[1] While in industrial and organizational psychology, it is used as a predictor for future behaviours; in this sense, biodata is "factual kinds of questions about life and work experiences, as well as items involving opinions, values, beliefs, and attitudes that reflect a historical perspective.
"[2][3] In South Asia (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal), a biodata (a shortened form of biographical data) is essentially a résumé or curriculum vitae (CV), for the purposes of jobs, grants, and marriage.
[1] With respect to industrial and organizational psychology, since the respondent replies to questions about themselves, there are elements of both biography and autobiography.
[citation needed] These measures deal with facts about the person's life, not introspections and subjective judgements.
A well-constructed biodata instrument is legally defendable and unlike the interview, is not susceptible to error due to rater biases or the halo effect.