The Behavioral Event Interview

History of BEI
Evolved from Critical Incident Method
originally proposed by J Flanagan in 1954.
McClelland combined Critical Incident Method
and Thematic Apperception Test to create BEI
McClelland analyzed the BEI transcripts with
CAVE (Content Analysis of Verbal
Expression)
BEI for assessment was a development of
McBer and Company.
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What is a BEI?
A procedure for collecting direct
observation of human behavior through
the process of recording the the actors
narration of a critical event.
Event is an observable human activity
sufficiently complete in itself to permit
inferences and predictions about the
person performing the act.
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Critical Event
Critical event is an occurrence in a
situation where the purposes and the
intent of the action is reasonably clear
to the interviewer, and the event results
in a definite outcome.

Elements of a Behavioral Event

Interview

Introduction
Trigger
Event
Event structure
Probing and details
of the event
Closure of the interview
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Introduction of the Interview

(preparing the candidate)
Develop rapport with the interviewee.
Clear the purpose of the interview.
This is done to reduce the anxiety of the
interviewee and make the interviewee
comfortable.

What is a trigger?
The trigger is a
question which is referenced to what the
person does at work and seeks to elicit
from the interviewee evidence of the
behavior in context that the interviewer
is looking for.

Trigger

The trigger is to help the interviewee

to recall a critical event.

Some Examples of Triggers

Think of a time when you achieved some
thing significant and challenging on your own.
.
Think of a time when you did something well
despite encountering difficulties.
.
Think of a time when you were called upon to
work in a team and you performed well.
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Structure of the Event

The event must have a beginning and
an end.
The event is divided into two or more
significant stages. (Usually four or five
maximum).
Stages are chronological.
Each stage is sequentially probed for in
context behavior or target data.
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Probing
Probing is the method of eliciting details
from the interviewee of all that he did, said,
felt or thought during the Event.
A leading question is one that directs the
interviewee to a particular topic or desired
response. In other words the desired
answer is in the question itself.

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Some Valid probes

What were you thinking at that
time?
What were you feeling at that time?
What exactly was the sequence of
your thoughts?
What was the key thing you did?
What was your role in this?
Who else was involved in this?
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Avoid Leading Qs
You must have found this task difficult,
tell me how difficult was it?
Did you find the task challenging?
Your boss must have appreciated your
performance, could you recount what
exactly he said to you?

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Closure
To give an opportunity to the interviewee to
add any other data related to the event
which may be important but has been
missed in his narration.
The closure of the interview is to thank the
interviewee for giving the information.

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