large companies and is also used when the candidate is not in the same location.

Nowadays, there are programs that conduct interviews in which a candidate is recorded from home after being asked a series of questions. There is no interviewer, but the questions are in text format and the candidate's response is recorded. The answer is stored and sent to the selection personnel who are in charge of carrying out the assessment.

3.4. By e-mail

This type of interview is common in the field of journalism. In the e-mail interviews a series of questions are sent by e-mail and the interviewee returns them with his or her answer. In this way, in addition to the psychological variables to be taken into account, the specific skills that will be used in the job position are checked.

However, it is also true that this type of interview can simply be a cheap version of the selection process, in those contexts in which it is decided not to devote practically no means or time to this phase.

4. Other types of interview

The types of interview we have seen so far can be characterized relatively simply. But there is another category of interviews whose particularities lie in somewhat more complex aspects and which have more specific objectives. and which have more specific objectives. We explain them below.

4.1. Competency-based interview

This type of competency-based interview is also known as behavioral interview and is used by Human Resources experts to find out if the person being interviewed is the right person for the position for which he/she is applying. The recruiter focuses on obtaining behavioral examples of the applicant's personal, academic and professional life, after previously knowing the needs of both the position and the company.

This means that this type of interview has a component that brings it closer to competency and skills tests, although it is not usually approached as a test for which specific preparation is required.

The behavioral interview was born as a result of the concept of competency, which is very popular in the business and organizational environment.. Thanks to the competency interview it is possible to assess whether the motivation, knowledge, skills or values of the interviewee match the needs of the company. There is a great deal of preliminary work involved in this type of interview, since first of all it is necessary to define the competencies required by the position and the company.

Nowadays, a type of competency-based interview called the critical incident interviewIt is based on a series of open questions that expect the person being interviewed to describe in detail what he/she said, thought, felt and did on certain occasions, since this way it is possible to know if the candidate has the required competencies.

To learn more about the competency-based interview you should read this article: "How to face a competency-based interview: 4 keys to get the job".

4.2. Stress-inducing interviews

The stress-elicitation interview is used in job interviews, especially for managers. The objective is to create tension or stressful situations to assess the candidate's ability to solve problems, as well as to know his or her degree of tolerance to frustration or his or her ability to handle stress.

However, it must be taken into account that the type of situations that produce stress are very different: perhaps, the tension caused by the job to be performed is well managed by the candidate, but the stressful situation applied to the interview, being new, is not.

On the other hand, it should not be overlooked that this type of interview is an unpleasant experience. is an unpleasant experience; moreover, the degree of discomfortMoreover, that degree of discomfort is the raison d'être of the interview, and without it there would be no point. This has ethical connotations that are worth assessing, including how it fits in with the organization's values, work philosophy and corporate culture.

4.3. Motivational interviewing

The motivational interviewing is a client-centered, directive style of interaction aimed at helping people and encouraging them to compare the advantages and disadvantages of certain situations in order to bring about positive changes in their behavior.

Bibliographical references:

• Díaz, F. & Rodríguez, A. (2003). Selección y formación de personal. Granada: Editorial de la Universidad de Granada.
• Hough, L.M. & Oswald, F.L. (2000): Personnel selection. Looking toward the future - remembering the past. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 631-664.
• Moore, D.A.. (2017). How to Improve the Accuracy and Reduce the Cost of Personnel Selection. California Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125617725288....
• Roulin, N. & Krings, F. (2016). When Winning is Everything: The Relationship between Competitive Worldviews and Job Applicant Faking. Applied Psychology. 65 (4): pp. 643 - 670.