IO Psych outline 1

What does the field of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology study

study of human behavior in the workplace

What is the science-practitioner model, and how does it relate to I-O psychology? What is meant by

the term “evidence-based practice”?

Science: people conducting research to explore workplace problems

Practice: applying scientific evidence to improve work place environments

What are five common ways people come to “know” something? How does science overcome the

limitations of the other four ways?

Intuition, authority, logic, experience, science

What is a theory

a structured framework for understanding a psychological phemomenon

what is a independent variable

The cause explains or predicts a change in another variable

What is causality, and what three conditions must be met to establish it?

correlation, temporal precedence, no alternative explanations

experiments

studies where the independent variable is manipulated using a random assigned experimental group and a control group

What is a psychological construct

abstract concept that is indirectly measured

What is validity

level of support we have for a score on a measure

What is reliability

the quality of being dependable, trustworthy, and consistent in performance or results

Positive (+) correlation

Both variables move in the same direction. As one variable goes up, the other goes up. (Example: Height and weight)

What is an effect size

a quantitative measure that shows the strength or magnitude of a difference or relationship between variables

small: .0 medium: .3 large: .5

How do you interpret a p-value?

a number between 0 and 1 that measures the chance of getting your test results by random luck, assuming there is no real effect or difference

surveys

efficient & scalable: limited depth, social desirability

what is a research question

the central query that a study or paper aims to answer, guiding the entire investigation and defining its scope

what is a hypothesis

a proposed explanation for a phenomenon or observation that can be tested through further investigation and experimentation

what is a dependent variable

the effect: changes caused by the other variable

quasi-experiments

lacks random assignment

correlational studies

observing variables as they naturally occur without manipulation

case studies

studies describing a single case or a series of cases

interviews/ focus groups

provide rich data and probing: time & resource intensive, social dynamics

observation

Uses existing data. Unobtrusive: may miss the variables or interest

content validity evidence

extent to which our measure captures the full domain of the concept

criterion validity evidence;

How a score of a measure relates to some criterion of interest

test- restest reliability

reliable over time

interrater reliability

the degree of agreement or consistency between two or more independent raters or observers when evaluating the same phenomenon, behavior, or set of data

equivalent forms reliability

checks if two different versions of the same test give similar scores when given to the same group of people

internal consistency reliability

measures how well different items on a survey or test that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar, cohesive results (across scale items)

Negative (-) correlation

The variables move in opposite directions. As one variable goes up, the other goes down. (Example: Outdoor temperature and heating costs)

meta-analysis

takes results of multiple studies to find the weighted average of the relationship