A Markov analysis of interview communication

This study focused on patterns of verbal behavior embedded in the interview process rather than on externalfactors as predictors of outcome. A Markov model was used to map the relationships between interviewer styles, time, and patterns of communication. Each interview was conceptualized as a system, and the categories of verbal behavior were treated as the finite number of states the system could ocupy. Thirteen‐state and three‐state models of the interview systems were constructed which displayed both state probabilities and transition probabilities of the system's states. The basic finding was that although each interview system had different probability structures, the structure of any one system was quite stable over time.