Welcome to the Guelph Selection Lab!
Dr. Deborah Powell
I am a Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Guelph. I received my BA from Queen’s University and my MA and PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Western Ontario.
The Guelph Selection Lab
The research in the Guelph Selection Lab is focused on fair and valid hiring practices, including interviews, personality assessments , and other selection methods. I am particularly interested in how job applicants behave in the interview (e.g., using impression management, or dealing with feeling anxious) and how those behaviours affect their performance in the interview. I am also interested in how organizations can improve their selection practices to optimize the applicants’ experience throughout the selection process (e.g., so applicants feel less anxious, and are able to demonstrate their job-relevant skills).
I am also current the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Personnel Psychology.
Recent Research Projects:
The benefits of adding follow-up questions to asynchronous video interviews (based on Rahul Patel’s Master’s thesis)
The impact of anxious nonverbal behaviour on interview ratings (based on Simonne Mastrella’s Master’s thesis)
The effects of having a messy (vs clean) background in video interviews (based on the honours thesis projects of Maria Kavanagh, Bethany Wiseman and Audrey Hodgins)
Contact and Involvement
Dr. Powell has an amazing team of graduate students (MA and PhD). If you are interested in doing graduate work in I-O Psychology under her supervision, please contact her at dpowell@uoguelph.ca.