Applied Psychology Quiz #6

Why is work (and the workplace) important in the lives of many people?

• work provides the means to satisfy basic needs and reach a desired standard of living

• work provides social interaction and defines levels of prestige, among other things

What is the occupational information network (O*NET)?

Is a comprehensive, detailed, and flexible set of job descriptors based on an extensive research program

What is the goal of a job analysis and why are they important?

• the identification of critical elements of a job

• data from job analysis is not just helpful to selection, but to performance appraisals, training, and many other organizational activities

How is recruitment of job applicants related to social networking sites?

• social networking sites are increasingly used by employers during recruitment

• vetting applicants is inexpensive using the internet, but managers must be careful not to be influences by information that is illegal given protections for age disability, and so fort

  • 63% of employers report using social networking sites to evaluate applicants, but only 15% of applicants believed that online information would impact their selections

  • sites sometimes reveal “red flags” to employers, such as drug use, sexual exploits, and drinking

What are the different forms (types) of harassment discussed in class and your readings (sexual, bystander, ethnic)?

• quid pro quo: implicit or explicit demands for sexual favors based on the threats of negative job consequences or promises of job related rewards

• hostile work environment: gender harassment refers to sexist behavior, crude comments, or joke of a sexual nature or other sexual and/or hostile behavior towards women based on their gender

• ethnic harassment: instances in which one’s ethnicity had caused conflict at work (e.g., someone at work makes derogatory comment about your ethnicity)

• bystander harassment (experiences): whether the respondent knew of coworkers who had experienced behavior

How does harassment impact employees?

High levels of exclusion were more negatively affected than others, characteristics of personal harassment experiences and bystander experiences did predict how upset women were by their own gender harassment and by unwanted sexual attention experiences, the relation between exclusion and CWB was strongest for employees whose personality exhibited less behavioral constraint, SO participants reported feeling less similar than both included and EO participants (also angrier and expressed more prejudice)

What is meant by bystander harassment?

Whether the respondent know of coworkers who had experienced the behavior

Organizations usually look for a good match between employees and the organization. What 2 factors are considered by organizations in this regard?

• the can-do factors are the maximum performance an employee can exhibit

• the will-do factors are the normal or typical level of employee performance

What are groups? Be able to recognize two factors that have been shown to impact group performance

• a group is a collection of individuals with separate priorities united by their shared experiences or interests. Group members have individual goals and accountability for their own success or failure. While they work separately, group members have a related interest that brings them together. Groups may exist informally because common interests or formally because of decisions from company management

• group cohesion

• group homogeneity

What is the strongest positive correlate of job satisfaction?

Commitment

What is the difference between job and work withdrawal?

• job withdrawal: intent to leave, thoughts and likelihood of quitting or retiring

• work withdrawal: being late or absent, letting others do your work for you, doing poor work, ignoring assigned tasks

Be able to describe what is meant by Transformational Leader

Is characterized by high ethical standards, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideral

Why are performance reviews so important for organizations?

They help identify employees who need improvement, manage raises and promotions, deal with employees who may need to be terminated based on performance, and assist in workforce planning

Be able to name and differentiate among the three different types of organizational commitment

• affective commitment: is an employee’s emotional attachment that makes them want to stay in the organization

• normative commitment: is an employee’s commitment based on feelings of obligation

• continuance commitment: is an employee’s commitment based on the high cost of losing organizational membership (e.g., benefits, friendships, etc.)

What are a couple of Negative Work Behaviors mentioned during lecture?

• workplace deviance

• counterproductive work behavior

• organizational misbehavior

• antisocial behavior

• workplace bullying

• harassment/discrimination

• workplace exclusion/ostracism

• aggression, violence

Tests are evaluated based on their reliability and validity. Be able to distinguish between these two concepts

• reliability: refers to the consistency of measurement and ranges 0 to 1, with higher scored representing higher reliability

• validity: refers to how accurate the test is with regard to what you are intending to measure and also has values ranging from 0 to1, with higher scores indicating higher validity

Be able to name and distinguish between types of teams discussed in class, including the dominant feature of each

• problem resolution: focus on issues with the dominant feature being trust

• creative: explore possibilities and alternatives with the dominant feature being autonomy

• tactical: directive, highly focused tasks, role clarity, well-defined operational standards, accuracy with the dominant feature being clarity

Be able to list and describe the 5-main dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior discussed in class

1. altruism

2. conscientiousness

3. courtesy

4. sportsmanship

5. civic virtue

Be able to name and differentiate between the different types of organizational justice

• distributive justice focuses on fairness of the outcomes

• procedural justice focuses on fairness in the process to get those outcomes

• interactional justice splits into interpersonal and informational justice

Be able to describe the original Pygmalion myth as it applied to interpersonal expectations

When Pygmalion returned, he found Galatea alive, and humbled himself at her feet. Pygmalion and Galatea were wed. It was the way in which Pygmalion treated the statue that results in it coming to life

Understand what is meant by the Pygmalion Effect

• it is the idea that expecting something to happen can in fact make it occur

• it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, a belief that becomes a positive reality

Can you diagram a mediation effect?

Understand what took place during the “judge’s instructions” research and jury behavior and its application to interpersonal expectancy effects

• judges instructions: findings of guilty from jury changes from 43% to 57% when being instructed by a judge who believed the defendant to be guilty

• application: when the judge already expected the defendant to be guilty, the percentage of the amount who are guilty from the jury increase due to the judges effects on the jury

In class we discussed how the Pygmalion Effect can be moderated by Teacher, Student, and Contextual variables. Be able to name one of each and describe the moderation process (think interaction)

• teacher: some teachers are more prone to treat students differently based on expectations

• students: some students are more prone to be influenced by teacher expectations

  • students in ethic minorities

  • students from low socioeconomic backgrounds

  • students with poor previous achievement levels

• contextual: certain situations leave students more open to influence by teacher expectations

  • transitions (e.g., from one school to another)

  • classrooms with large numbers and low resources

What is the process by which teacher expectancies affect student outcomes? (From begging to end of the school year)

• early in the school year, teachers from differential expectations for student behavior and achievement

• if the teacher treatment is consistent over time and if students do not actively resist or change it, it will likely affect their self-concepts, achievement motivation, levels of aspirations, classroom conduct, and interactions with other outcomes

• ultimately, this will affect student achievement and other outcomes

  • high-expectations students will led to achieve at or near their potential, but low expectation students will not gain much as they could have gained if taught differently

Be able to discuss what took place during Jane Elliot’s Blue-eyes Brown-eyes study and the outcomes of this research as it applied to interpersonal expectations and racism (both within and outside of the classroom)

• the pygmalion effect can also result from racial expectations

• this effect is seen during Jane Elliot’s blue-eyes vs brown-eyes discrimination exercise, where third graders were divided based on eye color

• one group was given preference and regarded as “superior” because of their eye color, with the other group repeatedly being considered inferior in intelligence and learning ability. On the second day of the experiment, the groups were completely reversed, with those oppressed against one day being regarded as superior the next

• Elliot gave spelling tests to both groups on each day of the experiment. The students scored very low on the day they were racially “inferior” and very high on the day they were consideres “superior”

What was the relation between a self-fulfilling prophecy and the pygmalion effect?

The pygmalion effect requires a student to internalize the expectations of the superiors. It is kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, and in this respects, students with poor expectations internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly

Be able to describe what took place in Rosenthal’s Pygmalion in the Classroom research and the purpose of this research?

• in this study, Rosenthal predicted that, when given the information that certain students are brighter than others, elementary school teachers may unconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage the students success

• by the end of the school year (8 months), children tested with the same intelligence test. Intellectual ‘bloomers’ from whom the teachers expected greater intellectual gain, in fact, showed greater gain in intelligence compared to children in the control group

Know the different between moderators and mediations and the location of each within the 10 arrow model?

• moderators are preexisting variables such as sex, age, and personality associated with magnitude of effects (speaks to “when” and “for whom” an effect occurs)

• mediators are those behaviors by which expectations are communicated (speaks to “why” an event occurs)

Be able to name and describe the four variables proposed to mediate teacher expectancy effects (within the Four Factor Model)

• central factors

  • climate (affect)

  • input (effort)

• additional factors

  • output

  • feedback

What is meant by the phrase, “interpersonal expectancy effects are a double-edges sword”?

While positive expectations can lead to improved performance, negative expectations can also have a detrimental effect, potentially hindering or diminishing performance

What are the different classes of the 10 arrow model?

• A: distal (moderator)

• B: proximal (expectancy)

• C: process (expector behavior)

• D: proximal (immediate)

• C: distal (follow up)