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Showing papers on "Interview published in 1978"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, two investigations of the external validity of the paper-person analog are presented, and the answer is that the answer to the question raised in the title is "No".

132 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of participation in the appraisal interview was clarified and 287 bank employees were surveyed, and analysis of their descriptions of the most recent appraisal interview resulted in three factors:
Abstract: To clarify the concept of participation in the appraisal interview, 287 bank employees were surveyed. Analysis of their descriptions of the most recent appraisal interview resulted in three factors...

115 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Klecka and Tuchfarber as discussed by the authors reported on the replication of a large, personal interview survey by means of a random digit dialing telephone survey, which was based on a complex probability sample of Cincinnati households with the field work being done by the Census Bureau during early 1974.
Abstract: This article reports on the replication of a large, personal interview survey by means of a random digit dialing telephone survey. The personal interview survey was based on a complex probability sample of Cincinnati households with the field work being done by the Census Bureau during early 1974. The telephone replication was done immediately afterwards. The objective was to test the accuracy and efficiency of random digit dialing telephone surveys in comparison to the best traditional alternative. The samples were compared on demographic characteristics, measures of crime victimization, and attitudes toward crime and the police. The results were very similar, indicating that random digit dialing is an accurate and cost-effective alternative to traditional personal interviewing surveys for most research applications. William R. Klecka is a Senior Research Associate at the Behavioral Sciences Laboratory and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. During the writing of this article he was a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University's Center for Urban Affairs. Alfred J. Tuchfarber is Director of the Behavioral Sciences Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. The authors wish to thank the staffs of the Behavioral Sciences Laboratory and the Center for Urban Affairs for their assistance, and the Police Foundation of Washington, D.C. for their generous support of this project. Public Opinion Quarterly (?) 1978 by Columbia University Published by Elsevier North-Holland, Inc. 0033-362X/78/0042-0105/$01.25 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.136 on Tue, 05 Jul 2016 04:36:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 106 KLECKA AND TUCHFARBER telephone as an interviewing method (for example, Rogers 1976) have been published. Several panels on telephone surveys have been held at recent professional meetings. The primary reasons for the increased use of telephone surveys are financial pressures and technological changes. Increasing salaries and rising fuel costs have conspired to make personal interviewing surveys extremely costly because of the travel involved. Finding the desired respondent at home has also become increasingly difficult, particularly because of the increased labor force participation of married women. How much RDD can save depends upon the particular study. One example worked out by Tuchfarber and Klecka (1976:18-20) shows that field work and sampling costs in RDD may be as little as 20 percent to 25 percent of those for personal interviewing. Improvements in telephone equipment have also made telephone interviewing easier. But the most important justification is that telephones are now more ubiquitous. In 1958, only 72.5 percent of U.S. households had access to a telephone either in their own dwelling unit or elsewhere. By 1965, this figure was still a low 80.6 percent, but for 1970 it rose to 86.7 percent and then reached 92.8 percent in 1976.1 Clearly, a researcher of 10 or 20 years ago should have hesitated to employ a sampling technique which inherently excluded a fourth of the population. Now that telephone surveys can encompass more than nine-tenths of the population, we can feel less concerned that the biases due to coverage problems will grossly distort our results.2 The question still remains whether the exclusion of nontelephone households and/or the use of telephones as a medium of communication seriously reduce the accuracy of RDD surveys. This article will reDort on the first major experiment3 designed to directly compare the I See U.S. Dept. of Commerce (1958, 1965). The 1970 figure was computed from the Public Use Sample tape (1 in 10,000 sample) derived from the 1970 Census of Housing and Population. The 1976 statistics were computed from the January through June panels (N=59,861 households) of the National Crime Survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census on behalf of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA). Telephone availability can be broken down between "own home" and "elsewhere" only for the 1976 data. In that year, 90.2 percent of the households had phones in their own homne. 2 William R. Klecka and A. Elizabeth Powell have been using the massive National Crime Survey data collected by the Census Bureau for the LEAA to identify sources of potential bias in telephone surveys. Their approach has been to compare households with a telephone to the total sample. The differences have been extremely sinall on both demographic and behavioral items. A preliminary report has been presented (Powell and Klecka, 1976), and some of the data also appear in Tuchfarber and Klecka (1976:20-28). The 1976 data show that the conditions for RDD surveys are much more favorable than implied by the 1970 Census data reported in Tull and Albaum (1977). When considering the potential bias in RDD surveys, one should remember that the tiny proportion of persons without telephones cannot all be reached by personal survey methods either. Persons without telephones tend to be transients and/or social isolates. These individuals are very difficult to reach regardless of which survey method is used. (Also see Leuthold and Scheele, 1971). 3Subsequent to this project, the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center did a replication of their Spring 1976 Omnibus Survey with random digit dialing. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.136 on Tue, 05 Jul 2016 04:36:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms RDD AND PERSONAL SURVEYS 107 results of an RDD survey to those derived from a personal interview survey based on a traditional area-probability sample.4 Specifically, it tests the hypothesis that random digit dialing telephone surveys are an efficient, accurate, and inexpensive alternative to most face-to-face interviewing applications.

92 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, this paper found that nonverbal behavior has a significant effect on almost every rating made by interviewers in a 16-min interview, and that 23 of the 26 interviewers who saw the high nonverbal candidate would have invited him/her for a second interview.

82 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the independent and joint effects of variations in eye contact and social status on the way in which job applicants tend to be perceived in employment interviewing situations and found statistically significant main effects for eye contact, as well as a significant two-way interaction effect.

33 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a videotaped interview of an MBA applicant for a management position was conducted, and participants were assigned to the cells of a 2 by 2-by-2 factorial design with two levels of participants (interviewer, manager), two levels concurrent note taking (required, forbidden), and two level of interruption early in the interview (interrupted, control).
Abstract: Employment interviewers (N = 102) and managers (N = 128) viewed a videotaped interview of an MBA applicant for a management position. Participants were assigned to the cells of a 2 by 2 by 2 factorial design with two levels of participants (interviewer, manager), two levels of concurrent note taking (required, forbidden), and two levels of interruption early in the interview (interrupted, control). The dependent variables were the score on a 25-item listening accuracy test based on the transcript of the interview, and the overall suitability evaluation of the applicant by the professionals. Results indicated no significant difference between participant groups and no significant effects on overall suitability judgments. Both the interruption and note taking had a significant impact on listening accuracy. The highest rate of accuracy (79%) was for the required note taking and no-interruption condition.

29 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that when candidates liked interviewers personally, they were more optimistic about their chances of success and were more willing to accept potential job offers and were also more confident of success at the end of the interview when their pre-interview motivation had been high.
Abstract: Candidates in 551 initial graduate recruitment interviews provided estimates of the level of their motivation to succeed immediately before and after each interview. Their level of state anxiety was also measured before interviews. At the end of the interview they indicated how much they liked the interviewer personally and estimated both the likelihood of their being successful in the interview and the likelihood that they would accept a job with that company, if eventually offered one. Interviewers were asked to evaluate each candidate and to estimate his chances of being offered a job by their company. When candidates liked interviewers personally, they were more optimistic about their chances of success and were more willing to accept potential job offers. Candidates were also more confident of success at the end of the interview when their pre-interview motivation had been high. However, interviewer evaluations of candidates were most favourable when the level of their pre-interview motivation had been intermediate. Candidate state anxiety was unrelated to the favourability of interviewers' evaluations of them.

26 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results showed that data-gathering ability increased significantly; that the focus of attention shifted from a more disease-oriented to a more patient-oriented interview; that data were obtained by means of less direct, less leading questions; and that more support and reassurance were provided as the level of training and experience increased.
Abstract: Interviewing skills of 34 pediatric house officers were compared with those of five practicing members of the clinical faculty. Interviews with a programmed mother were videotaped to evaluate physician-patient interaction, data gathering, hypothesis formation and provision of therapy education, reassurance, support, and anticipatory guidance. In addition, eight pediatric interns (PL-Is) were assigned to a study group and five to a control group at the beginning of their outpatient department rotation. The study group received feedback after the videotaped interviews and a 1 1/2-hour didactic session designed to teach interviewing skills. The control group received neither feedback nor the didactic session. Both groups were reevaluated at the end of the outpatient department rotation, again using the videotaped interview technique. Results showed that data-gathering ability increased significantly; that the focus of attention shifted from a more disease-oriented to a more patient-oriented interview; that data were obtained by means of less direct, less leading questions; and that more support and reassurance were provided as the level of training and experience increased. After the outpatient department rotation, members of both the study group and the control group of PL-1s had improved significantly and approached the proficiency-level of practicing pediatricians.

24 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the existing literature on employment interviews is organized into a four-phase model for implementing training programs that prepare clients to interview more effectively, including developing realistic expectations, developing successful interviewing skills, using effective training procedures, and preparing clients to cope with rejection shock.
Abstract: After a review of the existing literature on employment interviews, the findings are organized into a four-phase model for implementing training programs that prepare clients to interview more effectively. The four phases include developing realistic expectations, developing successful interviewing skills, using effective training procedures, and preparing clients to cope with rejection shock. The importance of active preparation for job interviews and the counselor's potential role in this process are emphasized.

21 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
05 Nov 1978
TL;DR: Behavioral Assessment information, a more general form of Problem- Oriented Record data, appears to have many useful clinical qualities and was selected to be the information content for a computer interview system designed to assess problematic behaviors of psychiatric patients.
Abstract: Behavioral Assessment information, a more general form of Problem- Oriented Record data, appears to have many useful clinical qualities and was selected to be the information content for a computer interview system. This interview system was designed to assess problematic behaviors of psychiatric patients. The computer interview covered 29 life problem areas and took patients from four to eight hours to complete. In two reliability studies, the computer interview was compared to human interviews. A greater number of general and specific patient problems were identified in the computer interview than in the human interviews. The attitudes of computer patients and clinicians receiving the computer reports were surveyed.

21 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For instance, this article found that the speed of telephone interviews is associated with shorter answers to open-ended items on the telephone than personal interviews and that the tendency to reduce such responses is disproportionately exhibited by younger, affluent respondents who tend to provide detailed responses in personal interviews.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: The interview is a deliberately initiated conversation wherein two persons, and more recently more than two, engage in verbal and nonverbal communication toward the end of gathering information which will help one or both of the parties better reach a goal as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The interview is probably as old as the human race. It quite likely traces its roots to the first conversation in which either Adam or Eve interrogated the other or one of their children regarding some alleged transgression. It differs from the more common, spontaneous, everyday communicative encounter in that the interview is a deliberately initiated conversation wherein two persons, and more recently more than two, engage in verbal and nonverbal communication toward the end of gathering information which will help one or both of the parties better reach a goal. This goal or destination for which the interview serves as a data-gathering instrument is occasionally clearly defined by one or both parties, but, for the experienced as well as novice interviewer, such a goal even today is unfortunately more often than not still too ill-defined and inadequately stipulated.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: Group interviews as mentioned in this paper are situations where a number of candidates are assessed together while carrying out some task or discussion, and emphasize the assessment of leadership qualities of the individual, the persuasive, directive ability of the candidate in competitive group situations.
Abstract: This chapter discusses group interviews. Group interviewing refers to those situations where a number of candidates are assessed together while carrying out some task or discussion. In recent years, applied social science's greatest impact on society has undoubtedly been in the human relations training and T-group movements, which aim at fostering planned change through the use of groups. The basic tool used in these change programs is the same as that used in group selection programs, that is, a group of individuals engaged in free multi-way interaction, usually directed towards some task. The group interview, therefore, emphasizes the assessment of leadership qualities of the individual, the persuasive, directive ability of the candidate in competitive group situations.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper studied the effects of domain, topic, setting, and role relationships on the speaker's choice of language and/or language style and found that a shift in any one of these components will elicit a corresponding shift in linguistic performance.
Abstract: Contemporary sociolinguistic research has documented the effects of domain, topic, setting, and role relationships on the speaker's choice of language and/or language style. A shift in any one of these components will elicit a corresponding shift in linguistic performance. One important study which has documented the interaction of topic and language choice was Ervin-Tripp's work with Japanese war brides; this study demonstrated a strong relationship between bilingualism and biculturalism. The women she interviewed not only switched languages as the discussion shifted between topics associated with life in the United States and life in Japan but,

Journal ArticleDOI
A Keenan1
TL;DR: Training and experience moderated the relationship between interviewers' personal liking for candidates and their evaluation of them, and candidates were more willing to accept potential job offers from trained interviewers and in inexperienced interviewers.
Abstract: This study investigated relationships between interviewer training and experience and the outcomes of 514 initial graduate recruitment interviews (N = 71 personnel interviewers from private companies). Leniency of interviewer judgments was unrelated to training or experience, with the single exception that trained interviewers were more likely to offer candidates follow-up interviews. Training and experience were both positively related to interviewers' confidence in the accuracy of their assessments of candidates. Training and experience moderated the relationship between interviewers' personal liking for candidates and their evaluation of them. This relationship was lower in trained interviewers and in inexperienced interviewers. Candidates were more willing to accept potential job offers from trained interviewers. Interviewer experience was unrelated to candidate acceptance ratings.

Journal ArticleDOI
02 Jun 1978-Science
TL;DR: The Physics Interviewing Project assists graduate physics departments in evaluating foreign applicants and helps U.S. schools in selecting the most promising foreign candidates.
Abstract: The Physics Interviewing Project assists graduate physics departments in evaluating foreign applicants Supported by some 20 universities, two interviewers, both working scientists, travel abroad and interview students individually for about 1 hour each Prospective teaching assistants are rated on physics knowledge, problem-solving ability, and English language proficiency Ratings on all interviewees are sent to all supporting schools and other schools as requested The Project aids able students from countries that have no physics PhD programs (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand) to obtain assistantships and PhD's abroad, assists in the technological development of those countries, and helps US schools in selecting the most promising foreign candidates A similar program should be beneficial in other sciences

01 Dec 1978
TL;DR: The procedure adopted in developing such a survey as part of a project sponsored by the Australian Road Research Board to investigate the effect of transport policy decisions on residential location choice in large urban areas is documents.
Abstract: Home interview surveys are widely used in the transport planning field. This report documents the procedure adopted in developing such a survey as part of a project sponsored by the Australian Road Research Board to investigate the effect of transport policy decisions on residential location choice in large urban areas. The survey covers all home-owners and home-purchasers who have recently moved to selected locations in Melbourne. This report discusses the process for deciding on the questionnaire format as well as the procedure used in engaging the interviewers and training them to collect the data. The report discusses the coding of the data and the costs associated with the interviews. The survey forms and the interviewer instructions used in the survey are also presented. The method of structured interviews was adopted with the interviewer actively administering a defined schedule of questions. The main survey was directed towards the first major decision maker contacted in the household. /Author/TRRL/

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: The method of data collection generally used in the social sciences is the interview (e.g., Brown and Gilmartin, 1969): a procedure by means of which a respondent is induced, through a series of questions presented by an interviewer, to give verbal information about himself which is of interest for a researcher as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The method of data collection generally used in the social sciences is the interview (e.g. Brown and Gilmartin, 1969): a procedure by means of which a respondent is induced, through a series of questions presented by an interviewer, to give verbal information about himself which is of interest for a researcher (Scheuch, 1967).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The job interview is a necessary step in advancing a career in educational adminis tration as discussed by the authors. But many interviews are not what they seem, this author warns, and shares some insights he hopes will make the interviewing process less trying.
Abstract: The job interview is a necessary step in advancing a career in educational adminis tration. But many interviews are not what they seem, this author warns. He shares some insights he hopes will make the interviewing process less trying.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the nature of interview and its use in many different ways and for many different ends, and each kind of interview has its own methods and characteristics, including selection and placement interviews, vocational guidance interviews, counselling interviews to help the emotionally disturbed, and survey interviews used by market researchers.
Abstract: This chapter discusses the nature of interview. Interviewing can be used in many different ways and for many different ends, and each kind of interview has its own methods and characteristics. There are selection and placement interviews used by managers and executives to choose staff; there are vocational guidance interviews, counselling interviews to help the emotionally disturbed, and survey interviews used by market researchers; then there are the various forms of group interviewing used for problem solving, assessment, or therapy and diagnostic interviews used by clinical psychologists. As the interview has advantages and in some respects unique possibilities, it would seem ridiculous to deny its use completely merely because it is unstandardized and because some interviews are of little value. Hollingworth as early as 1929 made the serious criticism of interviews that compared with standardized tests they were woefully prone to inconsistent appraisals. To be useful, the assessment interview must not only be reliable but also valid. The conversation you hold in the interview must have a specific and relevant purpose, which then helps to direct the course of the conversation.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: In this paper, the author explains what to assess in an interview and why it is important to assess personal factors whose qualities can be assessed in human beings through an interview determine the general task or purpose of the interview, and not everything that one wants to know about a job candidate can be adequately assessed through the interview.
Abstract: This chapter explains what to assess in an interview. If one is concerned with selection or assessment interviewing, the first thing one must establish is what it is one wants to assess. If the interview is being used to choose a man to be a foreman, then one must ask what are the characteristics of a good foreman in this trade and in this firm. It is no use wasting the time of candidate or interviewer discussing things that have no relevance at all to the job for which the candidate is being considered. The personal factors whose qualities can be assessed in human beings through an interview determine the general task or purpose of the interview. Not everything that one wants to know about a job candidate can be adequately assessed through the interview. The interviewer can expect to obtain most reliable and valid information about the following characteristics of the interviewee: (1) his appearance and general manner, (2) his verbal and other interpersonal skills, (3) some other skills and attainments in areas where the interviewer has special knowledge, (4) his revealed attitudes to jobs, other persons, and his experiences of life, (5) his sociability, interpersonal and social behaviour, (6) limited aspects of his motivational drive and energy, (7) his emotional make-up and possible degree of stability, (8) his personal maturity and clarity of self-image and (9) his aspirations.

Journal Article
TL;DR: Limitations and advantages of using interview data in the selection decision are discussed, and fifteen suggestions are offered for improving the validity and reliability of interview data.
Abstract: Four types of data are commonly considered in selecting applicants for academic programs: 1) test scores; 2) grade-point averages; 3) personal data; and 4) interview results. Limitations and advantages of using interview data in the selection decision are discussed. Fifteen suggestions are offered for improving the validity and reliability of interview data. Strategies for data collection and analysis are suggested for validation studies of selection interviews.

Journal Article
TL;DR: In the process of adapting the German AMDP Psychopathology Scale into French and of analyzing its interrater-reliability, free AMDP interviews were tape-recorded and played back and it became rapidly evident that such interviews are incompatible with a comprehensive and reliable evaluation of psychopathology.
Abstract: In the process of adapting the German AMDP Psychopathology Scale into French and of analyzing its interrater-reliability, free AMDP interviews were tape-recorded and played back. It became rapidly evident that such interviews are incompatible with a comprehensive and reliable evaluation of psychopathology: the collected information is incomplete and variable from one interviewer to the other and even from one interview to the other by the same interviewer, which is particularly invalidating in case of video ratings. The present semi-structured interview is based on 140 videotaped recordings of non-psychiatric patients, of depressives and psychotics. Formulation of questions is seldom imperative; their sequence is only suggested and may be modified according to the interviewer's style and to the patient's pathology. Have been avoided questions too dependent on setting (community, hospital) or likely to disclose the first-interview or retest nature of the recording, thus allowing time-blind evaluations. The mean duration of the interview is 28 mn (less than 30 mn in 70% of the cases) for 126 items.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the background to the interview, the day-to-day contact between appraiser and appraisee and how it affects the success of the interview.
Abstract: Most research on appraisal interviews has dealt with aspects of the interview itself. The study described here investigated the background to the interview — the day‐to‐day contact between appraiser and appraisee and how it affects the success of the interview. From a questionnaire survey of appraiseees, the amount of communication a manager had with his subordinates and his leadership style were related to three outcomes of the appraisal interview. The results obtained are discussed with reference to the most effective and appropriate use for appraisal schemes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An interview with the oldest known living American psychologist is reported in this article, where the interviewee, self-described inventor of shock therapy, who recently had his first article published in an APA journal, was therapist to George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Lizzie Borden and friend to Freud, Thorndike and others.
Abstract: An interview with the oldest known living psychologist, or certainly the oldest known American psychologist is reported. Historical as well as present issues and persons in the domains of psychology are discussed. Although clearly deviating from current psychohistorical method, this approach of a live in‐depth interview with a very old individual would seem to hold promise, and may represent a contribution to the developing field of phenomenological retrospective longitudinal methodology. The interviewee, self‐described inventor of shock therapy, who recently had his first article published in an APA journal, was therapist to George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Lizzie Borden and friend to Freud, Thorndike, and others. His episodic and possibly apocryphal memory is plumbed, and appropriate conclusions left open. His putative historical insights are terminated by the interviewer, and further research is not indicated.

16 Jan 1978
TL;DR: The approach to the survey included a structured questionnaire and direct interview of technician-level MOTD users, which provided valuable input from the user community to the overall NTIPP effort.
Abstract: : This special report documents the NTIPP Fleet Survey of MOTD Users, conducted between 22 October 1976 and 31 December 1976, under the provisions of the above-cited contract number. The approach to the survey included a structured questionnaire and direct interview of technician-level MOTD users. The survey involved a total of 427 respondents. A reasonable stratification of respondents was employed, within the constraints of schedule, costs, and availability of ships and technicians. The survey was limited to shipboard and shore-based elements of the Pacific Fleet. It should be noted that the problems reported herein are based on stated user preferences and as such should be subjected to further analysis and cost effectiveness studies prior to implementation actions. However, the survey provides valuable input from the user community to the overall NTIPP effort. (Author)


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: In fact, the free, easy method working in terms of the Hawthorne rules seems closely akin to modern counselling techniques as mentioned in this paper. But this idea is akin to the old idea of how an assessment interview should be carried on and both fields are vastly different.
Abstract: Publisher Summary There were selection interviews long before there was a study of psychology. In all probability, the first time one man employed another the interview was born. Even assessment interviewing when used in situations other than that required to select one or more candidates for a specific job, loses its basic simplicity. Whereas in selection work, the interviewer has a list of critical requirements directing his attention to certain limited areas; in the case of a vocational guidance interview, he has to find out what are the critical factors in the person who has come for guidance. The manner in which help can best be given depends in part on the nature of the problem presented by the individual seeking help. The popular conception of therapy is probably someone giving advice to someone else. This idea is akin to the old idea of how an assessment interview should be carried on and both fields are vastly different. In fact, the free, easy method working in terms of the Hawthorne rules seems closely akin to modern counselling techniques. Currently, many counsellors adopt a permissive, client-centred, problem-solving attitude. They are prepared to accept the client as he is with all his quirks and foibles and they own that they are not an outside authority applying skills to help a person. It is easy to talk about counselling but far more difficult to practise it. The wise personnel or administrative officer thinks twice before venturing beyond assessment.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the basic principles upon which an interview should be based, a unique type of social transaction, termed a structured exercise in human observation, from the perspective of the physician.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the basic principles upon which an interview should be based. Psychiatric interview is a unique type of social transaction, termed a structured exercise in human observation, from the perspective of the physician. It is a goal-specific transaction, and thus, it should conform to certain guidelines. The goal of the psychiatric interview is to obtain the historical and observational data necessary for the physician to make a diagnosis of the patient's pathological state. Psychiatric disorders can be diagnostically categorized relatively quickly. However, the appreciation of the unique quality of a given patient, which is essential to understanding the forces operating in the development of his illness, is an extensive process requiring patience, empathy, time, and skill. Fundamental attitudes, perspectives, and interview structure help the physician elicit the type of emotional material required to make the diagnosis and promote a therapeutic atmosphere. The ability to listen with an accepting and non-judgmental attitude is paramount. The physician must be prepared to spend as much time as needed to gather the material required to make his diagnosis and establish therapeutic rapport. The importance of the interview setting must be appreciated.