- Why Did You Choose Psychology As Your Career?
- What Parts of Your Work Do You Enjoy the Most/Least?
- What Do You Think Are the Most Important Qualities and Skills of a Top-Notch Psychologist?
- What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses as a Psychologist?
During your time in the workforce, you might be asked to take a psychological interview. These interviews aren’t intended to discover if you’re crazy or not. They’re intended to help companies build teams of employees with different personality types. They are also intended to help businesses avoid hiring an introvert for a job that requires an extrovert and vice versa.
You might be asked to do a psychological interview with an HR person (not a psychologist or psychiatrist) who will ask you a variety of questions about work situations to find out how you might handle them. Indeed.com provides a variety of sample questions you might expect so you can practice your answers.
During a regular job interview, your questioner might begin a stress interview. He’ll start asking difficult questions, sound slightly accusatory (e.g., “Why didn’t you tell your boss if this was a problem?”), change his body language and try to make you squirm. This is often something interviewers do with management candidates to see how they react under pressure.
Don’t take it personally if this starts to happen during your interview, and don’t panic. Take a deep breath, pause, look the interviewer in the eye and start to deliver your answer. If you can spot a stress interview happening, you’re less likely to panic, give defensive answers, forget what you need to say and literally start to sweat.
If you’ve been with an employer recently and you have been acting differently, they might suggest you to sit for a psychological interview to gauge your mental health. This might simply mean that they want to find out if a high-powered executive is working too hard and is starting to stress out, or if a staff-level employee is struggling to deal with the loss of a family member or might have a substance abuse problem.
If you and another applicant are competing for the same job, she might give answers quite different from the ones you give, and yet, you both gave the “right” answers to the psychological interview questions. That’s because you might be an extrovert who likes to work with people, make presentations and be part of social activities. Your competitor might like to work with little supervision, is comfortable working from home and prefers email and texting to phone calls and in-person meetings.
If your answers identify you as an extrovert and hers identify her as an introvert, you both gave the “right” answers because they let the interview see your true personalities. Be careful that you don’t read test questions and think too much. “I think they want me to answer this way,” can cause you to provide a mix of answers that make you look like you’re all over the place mentally.
The optimal night of sleep occurs when you are able to get approximately seven to nine hours of deep, restful sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. This means you fall asleep and don’t keep waking up. This allows you to go through rapid eye movement and non-REM cycles three to four times during the night.
Steve Milano is a journalist and business executive/consultant. He has helped dozens of for-profit companies and nonprofits with their marketing and operations. Steve has written more than 8,000 articles during his career, focusing on small business, careers, personal finance and health and fitness. Steve also turned his tennis hobby into a career, coaching, writing, running nonprofits and conducting workshops around the globe.
PSYCHOLOGIST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS! | (How to PASS a Psychology Job Interview!)
Tips for psychological interviews
Use these tips to help you prepare for and succeed during a psychological interview:
Are there any behaviors that irritate you?
Everyone has their personal tastes and preferences. Hiring managers want to ensure you not only have the appropriate professional skills, training and experience to handle the work-related tasks of the position for which youre applying, but that youre also a good fit for the companys culture. When you answer this question, be honest, but also provide the coping mechanisms you have to manage your irritation.
Hiring managers understand that youre not going to agree or like everything that everyone does all the time, but they want to make sure youre able to manage irritation in a healthy and productive manner. Consider this example answer to help you prepare your own:
Example: “I once worked in an office where a colleague a few cubicles down would trim their fingernails at their desk. I hated the sound of the nail clippers, so when I heard it, I would just put my headphones on and listen to some music while I worked. I think everyone gets bothered by other peoples behaviors occasionally, but its all about how you respond to those triggers. Whenever I can, I just remove myself from those situations or, if necessary, have a polite conversation with the other person to find a compromise that suits both of us.”
What would you do if you disagreed with a decision made by your supervisor?
With varying points of view and different work methods, some interpersonal conflict at work is normal and expected. Hiring managers like to ask how you might handle a hypothetical disagreement to see if you have the appropriate conflict resolution and interpersonal skills to manage normal workplace challenges. In your answer, be sure to highlight the action steps you would take to resolve the conflict to show you have these skills. Use this example answer as a guide:
Example: “I think my response, if I disagreed with my supervisors actions, would depend on the specifics of the situation. For example, if my supervisor made a decision that directly impacted my work that didnt make sense to me, I would likely approach them to get more information and share my concerns. If their actions were unrelated to my direct work, Id do my best to respect their decision and focus on my tasks and the actions I have control over.”
The Most Important thing to Keep in Mind During an Interview
The purpose of an interview is not just to attest to someone’s technical knowledge, but rather to see whether a candidate will be the right fight for a particular organisation. This is usually done on the basis of understanding what a candidate’s internal disposition is – how they process the world, what they are good at and what they are bad at doing, what inspires and what motivates them are all factors to be considered.
Depending upon particular contexts, these factors maybe even more important than technical knowledge! After all, if a person’s job role is that of a psychologist in a hospital, they also have to understand the structures of a hospital and how to work through them. If they’re always rebelling against institutions themselves, then that won’t be an ideal fit for a hospital, no matter how technically sound a particular candidate is.
Similarly, if a person is applying for a position at a recovery centre, and they are able to build a rapport with all the clients there such that they can trust the candidate, they will be a better selection than somebody else who may have a great amount of theoretical knowledge but cannot create a relationship with the clients, since that’s the most important of their work. Basically, contextual relevance is appreciated over theoretical accuracy in the absence of a context.
What kind of jobs are these questions for? Are they for a specific profile only?
Well, the answer to the question posed above is both a yes and a no. The specificity of the profile goes only so far as a psychological role is concerned – it can range anywhere between a school counsellor position or one for a forensic psychologist. But ultimately, it’s the disposition of the interviewee that matters more than anything else.
Also, we won’t be covering questions that are specifically technically linked to a certain job role, since it won’t be simply possible to cover all of the – psychology is a vast field, and including questions from all the sub-fields and disciplines will not be a practical undertaking. The majority of our questions will deal with projecting the right kind of attitude that will get a candidate selected and provide them insight into the selection criteria.
7 personality questions to ask your candidates:
This question will reveal how adaptable/creative your candidate is. Can they think outside of the box when necessary, or do they get stuck on best practices even when they aren’t working?
Remember, there are some roles where creativity and adaptability are important, and other roles that just don’t really leave much room for innovation. There’s nothing wrong with either, just don’t get hung up on a characteristic that may not be essential for a position.
Common Psychology Interview Questions & Answers
1. “Tell us Something About Yourself”
With this question, which is really more of an introductory statement, it’s important to keep in mind that you need to be succinct with your response. Of course, you can use this question as a springboard to go into your hobbies or your early childhood, but a smart interviewee would take this opportunity to introduce their professional interests and then dovetail into an explanation of why they are where they are.
For example, a good answer is: “I used to read a lot of books as a child, and always wondered why people would behave the way they did. And that’s why I decided to study psychology and apply for a job here!”
2. “What Sort of Impact are you Looking to Make Here and How Will you Make it?”
This is one of the most common questions that interviewers like to spring on potential candidates. This assesses a person’s context-readiness as well as their proactiveness. Impact-driven people are often associated with leading and furthering great progress and change. This is a great opportunity for you to layout exactly what constitutes impact for you.
Here you must do your best to convey to the potential employers that you want what’s best for the organization. In fact, you can even ask them what their ideas are in terms of creating impact, and that you would love to join them in their mission through your ideas as well!
A good answer to this question is: “I think the impact can only be achieved through scale, but the scale is completely pointless if there is no quality. Therefore, I want to tow the thin line between scale and quality, and make sure that we can achieve both! Having said this, I was wondering what your thoughts on impact are – perhaps I can learn something from your many years of experience in the field.”
3. “Why did you Study Psychology – and What Was your Area of Focus?”
This question gives you the space to share your thoughts about the field itself as a whole. Here, it is best to be honest, considering that you’ll probably have a strong motivation; after all, psychology is usually one of the fields that attract people with conviction. That being said, as you elaborate on your area of focus, it’ll be very revealing of your nature if you can tie it in with what convinced you to study psychology in the first place.
If there’s no tenable link between the two, and if you discovered your passion as you started studying psychology, then it’s a separate matter. But you must pay attention to the links as they do exist – that part is definitely important.
A sample answer that is effective is: “I started studying psychology because I often wondered why I remembered some things so vividly while I forgot other things completely. This is also why I studied human memory closely because I wanted to examine what makes memories, and how our memories, in turn, create us.”
4. “What are your Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses?”
All questions about strengths and weaknesses are really less about a person’s actual strengths and weaknesses than they care about that person’s ability to recognize them. If you are successfully able to articulate your thoughts regarding the things you are good (or bad) at doing, then you will already have gained standing with your potential employers, because nobody wants to work with people who don’t understand themselves and the effect they have on others.
Here, the best strategy will be to tie in some possible outcomes based on your strengths and weaknesses, further displaying your ability to think through and work in various contexts.
A good answer would be: “I’m very effective at communication, so I can handle sensitive information and announce that to people very well. However, I’m very bad at giving direct instructions, because I like giving people the freedom to do work as they want to approach it. So, I will be great at managing people, but not micro-managing them.”
5. “Would you describe yourself as an Effective Communicator?”
The essence of communication comes down to understanding not just what to say, but how to say it in the way that it reaches the person to whom it is being said. If you can do this, you can call yourself an effective communicator. But when it comes to expressing this sentiment in an answer, the best way to lead is to mention that you won’t exactly know this answer, because it will be determined by the persons to whom you will be communicating.
An effective answer is: “Yes, I’m an effective communicator because I can convey my expectations from another person to them in a way that they understand. Beyond this, however, only the people I talk to will be able to determine whether I’m an effective communicator.”
6. “What are your Long-Term Plans?”
While this has long been a staple question for most interviews, things have recently changed significantly, owing to the post-pandemic work scenario. No longer can people answer what their long term plans are – especially at a time when the whole concept of plans seems to be so alien.
So the best approach to take here is, to be honest about your future: you will know your plans best, and nobody else can determine them for you. As long as you can express yourself clearly to your future employer, you can make sure that they will consider you to be a viable candidate.
An example answer is: “I don’t have any long term plans at the moment. I want to grow in this particular role, and if I like the direction I’m going in, I will continue to pursue it!”
7. “Are you good at Conflict-Resolution?”
A lot of potential employers look at your ability to resolve conflicts because it allows them to assess how good you are juggling multiple stakeholders. Generally speaking, this is a role that pays its dividends the higher your move in life. There are no specific ways to approach answering this question – if you’ve done this before, clearly state out the conditions in which this happened. If you haven’t, articulate that you will be able to do this in the future if required.
A good answer is: “Yes, I’ve done this before at [insert historical instance]” or “Although I haven’t done this explicitly before, I’m sure I’ll be able to manage this in case it’s required of me.”
8. “What Made you Apply for this Position?”
Here too, the question assesses how you’ve approached the organization and will continue to work with them in the long run. It’s generally a good rule of thumb not to say that you’re not interested just for the money, even though the money is an important part of the equation – this is usually the case for most people.
But beyond this, you also need to stress that you’re a driven and motivated individual who wants to do the job because they resonate with its mission, or because you believe in the work and think that it’s important. It’s better to come clear with this right at the start since there will be moments when things become tough – and at that point, internal motivation will become really important.
A great answer for this question would be: “I think this role contributes greatly to society, and personally, I find this job role to be an exciting and promising one, not just in terms of work but also in terms of future growth.”
9. “Why should we select you over any other qualified candidate?”
This is a question that can go both ways: if you’ve given a decent answer, then you’ll be selected. However, if you say something untoward or unprofessional, then there’s a chance this question can break the whole job interview for you. The wisest thing to do here would be to play to your strengths and to draw from past experiences that highlight unique skills that others will most likely not have.
A good answer will be: “Because I played sports at a regional level, I know all about handling pressure and performing consistently at all times. Others, no matter from which field, are unlikely to have experience of this nature.”
10. “Do you have any questions for us?”
Here is a question where you can really let go and ask away to your heart’s content! This may be one of the most important questions since it asks you to engage with your potential employers, and the more engaged you are, the better you will be in their evaluation sheets! Engaged people are always on top of their game, no matter which field they’re in – and they’re also the most successful, so make sure to highlight your eagerness in working with them in your questions to them.
There is no correct way to approach this – all questions are good questions!
Don’t present your best self – present your most inquisitive and dedicated self
Interviews are always tough to crack, but don’t lose heart! No matter what happens, always present your most inquisitive and dedicated self, because regardless of the exact position you’ve applied for, these qualities often do very well in any sphere of work, and at any level.
Besides, the more experienced you get, the easier interviews become, because you have an understanding of what your potential employer is looking for in a candidate – and then the conversation can be very simple. With that said, all the best for the future ahead! With these psychology interview questions and answers, there’s no doubt that you’ll do really well. Want to share this article?
FAQ
What is psychological assessment interview?
How do you prepare for a psychological interview?
- Prepare in advance. The best way to show confidence during a psychological interview is to prepare for potential questions in advance. …
- Be honest. Keep your answers honest in your interview. …
- Know the goal. …
- Highlight your experience. …
- Stay calm.
What are the top 10 behavioral questions in an interview?
- How do you handle a challenge? …
- Can you work effectively under pressure? …
- How do you set goals?
- Can you handle criticism?
- How do you handle a mistake pointed out to you? …
- What’s your ideal approach if you disagree with someone at work?
