Biographical evaluation

Biographical evaluation is an assessment of a person using information about their life history, experiences, and personal circumstances. It can inform judgments about suitability, development, or support needs.

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Employment interview: A structured or informal conversation used to assess a candidate's suitability for a job. Interviewers may ask about past experiences to infer job-related skills and behavior.
Biographical data: Information about a person's life, including education, work, experiences, and circumstances. These are the materials an evaluator organizes and interprets.
Psychometric testing: The measurement of psychological traits or abilities using standardized tests. It relies on test scores rather than primarily interpreting life history.
Predictive validity: The degree to which an assessment predicts a relevant future outcome. It tests whether biographical evidence actually forecasts later performance or success.
Life history interview: An interview method that elicits a person's account of significant experiences across their life. It gathers the detailed personal narrative that biographical evaluation can interpret.
Structured interview: An interview that asks candidates the same planned questions in a consistent order. Standardized questions make biographical accounts easier to compare fairly.
Situational judgment test: An assessment that asks people how they would respond to hypothetical work or social situations. It samples responses to imagined situations instead of relying on past biography.
Adverse impact: A substantially different selection rate for a protected group compared with another group. Using life history can disadvantage groups whose opportunities and experiences differ systematically.
Career counseling: Guidance that helps people make educational and occupational decisions. Counselors use a person's past choices, experiences, and circumstances to inform future options.
Behavioral interview: An interview technique that asks people to describe how they acted in specific past situations. Past actions are treated as evidence about skills and likely future behavior.