THE IMPACT OF SELF-REGULATORY PROCESSES ON INTERVIEWER EVALUATIONS

Monitoring our thoughts and actions (ie., self-regulatory behavior) ma y prevent us from fully considering how aspects of the situation influ enced or constrained a target person's behavior. In a simulated employ ment interview, 154 participants were asked to perform either the role of an interviewer (high self-regulation condition) or an observer (lo w self-regulation condition). It was hypothesized that participants in the high self-regulation condition would be less likely to incorporat e situational constraint information into their impression of a job ca ndidate than participants low in self-regulation. Results disconfirmed this expectation. Participants high in self-regulation were more like ly to alter their impression of a job candidate to rake into account s ituational constraint information than were those low in self-regulati on. Impression differences occurred despite the fact that both groups showed equivalent recall for situational constraint information. Findi ngs are discussed in terms of how the selection interview might be imp lemented while also taking into account potential self-regulation effe cts.