Biographical questionnaire
Biographical questionnaires are used for the standardized recording of "verifiable objective or subjective information and assessments of past, present and future characteristics of life history". One also speaks of so-called "L data" (life record data). They are mainly used in the context of psychological diagnostics , especially for questions relating to clinical psychology or personnel psychology . This standardized documentation can be used to prepare for discussions (e.g. exploration ). On the other hand, the questionnaire data can also be evaluated and assessed directly (e.g. frequency and exposure to critical life events). The standardized recording of biographical data is also a prerequisite for establishing comparability for research questions, for example in ( research on the effects of critical life events ).
Biographical questionnaire
The basis of the biographical questionnaire is based on the assumption that future behavior and future professional success can be predicted from past behavior and past professional success. The content of the biographical questionnaire is a standardized self-description. In contrast to personality tests, the answers to the questions can in principle be checked. In addition, the biographical questionnaire is divided into two components:
- Things that happened to a person on the part of others (teachers, parents, employers, etc.), and
- the (“life”) experiences that the person himself has had.
findings
Systematic recording and empirical weighting of the personal development data as well as previous professional experience and career development made it possible to improve the evaluation and selection processes. Furthermore, conclusions about future performance and training success can be drawn from the criteria of the biographical questionnaire and thus contribute to the early recognition of talents.
Selection and weighting of the bio items
In the following the basic pattern for the selection and weighting of biological data items is illustrated.
- A corresponding criterion (e.g. skills, performance, length of stay in the organization, etc.)
- An identification of criteria groups (e.g. people with good or bad performance)
- A selection of the items of the personnel questionnaire to be analyzed
- A specification of the categories for the item responses that should be analyzed
- Determination of the weightings for the items and the scoring weighting for each individual answer
- In addition, the weightings are applied to a cross-validation group and the total scores are correlated with the respective criteria
- A list of cutting scores for the selection decision
These seven steps are the basis for developing a biodata questionnaire, but they only reflect a very general procedure.
Examples of biographical items
- Personal information such as: age, marital status
- School education: the type of school education, degrees, popular subjects, grades
- Socio-economic / financial status: regular current expenses, debts, home ownership, expected income
- Interests: Hobbies, sports activities, important leisure activities, preference for work inside or outside of buildings
- General background information: own occupation, military service / rank
- Work experience: previous positions / number of previous occupations, permanent position, reason for termination
- Personal characteristics / attitude: Consent to be transferred to other places, self-confidence, central basic needs that have to be met, work and employment that are preferred
The three different approaches of the biodata questionnaire
The development of a biodata questionnaire is based on three different basic approaches.
The empirical approach
The empirical approach is both the oldest and, in practice, probably the most frequently used scoring technique for validating “biodata”. This approach is not based on any theory of the relationships between the items and the respective criterion. A questionnaire item is used as long as it contributes to the prediction. The responses are simply weighted to maximize the predictability of a criterion. The items on the questionnaire are weighted with regard to their ability to differentiate between different groups of criteria. Items that are highly discriminatory are therefore given a strong weighting. The simplest procedure for this is the so-called horizontal percentage method. In this method, a response is weighted proportionally to the probability of success associated with it.
Subgroup technique and assessment classification model
The subgroup technique is a model which aims to improve the prediction of work behavior by recognizing subgroups of people for whom different predictors allow better applicability. This can also be done using biodata. In this case, sub-groups are formed in such a way that people who have similar background patterns ((behavior) patterns, (thinking) patterns) (e.g. professional or life experiences) are grouped together. The biodata sheet is factored and each person receives a component score for each dimension. People who have similar profiles then each form a subgroup. The method of classifying people on the basis of biodata aims to achieve a suitable match between people and different types of work areas.
This principle usually follows the following three steps:
- Formation of the biodata subgroup
- Formation of families of work tasks or occupations
- Analysis of Relationships
Rational approach
The rational approach is a theory-accompanying approach and is important because the empirical method can prove validity, but often no relevance to the work to be carried out is recognizable for many items. An empirical approach helps in predicting future work behavior and is also easy to use in practice, but it does little to improve the scientific understanding of the relationships at hand.
In contrast to the empirical approach, the rational approach tries to quantify compositions of items (groups or clusters of biodata items) based on a thorough work analysis, which measure an interpretable set of constructs. It is important that the items in the bio questionnaire match the skills, knowledge and ability of the job description. A typical approach is the factor analysis method.
The advantages of biographical questionnaires
Arguments in favor of the biodata questionnaire:
- Easy access to biographical information which shows a considerable "face" validity. Research has shown that previous work behavior is a good predictor of future behavior.
Biodata have quite considerable values in the validity range .30 to .50
- The self-report questions of a biodata questionnaire penetrate less into the personality sphere than is often the case with questions from formal tests.
- With regard to tests of professional aptitude and training ability, the forecasts are well suited.
- Biodata questionnaires are tailored to specific application situations. This has a positive influence on their validities.
The disadvantages of biographical questionnaires
Even if the approach of the biographical questionnaire offers a number of advantages in personnel decisions, some disadvantages must also be mentioned at this point. The advantage of the specific applicability of the biodata questionnaire is offset by the disadvantage of its limited applicability. Because a separate questionnaire must be constructed for each target position. Furthermore, the questions often cover too narrow a spectrum of a person's existing and potential skills and development opportunities. Another problem is the potential falsification of the answers. In the case of biodata, a distinction must be made between verifiable (“hard”) items, such as B. Employment records, salary or marriage status, and the non-verifiable ("soft") items such as opinions or attitudes are differentiated.
literature
- H. Schuler, U. Funke: Diagnosis of occupational suitability and achievement. In: H. Schuler (Ed.): Textbook Organizational Psychology. Huber, Bern 1993, pp. 235-285.
- AM Owens: The effects of question generation, question answering, and reading on prose learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Oregon, 1976.
- BYL Wong: Self-questioning instructional research: A Review. In: Review of Educational Research. 55, 1985, pp. 227-268.
- Bruce Stokes: Trade Deal Heads Down a Shaky Track. In: National Journal. 26 (48), 1994, pp. 2784-2785.
- AB Weinert: Organizational Psychology. 4th edition. Psychologie Verlags Union, Weinheim 2001.
- AB Weinert: Organizational and Personal Psychology. 5th edition. Beltz PVU, Weinheim 2004.
- RM Guion: Psychological testing. Mc-Graw-Hill, New York 1965.
- H. Schuler, B. Marcus: Biography-oriented methods of personnel selection. In: H. Schuler (Ed.): Textbook of Personal Psychology. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2001.
- H. Schuler, D. Frier, M. Kauffmann: Personnel selection in a European comparison. Verlag für Angewandte Psychologie, Göttingen 1993.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Biographical questionnaire in DORSCH Lexicon of Psychology
- ↑ L-Daten DORSCH Lexicon of Psychology in the System of Data Classification according to RBCattell