job interviews, you might try to practice a job interview with another person (friend, 
family member, or therapist) taking the role of the interviewer. Following the practice, 
you would again record the particulars of the situation, your fear level, your anxious 
thoughts, and your avoidance behaviors.
Therapists use behavioral assessments because they have several advantages over 
traditional forms of assessment, such as interviews and questionnaires. First, they are 
less likely to be inﬂuenced by people’s difﬁculties in remembering the details of their 
fears. For example, some people may overestimate or underestimate their fear levels if 
they are asked to describe their fear during past exposures to feared situations. Their 
memories may be inﬂuenced by a particularly negative experience in a feared situation 
and, as a result, they may report that their fear is actually higher than it typically is. 
Also, people’s memories regarding their reactions in the situations they fear may be poor 
simply because they typically avoid the fearful situation, making it difﬁcult to know for 
sure how they feel when they are exposed to the situation.
Another advantage of the behavioral approach test is that it allows the therapist and 
the individual to directly observe anxious thoughts and behaviors that might otherwise 
go unnoticed. It also allows the therapist to independently assess the extent to which the 
client’s shaking, blushing, or sweating is actually noticeable to others.