The impact of individual differences on investigative interviewing performance: a test of the police interviewing competencies inventory and the five factor model

ABSTRACT

We examined whether and how individual differences impact investigative interviewing performance by using the Police Interviewing Competencies Inventory (PICI) and the Five Factor Model (FFM) in a two-step research design. In Study 1, the structure of a modified version of the PICI was assessed using a general population sample (N = 300) and a four-dimensional aptitudes scale was created. In Study 2, student participants (N = 154) completed the aptitudes and the FFM scales, and then interviewed witnesses who watched a mock robbery crime video. Interviewer performance was assessed based on the amount of details they could elicit, the perception of the witness, and researcher ratings of behaviours and question usage. Three dimensions of the FFM were correlated with the success measures: Agreeableness with witness perception and appropriate questioning, Extraversion with researcher ratings and inappropriate questioning, and Openness with researcher ratings. Only the Communicative-Insisting dimension of the aptitudes scale predicted high researcher ratings. Findings might help police departments to identify potential successful interviewers.

KEYWORDS:

• Investigative interviewing
• aptitudes
• personality
• Big Five
• interview success

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Katrina-ray Villeneuve, Monika Szota, Robert O’donnell, Hamdi Jimale, and Amanda Whan for their assistance in completing this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The term ‘aptitude’ is preferred in this study to refer the innate characteristics of the interviewers instead of ‘competency’ which was used by DeFruyt et al. (2006). Although these two concepts are sometimes used interchangeably in the literature, ‘aptitude’ is preferred more often to refer to innate abilities and the ability to learn, whereas ‘competency’ is frequently used in reference to the abilities that can be developed through education or training (Hoekstra & Van Sluijs, 2003; Kurke & Gettys, 1995; Tracey, 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Davut Akca

Davut Akca is a fourth-year PhD student in the Forensic Psychology program at Ontario Tech University and studying on the relationship between personality traits and interviewing success of police officers under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Eastwood. He completed his B.A. degree in the Turkish Police Academy. After working for five years in the Turkish National Police he received his M.A. in Criminology at Ontario Tech University. His master’s thesis was on the spatial influence of risk factors behind open-air drug markets..

Joseph Eastwood

Joseph Eastwood is an Associate Professor in the Forensic Psychology program at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ontario. He completed his Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology at Memorial University in 2011, and joined UOIT in a tenure-track position in 2013. His research focuses on the area of investigative interviewing, including studies looking at comprehension of interrogation rights, the generation and assessment of alibis, and improving recall from interviewees through memory-enhancing procedures.