Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology

What is Industrial and Organizational Psychology?

The application of psychological principles, theory, and research to the work setting.

What organization is known as SIOP?

SIOP stands for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, which is Division 14 of the American Psychological Association (APA).

What are the three main fields of I-O Psychology?

1. Personnel psychology (recruitment, selection, etc.)

2. Organizational psychology (emotional/motivational side of work)

3. Human engineering/factors (human/environment interaction).

Relatively new topics of interest in I-O Psychology?

Building sustainable and environmentally conscious organizations.

Humanitarian work psychology (led by Stuart Carr) - The application of I-O psychology to the humanitarian arena, focusing on poverty reduction and promotion of decent work.

Evidence-based I-O Psychology

A focus on making evidence-based decisions in organizations, combining critical thinking with the best available scientific evidence.

Significant characteristics of young workers in the workforce?

Represent a large number of part-time workers

Education levels tend to be higher than those of their parents

One's first job may serve as a "filter" for subsequent work

Tests conducted during World War I

Army Alpha test (more verbal) and Army Beta test (more nonverbal)

Hugo Munsterberg

German American psychologists who was one of the first to tie abilities to performance

Levine and Marks 1928 IQ classifications

Idiots, imbeciles, morons are those with 0-74 IQ

Superior, very superior, and precocious are those with 125 and over IQ

Scientific management

Also known as Taylorism

Applying science to management in an effort to improve economic efficiency

Elton Mayo

Studied not only the efficiency of workers but also their emotions

Proposed a state called revery obsession (mental state resulting from mind-numbing, repetitive, and difficult work), which caused workers to be unhappy and resist productivity increases.

Human relations movement

FOcused on theories of motivation, emotional world of the worker, and studies of job satisfaction

Hawthorne Effect

The phenomenon where individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Specifies demographic groups to be protected from employment discrimination.

Race, color, gender, national origin, and religion were all protected in 1964

Age and disability were later added

I-O psychologists employment

Highest percentage in academic fields, second highest in consulting

What factors are considered for getting into a graduate program in I-O psychology?

GPA, GRE scores, and relevant coursework such as statistics.

Challenges facing I-O psychology in the 21st century

Needs to be relevant

Needs to be useful

Think bigger about larger issues (poverty, unemployment, etc)

Needs to be grounded in the scientific method.

Culture

System in which individuals share meaning and common ways of viewing events and objects.

Sharing of meanings and interpretations

Importance of multiculturalism in I-O psychology

relates to issues surrounding the global economy

relates to the west vs rest mentality

Hofstede theories of cultural influence

Individualism vs collectivism

power distance (less powerful members accept and expect an unequal distribution of power

Uncertainty avoidance (feeling comfortable in unstructured situations)

masculinity vs femininity

Long-term vs short-term orientation

Triandis' variation of individualism vs collectivism

Horizontal cultures minimize distances between individuals

vertical cultures accept and depend on distances between individuals

Collectivist/individualist and vertical/horizontal cultures compared

Collectivist, horizontal - israeli kibbutz

Individualist, horizontal - Sweden, Australia

Collectivist, vertical - China, India, Greece

Individualist, vertical - America, Germany

Case studies

Provide examples of complexity of work behavior

Science

An approach that involves understanding, prediction, and control of a phenomenon of interest

Has common methods, is a logical approach to investigation (based on theory, hypotheses, or basic interest), and depends on data (gathered in the lab or field)

Research

Must be communicable, open, public

Methods of data collection must be described. Data reported. Analyses displayed for examination. Conclusions presented.

Goals of scientists

To disprove theories or hypotheses (not to prove them)

Eliminate all plausible explanations except one

Open science

An approach emphasizing transparency in research study design, materials, data collection, and analysis to enhance credibility and reproducibility.

Role of I-O psychologists in legal contexts

Serve as expert witnesses, voicing opinions about organizational practices.

Why do I-O psychologists engage in research?

To contribute to HR professionals' understanding and improvement of workplace behavior and practices.

Provide an aspect of predictability to HR decisions

Good theories

Offer novel insights, are interesting, focused, relevant to important topics, provide explanations, and are practical.

Three common research designs in I-O Psychology?

Experimental - random assignment of participants to conditions. Conducted in the lab or workplace

Non-experimental - does not include manipulation or assignment to different conditions. Includes observational design and surveys (which are most common). May or may not involve random sampling

Quasi-experimental - non-random assignment of participants to conditions

Quantitative methods of data collection

Rely on tests, rating scales, questionnaires, and physiological measures

Yield numerical results

Qualitative methods of data collection?

Include observation, interviews, case studies, and document analysis

Produce narrative descriptions and flow diagrams.

Triangulation in research

Examining converging information from different sources

Generalizability in research?

Application of results from one study to other participants or situations

The more areas a study includes, the greater its generalizability

Compromises lead to reduced generalizability

Sampling domains in I-O research

Participants, job titles, time, organizations

Experimental control in research?

Eliminates influences that could make results less reliable or harder to interpret (confounds)

Statistical control in research?

It involves using statistical techniques to control for the influence of certain variables, such as ANCOVA.

Descriptive statistics in data analysis?

Summarize, organize, and describe a sample of data.

Frequency distribution

Scores running from low to high are shown on the Horizontal axis

Frequency of occurrence is indicated on the vertical axis

Five competencies leaders are assessed on

1. Decision Making

2. Interpersonal intelligence

3. Adaptability

4. Political Skills

5. Conflict Management.

You can have data without information

But you cannot have information without data

How does data influence policy decisions?

Data guides many decisions that affect day-to-day functioning.

Martin O'Malley approach to policy

Data-driven

Used computer analysis to chart citizen complaints

Percentage of Americans report feeling lonely or isolated

About one-in-six Americans (16%) say they feel lonely or isolated from those around them all or most of the time.

Importance of data in analytics

Data must be clean and reliable; flawed data can lead to incorrect conclusions and interpretations.

Type I and Type II errors

Type I error is a false positive (claiming a difference exists when it doesn't), while Type II error is a false negative (claiming no difference exists when it does).

Measures of central tendency

The measures include mean (average), mode (most frequent), and median (50th percentile).

Which measure of central tendency is most appropriate for categorical data?

Mode is the most appropriate measure for categorical data.

What is the difference between a histogram and a bar chart?

A histogram is used for continuous data, while a bar chart is used for categorical data.

Standard deviation

measure of variability

skewness effect on the mean and median

The mean is pulled in the direction of the skew, while the median remains unaffected.

Positive skew

Distribution where the tail on the right side is longer or fatter than the left side.

Negative skew

Distribution where the tail on the left side is longer or fatter than the right side.

Inferential statistics?

Aid in testing hypotheses and making inferences from sample data to a larger population.

Examples of inferential statistical tests?

T-tests, F-tests, and chi-square tests.

Statistical significance

Defined in terms of a probability statement, often with a threshold set at .05 or lower.

Indicates the confidence that a result is not due to chance (not the importance of results)

Statistical power

Likelihood of finding a statistically significant difference when a true difference exists.

The smaller the sample size, the lower the power to detect a true or real difference

Measurement

assigning number to characteristics of individuals or objects according to rules

Correlation coefficient

A statistic or measure of association that reflects the magnitude and direction of the relationship between two variables.

Ranges from 0-1 (in absolute value)

Positive correlation

As one variable increases, the other variable also increases.

Negative correlation

As one variable increases, the other variable decreases.

Scatterplot

Displays the correlational relationship between two variables.

Regression

A straight line that best fits the scatterplot and describes the relationship between the variables.

Curvilinear relationship

The direction of association between two variables changes at some point

If the correlation coefficient is 0, one cannot automatically conclude that there is no association between variables

Simple linear regression

A linear association between one predictor variable and a single outcome variable.

Multiple correlation

The overall linear association between several variables and a single outcome variable.

Big data

The use of large data sets to examine relationships among variables and make organizational decisions based on such data.

Meta-analysis

A statistical method for combining results from many studies to draw a general conclusion.

Statistical artifacts in research

Characteristics of a particular study that distort the results, with sample size being the most influential artifact.

Micro-research

The study of individual behavior.

Macro-research

The study of collective behavior.

Meso-research

The study of the interaction between individual and collective behavior.

multilevel modeling (MLM)

A statistical approach that incorporates a hierarchical structure, analyzing data at multiple levels (e.g., individual, group, organization).

Involving micro, macro, and meso-research

Reliability

The consistency or stability of a measure.

Test-retest reliability

Correlating measurements taken at Time 1 with measurements taken at Time 2.

High correlation coefficient

Longer periods of time more impressive

Equivalent forms reliability

Reliability calculated by correlating measurements from individuals who complete two different forms of the same test.

Internal consistency reliability

Assesses how consistently items of a test measure a single construct.

Inter-rater reliability

A measure of agreement among raters, calculated using various statistical indices.

Kappa value

Kappa ranges from -1 to 1.0, where 1.0 indicates complete agreement among raters.

Generalizability theory

A theory that considers all types of error in reliability estimates, including time, individual, rater, and item errors.

Breaks down variation into multiple sources/facets

validity in measurement

The degree to which measurements accurately and completely represent what is intended to be measured.

Does the evidence support the interpretation?

Geriatric Depression Scale

A score greater than 5 points is suggestive of depression.

A score greater than or equal to 10 is almost always indicative of depression

Predictor in the context of validity

A test chosen or developed to assess identified abilities or other characteristics (KSAOs).

What is a criterion in the context of validity?

An outcome variable describing an important performance domain.

Conceptual and operational levels of job analysis

Conceptual level: job-related attributes and job demands

Operational level: predictors and criteria

criterion-related validity

Correlates a test score (predictor) with a performance measure, resulting in a validity coefficient.

Predictive validity design

A design that includes a time lag between the collection of test data and criterion data, often administered to job applicants.

Concurrent validity design

A design with no time lag between test data collection and criterion data, administered to current employees.

Disadvantage is that there is no data about those not employed by the organization

Content-related validity

It shows that the content of a selection procedure represents an adequate sample of important work behaviors and activities defined by job analysis.

Construct-related validity

It involves gathering evidence to support decisions or inferences about psychological constructs.

A construct is a concept or characteristic that a predictor is intended to measure (like intelligence, extraversion, integrity)

Construct validity

The extent to which the variables in a study truly represent the abstract, hypothetical variables of interest.

High construct validity means you are confident that your operational definitions are really measuring your construct of interest

Individual differences

Dissimilarities between or among two or more people.

William Wundt

Set out to uncover general principles of psychology

Cattell's mental test

Instrument designed to measure a subject's ability to reason, plan, and solve problems

Intelligence test

Differential psychology

The scientific study of differences between or among two or more people.

Psychometrics

The practice of measuring a characteristic such as mental ability and placing it on a scale or metric.

Intelligence

The ability to learn and adapt to an environment, often referring to general intellectual capacity.

As opposed to cognitive or mental ability

What does 'g' refer to in psychology?

General mental ability.

Sir Francis Galton

Founder of psychometrics and differential psychology

Was also a eugenicist