Industrial/Organizational Psychology

The branch of psychology that is concerned with the study of behavior in work settings and the application of psychology principles to change work behavior.

I/O Psychologists Work With Organizations in the Areas of...

• Job Analysis - the systematic study of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job and knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to perform it

• Job Evaluation - an assessment of the relative value of jobs to determine appropriate compensation

I/O Psychologists Work With Organizations in the Areas of...

• Employee recruitment - the process by which companies attract qualified applicants

• Employee selection - the process of choosing applicants for employment

• Employee placement - the process of assigning workers to appropriate jobs

I/O Psychologists Work With Organizations in the Areas of...

• Performance Appraisal - the formalized means of assessing worker performance in comparison to certain established organizational standards

• Employee Training - planned organizational efforts to facilitate employee learning of job-related knowledge and behavior

I/O Psychologists Work With Organizations in the Areas of...

• Employee Motivation - the force that energizes, directs, and sustains work behavior

• Job Enrichment - designing jobs to give workers greater responsibility in the planning, execution, and evaluation of their work.

I/O Psychologists Work With Organizations in the Areas of...

• Job Satisfaction - the positive and negative feelings and attitudes about one’s job

• Leadership - the ability to guide a group toward the achievement of goals

• Group Dynamics - the nature of groups, including the factors governing their formation and development, elements of their structure, and their interrelationships with individuals, other groups, and organizations

I/O Psychologists Work With Organizations in the Areas of...

• Organization Development - the process of assisting organizations in preparing for and managing change

• Organizational Politics - self-serving actions designed to affect the behavior of others to achieve personal goals

• Human Factors - a specialty area of I/O psychology focused on designing tools, machines, work systems, and work places to fit workers

Training I/O Psychology

• Masters Degree or PhD.• Society for I/O Psychology (SIOP):

Division 14 of the American Psychological Association (APA) - www.siop.org

• The Scientist/Practitioner Model - the I-O psychologist is frequently both the generator of knowledge and the consumer/user of such knowledge

Careers in I/O Psychology

Careers in I/O Psychology

• Academics: Teach and conduct research in higher-educational settings.– Teach and supervise students– Conduct and publish research

• Top Tier Journals in I/O psychology include Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Academy of Management Journal

Careers in I/O Psychology

• Practitioners: Apply principles of I/O psychology to organizational processes.– Internal Consultants– External Consultants

Careers in I/O Psychology

• Employment Stability - the unemployment rate for I/O psychologists is approximately .5%

• Financial Security - average salary for consultants is approximately $120,000 (academicians make much less!)

• Intrinsically Interesting - a wide range of topics that are important in peoples lives

Trends in I/O Psychology

• The changing nature of work

• Expanding focus on human resources

• Increasing diversity of the workforce

• Increasing globalization of business

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1879, William Wundt established the first

lab for studying psychology.

— 1897, Bryan & Harter published, Studies of the physiology and psychology of the telegraphic language.

— 1903, Walter D. Scott wrote, The Theory of Advertising.

Scott pioneered (and popularized) the application of psychology to advertising and employee selection and placement.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1905, Alfred Binet published the first

intelligence test.

— 1911, Frederick Taylor wrote Scientific Management.

Time and motion studies.

— 1913, Hugo Munsterberg wrote Industrial Efficiency.

Munsterberg’s most famous study examined the skills required to safely operate a trolley car.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1917, Frank & Lillian Gilbreth wrote

Applied Motion Study.

— 1917, Journal of Applied Psychology published its first volume.

Hall, Baird, & Geissler suggested the applied psychology could provide a direct method for “decreasing the number of cases where a square peg is condemned to a life of fruitless endeavor to fit itself comfortably into a round hole.”

Early History of I/O Psychology—1918, World War I and I/O psychologists

contribute to America’s war effort.

Robert Yerkes developed cognitive ability tests for the Army, the Alpha and Beta.

Walter D. Scott developed systems for the placement of personnel and performance management.

—1921, First PhD in I/O psychology awarded.

—1921, James Cattell establishes the Psychological Corporation.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1924, Elton Mayo and colleagues began

research at the Hawthorne works of the Western Electric Co. on how environmental conditions (e.g.., lighting) affected employee performance.

The Hawthorne Effect

Human relations movement

— 1932, Morris Viteles writes first I/O psychology textbook.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1941, World War II and I/O psychologists do

their part again.

Army General Classification Test

U.S. Office of Strategic Service use situation stress tests to assess candidates for military intelligence placement.

— 1945, Society for Industrial and Business Psychology established as Division 14 of APA.

Now it’s SIOP (see www.siop.org)

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1948, Personnel Psychology published its

first volume.

— 1951, The Dearborn Conference Group met for the first time.

— 1954, Technical Recommendations of Psychological Tests and Diagnostic Techniques published.

— 1955, Ethical Principles of Psychologists published.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

forbade discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or

national origin.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) created to oversee compliance to Title VII.

Increased accountability for I/O psychologists to implement valid and unbiased testing processes.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1964, The Industrial/Organizational

Psychologist (TIP) publishes its first volume.

— 1971, In Griggs v. Duke Power Co. the Supreme Court establishes that employee selection devices must be job related.

— 1978, Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures is released.

Reinforces the importance of job analysis.

Early History of I/O Psychology— 1976, Handbook for I/O Psychology

published.

1990-94 revised Handbook volumes published.

— 1986, SIOP holds its first annual national conference.

—1986, First U.S. Supreme Court ruling on sexual harassment

Research Methods in I/O Psychology

Steps in the research process

Types of research designs

Statistical concepts

Outline

• Requires a precise vocabulary.

• Has rules for collecting and organizing data.

• Based on a system of logic for decisions (called inferences) about the meaning of observations.

• Requires verification of these inferences.

Scientific Method

Step #1 of Research Process: Formulation of a problem

• Inductive Reasoning

• Deductive Reasoning

• Intuition/Common Sense Research

• Applied business problems

• Previous research

Step #2 of Research Process: Generation of hypotheses

• Variables– The elements that are measured in

research investigations

– Operational definitions

– Examples of variables in I/O research

Step #2 of Research Process: Generation of hypotheses

• Hypotheses– Statements used in research methods

concerning the supposed relationships between or among variables

– Statements that guide what research methods are used

– Examples of hypotheses

Step #2 of Research Process: Generation of hypotheses

• Theory or Model– The organization of certain beliefs into a

representation of the factors that affect behavior.

– A source of hypotheses or the result of tested hypotheses

– Example of a theory

Step #3 of Research Process: Choosing a Research Design

• Overview of Research Designs– Case study

– Correlational

– Experimental : Field and Laboratory

– Meta-analysis

• Practical Considerations of Research Designs for I/O Psychology

Step #4 of Research Process: Collection of Data

• Sampling– Methods for selecting participants in a

study.

– Population vs sample

– Sample Size: Statistical and practical significance

Step #4 of Research Process: Collection of Data

• Sampling– Types of sampling

• Random

• Systematic

• Stratified

• Convenience

Step #5 of Research Process: Collection of Data

• Measurement of Variables– Types of Measures

• Self-report

• Observation

• Objective outcomes

Step #5 of Research Process: Collection of Data

• Measurement of Variables– Types of response formats

• Likert-type

• Semantic Differential

• Fixed alternative

• Open-ended

Step #6 of Research Process: Analyses of Data

• Qualitative vs. quantitative analyses

• Descriptive vs. inferential statistics

• Using computers to analyze data

• Understanding analyses conducted in published research

Step #7 of Research Process: Interpretation of Research Results

• Determining whether the hypothesis was supported

• Assessing alternative interpretations for the data

• Serendipity

• Research is a cumulative process

Research Designs: Case Studies

A one-time-only assessment of behavior or the application of an intervention to only a single group, department, or organization.

Research Designs: Case Studies

• Limitations- Cannot draw any firm conclusions- Usually lacks systematic measurement- Cannot address cause and effect

• Advantages- Generate future hypotheses- High in realism- Can examine topics difficult to study with other designs.

Research Designs: Correlational Studies

Examines the relationship among or between variables as they naturally occur.

Questions Addressed:- Does a relationship exist?- How strong is the relationship?- What direction is the relationship?

Research Designs: Correlational Studies

• Advantages:- Relatively easy to conduct research- Can examine topics difficult to research with other methods

• Disadvantages:- Cannot address cause and effect

Research Designs: Experimental Studies

A research design characterized by a high degree of control over the research setting to allow for the determination of cause-and-effect relationship among variables.

Research Designs: Experimental Studies

Three conditions must be present:- a variable must be manipulated- random assignment of participants to experimental groups.- control of extraneous and confounding variables.

Research Designs: Experimental Studies

The terminology of experiments:- Independent Variable (IV)

- Dependent Variables (DV)

- Internal Validity

- External Validity

Research Designs: Experimental Studies

• Laboratory settings– Offer the greatest level of control

– Cause-and-effect interpretations

• Field settings– Natural settings

– Quasi-experiments

Research Designs: Experimental Studies

• Advantages– Helps to explain human behavior at

work through cause-and-effect inferences.

– Controls for alternative explanations for research findings.

Research Designs: Experimental Studies

• Disadvantages– Cost

– Demand Characteristics

– Hawthorne Effect

– External Validity Issues

• Participants

• ecological validity

Research Designs: Meta-Analysis

A technique that allows for several different research studies to be combined and summarized.

Research Designs: Meta-Analysis

• Advantages– Provides a better estimate of the “true” relationship between

variables than the results of a single study.

• Disadvantages– Garbage in garbage out– File drawer effect

Descriptive Analyses• Frequency Distribution• Measures of Central Tendency

– Mode– Median– Mean

• Measures of Variance– Range– Standard Deviation

Distributions of Data

Inferential Analyses

• Inferential statistics are used for analyzing data to test hypotheses.

• Statistical significance refers to the probability of a particular result occurring by chance, used to determine the meaning of research outcomes.

• p < .05 means that the probability that the finding are due to chance alone is less than 5 in 100.

Inferential Analyses

Reject NullHypothesis

Retain NullHypothesis

Null Hypothesisis True

Type IError

CorrectDecision

Null Hypothesisis False

CorrectDecision

Type IIError

Inferential Analyses

• Analyses for Experimental Designs– t-tests– Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

• One-way ANOVA• Factorial ANOVA• Main Effect• Interaction

– Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)

Inferential Analyses• Analyses for Correlational Designs

– Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient• represented by r• can range from -1 to +1• the sign of the r indicates whether the variables are

positively or negatively related• the absolute value of r indicates the strength of the

relationship. The closer to |1 |, the stronger the relationship. An absolute value of 1 indicates a perfect relationship and a value of 0 indicates no relationship

• Correlation does not imply causality

Other Statistical Analyses• Multiple Regression - assesses the relationship

between multiple predictors and a single criterion.• Factor Analysis - methods of reducing a large number

of variables to a smaller number of variables, or “factors”.

• Structural Equation Modeling - a statistical technique that “simultaneously” examines the relationships among many variables.

Ethical Considerations for Research in I/O Psychology

• Confidentiality

• Informed Consent

• “Overselling” Research Results

• APA’s Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research