Unit 2: Research Methods in I-O Psychology

Exam 1

• What is the scientist-practitioner model

• Give an example of how its is used when: A call center has a 3 week training program for new employees. The average employee quits after 3 months.

• Scientist-practitioner model: interaction of scientific knowledge and application

• Ex: A call center has a 3 week training program for new employees. The average employee quits after 3 months.

  • Science: Turnover Theories & Past Empirical Studies

  • Practitioner: Create Plan

Why is research important in IO psych?

• Research helps us answer questions and make decisions

  • Our intuitions are often wrong

• Research is important for both science and practice

  • Research is the way IO psychologists understand issues associated with people at work

  • Understanding research helps organizations solve problems, apply results of studies, and assess the accuracy of claims made about new practices

• Knowledge of research methods used in IO and how to interpret findings are important for understanding the field

How applied research is used in psych

• Investigating effective treatment approaches

• Researching motivational strategies

• Studying keyboard designs for efficiency

• Finding out what makes people most productive

Examples of applied research jobs

• People Analytics Researcher

• Head of Assessment and Test Development

• Applied Research Scientist

• Principal Investigator, etc

Empirical Research Cycle - 5-step sequence

Statement of the problem → design of research study → measurement of variables → analysis of data → conclusions from research → REPEAT

Statement of the Problem: research ideas in IO often come from…

scientific theories either by the inductive method or deductive method

theory

statement that proposes to explain relationships among phenomena

inductive method vs deductive method

• Inductive method: researcher starts with data and the reaches theory

• Deductive method: researcher first forms theory and then tests the theory by collecting data

Design of Research Study: internal validity vs external validity

• Internal validity: degree to which relationships among variables in a study are accurate

• External validity: degree to which the relationships among variables in a study are generalizable or accurate in other settings

Name and define primary research methods *ON TEST*

• True experiment: involves IV & DV, random assignment, and manipulation

• Quasi-experiment: similar to true experiment but does NOT involve random assignment

• Non-experiment: NO manipulation or assignment of participants

Name and define secondary research methods *ON TEST*

• Archival research: involves extraction of information from existing records (eg attendance records)

• Meta-analysis: statistical procedure that combines the results of many individual, independently conducted empirical studies into a single result or outcome

• Data mining: looks for patterns among measured items in very large data sets (aka “big data”)

qualitative research *ON TEST*

the use of non-quantitative data

name and define the different sources of data

• Organizational records: collected and maintained by the organization for reasons other than research

• Questionnaires: data in which subjects respond to written questions

• Observation: where investigator collects data by monitoring subjects

• Interviews/Focus groups: small but diverse group of people who participate in a facilitated discussion around questions related to the topic of interest

What is the relationship between control, realism, internal validity, and external validity in a research context?

Generally speaking:

• High control offers higher internal validity

• High realism offers higher external validity

• No method is high on both control and realism

  • Important to recognize the pros and cons of each method

quantitative variables vs categorical variables

• Quantitative variables: objects in a study that have a numerical number associated to them

• Categorical variables: objects in a study that do not have a numerical number associated to them

name and define the variables used in IO psych rsearch

• independent variable (IV): variable that is manipulated to influence the DV (experiments)

• dependent variable (DV): a variable that is influenced by the IV (experiments)

• Predictor variables: variable used to predict a criterion variable

  • Ex: Taking the SAT (predictor) to predict success of 1st year at college (criterion)

• Criterion variables: variable that is the primary object of a research study; is forecasted by predictor

  • Ex: Taking the SAT (predictor) to predict success of 1st year at college (criterion)

• Ex: Leadership style (IV) → Employee performance (DV)

Ways to analyze data

• mean

• median

• mode

• variability

• standard deviation

correlation

a statistical technique that shows how strongly a pair of variables are related

• Positive: X & Y move in same direction

• Negative: X & Y move in opposite directions

Experimental research is good at identifying ___ relationships, but the most common IO research is ___

• causal

• non-experimental