Subject and interviewer determinants of the adequacy of the dynamic interview.

The dynamic interview is widely used in clinical and research settings, but factors associated with an adequate dynamic interview have not been systematically studied. Twenty-six subjects had a median of 3 dynamic interviews at least 6 months apart, conducted by 13 clinician interviewers. We examined the resulting 72 videotaped interviews for predictors of dynamic interview adequacy. Overall Dynamic Interview Adequacy was not explained by subject, occasion, or interviewer, per se, although significant negative effects were found for personality disorder and borderline personality scores and diagnoses of major depression and dysthymia, and positive effects for interviewer experience. Dynamic adequacy was related to overall breadth and depth of topic coverage (R2 = 0.424). However, in stepwise multiple linear regression, 5 therapeutic alliance factors together contributed an R2 = 0.768, diminishing the effect of topic coverage. Adequate dynamic interviews established a positive subject-interviewer interaction, facilitated subject exploration, and minimized technical interviewing errors, thereby yielding sufficient topic coverage.