Questions about the oral pysc.

[timmay56]

Just wondreing if anyone out there can give me an idea on what kind of questions they ask you at your psyc. interview. Some people have failed this test, and I just can't imangine how. I know I am not crazy, and I know this is truely the career for me, but what could get me DQed at this portion of the testing process? Any info would help. Thanks again!

[TheForceCHP]

i am also interested in this. my BI was telling me that a lot of people are failing this part and didn't know why

[retchp]

Take 'fer instance a guy whose every post is about a CHP shooting or some other mayhem or violence. Visualize him sitting at his computer with his pants around his ankles surfing the net for "bad shit". Picture him at a psych interview expounding on a criminal under evey bush and our civilization's only hope him, fully armed and ever vigilant against this creeping criminal menace...There you have in a nut shell how to blow the psych.
If you fit this profile be forewarned.

[TheForceCHP]

lol, i knew that i was ok, but after reading that i feel even better about myself:lol:

do you know if they might treat me a little different because i am a Sociologist and thus have taken many psychology classes? i am looking forward to it for this reason because i hope to learn a lot from it. as it is i thought the written psych was funny because i knew what a lot of the questions where getting at

[bcjack]

retchp:

All of that stuff about bad guys under every bush was not true????:shock:

[Cameron]

retchp, you do have a way with words. haha.

[timmay56]

Not to sound like a jerk but, kind of not the info. I was hoping for. I don't think I made it out to sound like a joke.

[makakona]

my father-in-law was injured on the job after several years in the chp. when he was going through whatever the process is to be reinstated (he worked for the irs after he was injured, ha!), he failed the psych! go figure! he always said he had no idea why or how he failed it... but he did go on to do, gosh, 26 years? something like that...

[BoySergeant]

Just wondreing if anyone out there can give me an idea on what kind of questions they ask you at your psyc. interview. Some people have failed this test, and I just can't imangine how. I know I am not crazy, and I know this is truely the career for me, but what could get me DQed at this portion of the testing process? Any info would help. Thanks again!

I've been through several psychological interviews when I applied to various agencies... they were all different. I think you're going to have to find out for yourself. I nearly got DQ'd in one of my interviews... the psychologist told me he wanted to DQ me because I was "too smart" (don't laugh) to be a cop. He told me he would be doing me a favor. I then spent the next few minutes explaining to him why I had chosen this career path, what I had done to prepare myself, and how important it was for me to be successful. When I thought about it after the interview, I felt he came up with an ingenious way to find out why I wanted to be a cop when faced with the possibility of not being successful. In this, my answers came from the heart. Be confident, not cocky, honest and truthful. Think before you answer.

[timmay56]

Thank you for the info. I truely believe the C.H.P is for me, I just dont want some Doctor who doesn't even know me to be my judgment call.

[Fire1]

I'm with Timmay here on this one. I have my oral on Monday and it would really suck to get dropped this late in the game. I don't like it that so much is riding on an interview that is so subjective (now I know that the QAP is just as subjective but at least with that you know what to expect). I just don't want to go in there and say something "wrong" and get the boot because some shrink thinks I'm not cut out for it. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I am just hoping the fate my future is not in the hands (or mind :neutral: ) of some psychologist.

[retchp]

OK, in all seriousness, you cannot "prepare" for a psych interview. As stated above, just be yourself. And as I stated (I thought humorously) above, don't come across as a paranoid black helicopter type or they will weed you right out. They are qualified to have a look at applicants from a psychological angle. If you are the type of person who should not be in LE it will shine right through to someone trained to look for it. It is not really a reflection on you as a person if you "fail" the psyche. It just means that at this time you are probably not cut out for this type of work. For example, I after many years in law enforcement am probably not cut out for let's say a job requiring me to interact favorably with a criminal clientelle at say a halfway house or some other social service type of setting. If I took a psyche for some job like that, I might get DQed. I am still not a bad person, just not what they are looking for.
I do agree that it does suck a little and it is a lot of power for someone who doesn't really know you to have over you, but if there was not something to be gained by the Department from this type of thing in the overall process, it would have been successfully challenged years ago.
How about some help here from someone on the board who has some background in the written and interview type of psychological testing current being used?
And as BoySergeant writes:
my answers came from the heart. Be confident, not cocky, honest and truthful. Think before you answer.
That is probably the best way to handle it, particularly the part about thinking before you answer, just don't try to overthink and/or outwit the professional...you can't.

[BoySergeant]

Thank you for the info. I truely believe the C.H.P is for me, I just dont want some Doctor who doesn't even know me to be my judgment call.

Look on the bright side, even if you get DQ'd, you can appeal the decision. Nothing is final... anything worth having is worth fighting for.

[timmay56]

FIRE how long did you have to wait before you got your appt. for the psyc? I took my medical two weeks ago, the Doctor said everything looks good but I am still waiting to get an appt.

[Fire1]

I had my medical on Feb 10. Things would have been fine had the doctors office not screwed up and not indicated that I was 20/20 vision (I had my glassed with me and I asked them if I should do the vision test with them and they said no). So two weeks later I get a letter saying that they need proof from an optometrist that my vision was ok. Once that was faxed in, I ran into a snag with the pysch board because they needed some other documents from a doc back in TN (school related counseling, but I had checked the counseling box in the PHQ so they needed the history from the school. I wish they would indicate that if you check that box to be prepared to provide documentation). Well the documents got lost in the mail, so I had to have them faxed. One the psych doc reviewed them they set me up with an interview on Monday (I called on Thurs Mar 23). It took about a week total for them to review everything onne they had everything they needed and to set it up. So, my short answer would be 6 weeks, but that is not really accurate. If it had not been for the snail mail and the other problems, I could have been in the March 6 class. I would go ahead and give them a call. Although their message says for canidates not to leave a message, if you get to talk to a real person they are really helpful. They guy I talked to last was really understanding and worked hard to find out what the hold up was. If I had not kept hounding them, it very well could have been another 3 weeks or more in waiting. Best of luck to you Timmay and everyone else almost there. Hope to see you all in May.

[pupdog]

I'm glad to see in a post that every department does things differently. For example, I went into my background interview thinking it would be like the one I did with another department. It was nothing like that other department, and I was a bit stressed over this (as all applicants want things to go according to plan!). But it's calming to remember that CHP has sucessfully hired over 18,000 officers over the course of 75+ years. That's a lot of time to perfect the methods!

The psych I did for this other department was just being asked the same questions I'd been asked before. Guess they look for consistency. For the CHP psych, I wonder if I blew it on the MMPI. On one of those repeated subjects (dancing), I wished I could ask somebody if they mean artistic or nightclub boogy (being that there were several questions about 'parties' too). I adore artistic, and nightclub boogie makes me wanna hurl. I decided, in the name of all the advice not to 2nd guess the test, the best thing to do was go with whatever came to mind when I read the question, and if asked at the psych interview, explain the inconsistencies!

[retchp]

Good advice Pup...JFYI when my son was undergoing the process he told the psych something along the lines of he felt he "saw things that others did not see". He meant it to mean that he was highly observant. They took it to mean the he "saw things that were not there". Created a small bump until he explained it further when they asked. He got on no problem and has had a very successful career to date...almost five years...how time flies. Just think about what you are saying as BoySgt. advised.

[TheForceCHP]

Good advice Pup...JFYI when my son was undergoing the process he told the psych something along the lines of he felt he "saw things that others did not see". He meant it to mean that he was highly observant. They took it to mean the he "saw things that were not there". Created a small bump until he explained it further when they asked. He got on no problem and has had a very successful career to date...almost five years...how time flies. Just think about what you are saying as BoySgt. advised.

lol, that is something that i would say. i usually am really good about explaining myself, but i will be on the look out for things like that

[Fire1]

After having my interview today.... Some things they wanted me to expound upon, but nothing major.


EDITED by dw

[timmay56]

Thanks Fire. Hey did you call your BI to check the status of your standings or did you call someone else? If you called someone else, who was it and how do i get that number?

[Fire1]

Once my case left my BI there was nothing that he could do about it. He was in the dark as much as I was once everything went to the SPB. I called the psych unit at 916 653 1258 and they were able to tell me what I was missing and how to fix it. If you just had your medical though, it does take them a while to pass things from the medical dept to the psych side. I would give them some time, but I know how much it sucks to be kept waiting. Giving them a call could not hurt.

[dw]

Thank you for the info. I truely believe the C.H.P is for me, I just dont want some Doctor who doesn't even know me to be my judgment call.

I've edited some of the posts here for content. As others have already said, go in, be yourself, and be honest. This interview is not something you can prepare for, nor should you attempt to. To say that the person on the other side of the interview is a Doctor who doesn't even know you is a vast understatement. I am not a Psychologist, so I can not speak for them, but there is more in the interview than meets the eye.

It is natural to speculate and stress about the application process, but this is not something we're going to discuss in any more detail, and really nothing you guys and girls should be losing sleep over.