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Abstract
Individual psychological assessment is a widely practiced employment selection procedure that is still not fully understood from a scientific perspective, despite a longstanding desire in the field to better understand how assessors integrate data and arrive at conclusions about candidates. The current study employed a combination of cognitive interviews with assessors and correlational analysis of archival assessment data to explore these questions. We conclude that assessors integrate data holistically, intuitively, and configurally, as they were often unable to isolate the impact of any particular data point on their judgments without relating it to other data points. We also find that there is some risk of confirmation bias when assessors use pre-interview data to plan their interview questions or approach. However, the interview plays a stronger role in influencing assessors’ conclusions than other sources of assessment data, and perhaps because of this, assessors do update their interpretation of pre-interview data based on contradictory information obtained in the interview. Associated recommendations for research and practice are discussed.
