I/O FINAL REVIEWER

• Industrial-Organizational Psychology


  Applies the principles of psychology to the workplace
• Purpose of I/O Psychology

  To enhance the dignity and performance of human beings, and the organizations they work in, by advancing the science and knowledge of human behavior
• I/O Psychology


  • Examines factors that affect the people in an organization
  • Focus almost exclusively on issues involving the people in an organization
  • Relies extensively on research, quantitative methods, and testing techniques
  • Use empirical data and statistics
  • Reliance on the scientist-practitioner model
• Business Fields


  • Broader aspects of running an organization such as marketing channels, transportation networks, and cost accounting
  • Examine such areas as accounting, economics, and marketing
• I/O psychologists are not clinical psychologists who happen to be in industry, and they do not conduct therapy for workers
• Major Fields of I/O Psychology

  • Industrial Approach (the "I" in I/O psychology)
  • Organizational Approach (the "O" in I/O psychology)
• Industrial Approach


  • Determining the competencies needed to perform a job
  • Staffing the organization with employees who have those competencies
  • Increasing those competencies through training
• Organizational Approach


  • Creates an organizational structure and culture that will motivate employees to perform well
  • Give them the necessary information to do their jobs
  • Provide working conditions that are safe and result in an enjoyable and satisfying work/life environment
• Subfields of I/O Psychology

  • Personnel Psychology
  • Organizational Psychology
  • Human Factors/Ergonomics
• Personnel Psychology


  • Concentrates on the selection and evaluation of employees
  • Analyzing jobs, recruiting applicants, selecting employees, determining salary levels, training employees, and evaluating employee performance
• Organizational Psychology


  • Investigates the behavior of employees within the context of an organization
  • Concerned with the issues of leadership, job satisfaction, employee motivation, organizational communication, conflict management, organizational change, and group processes within an organization
  • Often conduct surveys of employee attitudes to get ideas about what employees believe are an organization's strengths and weaknesses

  
• Human Factors/Ergonomics


  • Concentrating on the interaction between humans and machines
  • Workplace design, human machine interaction, ergonomics, and physical fatigue and stress
  • Frequently work with engineers and other technical professionals to make the workplace safer and more efficient
  • Draw a map, designing the most comfortable chair, and investigating the optimal work schedule
• Brief History of I/O Psychology

  • Walter Dill Scott (1903)
  • Hugo Münsterberg (1910)
  • Industrial Psychology
  • World War I
  • John Watson
  • Henry Gantt
  • Thomas A. Edison
  • Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth
  • 1930s
  • Hawthorne Studies
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s and 1990s
  • 2000s
• Hawthorne Effect

  Employees change their behavior due solely to the fact that they are receiving attention or are being observed
• Employment of I/O Psychologists

  • Colleges and Universities
  • Consulting Firms
  • Private Sector
  • Public Sector
• Research in I/O Psychology


  • Answering Questions and Making Decisions
  • Research and Everyday Life
  • Common Sense Is Often Wrong
• Considerations in Conducting Research

  • Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories
  • Literature Reviews
  • The Location of the Study
  • Research Method
  • Subject Samples
• Hypothesis


  Educated prediction about the answer to a question
• Theory


  A systematic set of assumptions regarding the cause and nature of behavior
• Types of Periodicals


  • Journals
  • Bridge Publications
  • Trade Magazines
  • Magazines
• The Internet is prone to inaccurate information
• External Validity/Generalizability


  The extent to which research results can be expected to hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained
• Internal Validity


  Loses in control of extraneous variables that are not of interest to the researcher
• Research Methods


  • Experiments
  • Quasi-experiments
  • Archival research
  • Surveys
  • Meta-analysis
• Manipulation


  The alteration of a variable by an experimenter in expectation that the alteration will result in a change in the dependent variable
• Independent Variable


  The manipulated variable in an experiment
• Dependent Variable


  The measure of behavior that is expected to change as a result of changes in the independent variable
• Effect size


  A statistic that indicates the amount of change caused by an experimental manipulation
• Mean Effect Size


  A statistic that is the average of the effect sizes for all studies included
• Correlation coefficients (r)


  Used as the effect size, resulting from performing a correlation, that indicates the magnitude and direction of a relationship
• Difference score (d)


  Used as the effect size, indicates how many standard deviations separate the mean score for the experimental group from the control group
• Practical significance


  Extent to which the results of a study have actual impact on human behavior
• Types of Samples


  • Random Sample
  • Convenience Sample
  • Random Assignment
• Difference score (d)


  Used as the effect size. Indicates how many standard deviations separate the mean score for the experimental group from the control group.
• Difference score (d)


  • Less than .40: considered as small
  • Between .40 and .80: moderate
  • Higher than .80: large
  • .44: average effect size for an organizational intervention
• Subject Samples


  • Random Sample: Every member of the relevant population had an equal chance of being chosen to participate in the study
  • Convenience Sample: Nonrandom research sample that is used because it is easily available
  • Random Assignment: Unbiased assignment of subjects in a research sample to the various experimental and control conditions
• Running the Study


  1. All instructions to the subjects be stated in a standardized fashion and at a level that is understandable

  2. Debriefed: Informing the subject in an experiment about the purpose of the study in which he or she was a participant and providing any other relevant information
• Statistical Analysis


  • Significance levels: Statistical significance, Indicate only the level of confidence we can place on a result being the product of chance and nothing about the strength of the results
  • Effect Sizes: Practical significance of a study
  • Correlation: To determine the relationship between two variables
  • Intervening Variable: Third variable that can often explain the relationship between two other variables
  • Correlation Coefficient: Result of correlational analysis, Range from 1 to 1, (+) and (-) signs: Direction of the correlation
• Ethical Dilemmas


  Ambiguous situations that require a personal judgment of what is right or wrong because there are no rules, policies, or laws guiding such decisions
• Types of Ethical Dilemmas

  • Type A Dilemma: High level of uncertainty as to what is right or wrong, there appears to be no best solution, and there are both positive and negative consequences to a decision
  • Type B Dilemma: Also called rationalizing dilemmas, Individuals know what is right but choose the solution that is most advantageous to themselves