Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
THE EFFECTS OF INTERVIEWEES' NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR ON INTERVIEWERS' EVALUATIONS DURING A SELECTION INTERVIEW
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there is a significant effect on recruiters' decisions to invite a candidate for a second interview as determined by the impact of selected nonverbal behaviors on interviewee characteristics during the selection interview. The subjects for this study included forty representatives from business and industry who recruited students during the fall of 1982 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Each representative viewed one of four videotaped selection interviews. In each of these structured interviews the sex of the interviewee and nonverbal behavior were varied while verbal content was held constant. The "high nonverbal" interviewee was defined as having good eye contact, a high energy level, appropriate affect, speech fluency, and a minimum of speech disturbances. The "low nonverbal" interviewee demonstrated behaviors that were the opposite on each of these components. The videotaped candidates were evaluated on ten global characteristics by the subjects four times during the sixteen minute interview. Results of this study indicated that nonverbal behavior was a principal factor underlying the interviewers' ratings of applicants' characteristics. Nonverbal behavior affected ratings of all ten characteristics at the .01 level of significance. The high intercorrelations (.80s and .90s) between all characteristics after the first vignette suggests that recruiters may have viewed characteristics in a wholistic manner and not as distinct entities. No significant differences in recruiters' ratings of the two sexes were observed. However, significant differences were observed in a recruiter's ratings of the high and low nonverbal videotaped candidates. Multiple regression and analysis of variance techniques demonstrated that the subjects rated such characteristics as "Enthusiasm/Motivation," "Persuasiveness," "Pleasant Personality," and "Confidence in Self" as being most important of the ten global characteristics under consideration for the composite rating. This study indicates that recruiters consider nonverbal behavior as a major factor in their ratings of applicants. College placement counselors, therefore, should provide assistance to applicants in developing appropriate nonverbal behaviors.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education
Recommended Citation
HOLMES, JOHN LESLIE, "THE EFFECTS OF INTERVIEWEES' NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR ON INTERVIEWERS' EVALUATIONS DURING A SELECTION INTERVIEW" (1983). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8318659.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8318659