The Field of I/O Psychology
● Industrial/organizational psychology is a branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to
the workplace.
● The purpose of I/O psychology is “to enhance the dignity and performance of human beings, and the
organizations they work in, by advancing the science and knowledge of human behavior”
● the main difference between I/O psychology and business fields is that I/O psychology examines factors
that affect the people in an organization as opposed to the broader aspects of running an organization
such as marketing channels, transportation networks, and cost accounting
● I/O psychology relies extensively on research, quantitative methods, and testing techniques.
● I/O psychologists are trained to use empirical data and statistics rather than intuition to make decisions.
● I/O psychologists are not clinical psychologists who happen to be in industry, and they do not conduct
therapy for workers
● A factor that helps differentiate I/O psychology from other branches of psychology is the reliance on the
scientist-practitioner model.
○ That is, I/O psychologists act as scientists when they conduct research and as practitioners when
they work with actual organizations
● If a person is unhappy at work for eight hours a day, the residual effects of this unhappiness will affect
the quality of that person’s family and leisure life as well.
● From a societal perspective, I/O psychologists can also improve the quality of life by increasing employee
effectiveness, which reduces the cost of goods sold by improving product quality
Major Fields of I/O Psychology
● The industrial approach (the “I” in I/O psychology) focuses on determining the competencies needed to perform
a job, staffing the organization with employees who have those competencies, and increasing those
competencies through training
● The organizational approach (the “O” in I/O psychology) creates an organizational structure and culture that will
motivate employees to perform well, give them the necessary information to do their jobs, and provide working
conditions that are safe and result in an enjoyable and satisfying work/life environment.
● Personnel Psychology
○ I/O psychologists and HRM professionals involved in personnel psychology study and practice in such
areas as analyzing jobs, recruiting applicants, selecting employees, determining salary levels, training
employees, and evaluating employee performance
○ Personnel psychologists also analyze jobs to obtain a complete picture of what each employee does,
often assigning monetary values to each position
○ People within this subfield usually work in a training department of an organization and are involved in
such activities as identifying the organization’s training needs, developing training programs, and
evaluating training success
● Organizational Psychology
○ are concerned with the issues of leadership, job satisfaction, employee motivation, organizational
communication, conflict management, organizational change, and group processes within an
organization.
○ often conduct surveys of employee attitudes to get ideas about what employees believe are an
organization’s strengths and weaknesses
○ makes recommendations on ways problem areas can be improved
○ Professionals in organization development implement organization-wide programs designed to improve
employee performance
● Human Factors/Ergonomics
○ Psychologists in the area of human factors concentrate on workplace design, human machine interaction,
ergonomics, and physical fatigue and stress.
Brief History of I/O Psychology
● 1879
● it is generally thought to have started either in 1903 when Walter Dill Scott wrote The Theory of Advertising, in
which psychology was first applied to business
● Regardless of the official starting date, I/O psychology was born in the early 1900s
● Interestingly, the term “industrial psychology” was seldom used prior to World War I.
○ Instead, the common terms for the field were “economic psychology,” “business psychology,” and
“employment psychology”
● I/O psychology made its first big impact during World War I. Because of the large number of soldiers who had to
be assigned to various units within the armed forces, I/O psychologists were employed to test recruits and then
place them in appropriate positions
○ The testing was accomplished mainly through the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests of mental ability
○ The Alpha test was used for recruits who could read and the Beta test for recruits who could not read.
● The more intelligent recruits were assigned to officer training, and the less intelligent to the infantry
● Interestingly, John Watson, who is better known as a pioneer in behaviorism, served as a major in the U.S. Army
in World War I and developed perceptual and motor tests for potential pilots
● Though certainly not an I/O psychologist, inventor Thomas A. Edison understood the importance of selecting the
right employees.
○ In 1920, Edison created a 163-item knowledge test that he administered to over 900 applicants. The test
and passing score were so difficult that only 5% of the applicants passed!
● Two of the most interesting figures in the early years of I/O psychology were the husband and wife team of Frank
Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth
○ The Gilbreths were among the first, if not the first, scientists to improve productivity and reduce fatigue by
studying the motions used by workers.
● when the findings from the famous Hawthorne studies were published, demonstrated that employee behavior was
complex and that the interpersonal interactions between managers and employees played a tremendous role in
employee behavior
○ After interviewing employees and studying the matter further, the researchers realized that employees
changed their behavior and became more productive because they were being studied and received
attention from their managers, a condition that is now commonly referred to as the Hawthorne effect.
○ Perhaps the major contribution of the Hawthorne studies was that it inspired psychologists to increase
their focus on human relations in the workplace and to explore the effects of employee attitudes
● The 1980s and 1990s brought four major changes to I/O psychology.
○ The first involved an increased use of fairly sophisticated statistical techniques and methods of analysis
○ A second change concerned a new interest in the application of cognitive psychology to industry.
○ The third change was the increased interest in the effects of work on family life and leisure activities
○ The final major change in the 1980s and 1990s came about when I/O psychologists took a renewed
interest in developing methods to select employees.
○ Other changes during the 1980s and 1990s that had significant effects on I/O psychology included
massive organizational downsizing, greater concern for diversity and gender issues, an aging workforce,
increased concern about the effects of stress, and the increased emphasis on such organizational
development interventions as total quality management (TQM), reengineering, and employee
empowerment.
● In the 2000s, perhaps the greatest influence on I/O psychology is the rapid advances in technology.
● Another important factor impacting I/O psychology is the changing demographic makeup of the workforce
● The global economy is also affecting the role of I/O psychology.
● Other factors that are currently impacting I/O psychology include high unemployment rates, movements toward
flexible work schedules, family-friendly work policies, accommodation of an increasing number of employees with
child-care and elder-care responsibilities, flatter organizational structures with fewer management levels,
population shifts from urban to suburban locations, and increasing costs of health-care benefits
Employment of I/O Psychologists
● I/O psychologists typically work in one of four settings: colleges and universities, consulting firms, the private
sector, and the public sector
● I/O psychologists who work in consulting firms help a wide variety of organizations become more productive by
helping them select a high quality and diverse workforce, designing systems that will motivate employees while
treating them fairly, training employees, and ensuring that organizations treat applicants and employees in a legal
and ethical manner
● I/O psychologists who work in the private sector work for a single company such as IBM, Microsoft, and FedEx,
whereas consultants work with many companies.
● I/O psychologists in the public sector work for a local, state, or federal government agency. Though the private
sector historically paid more than the public sector, many employees believe the higher job stability of the public
sector offsets the potential for lower pay
Educational Requirements and Types of Programs
● Obtaining a master’s degree in I/O psychology takes between one and two years after the completion of a
bachelor’s degree
● Schools with terminal master’s degree programs do not have Ph.D. programs, and a master’s degree is the
highest that can be earned at such schools.
● Read page 11
Research in I/O Psychology
Why Conduct Research?
● Answering Questions and Making Decisions
○ Although there are many reasons for this reliance on research, the most important is that research
ultimately saves organizations money.
○ These monetary savings can result from many factors, including increased employee satisfaction,
increased productivity, and fewer accidents.
○ researchers have shown that the unstructured employment interview is not the best predictor of future
behavior on the job
● Research and Everyday Life
○ Understanding research helps you to critically listen and analyze results of these studies to make more
intelligent decisions.
● Common Sense Is Often Wrong
○ Unfortunately, common sense is not so common and is often wrong
Considerations in Conducting Research
Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories
● The first step in conducting research is to decide what to research
● Once a question has been asked, the next step is to form a hypothesis—an educated prediction about the
answer to a question.
○ This prediction is usually based on a theory, previous research, or logic
● Once a research idea has been created, the next step is to search the literature for similar research.
○ Journals consist of articles written by researchers directly reporting the results of a study
○ Journals can be difficult to read (and boring) but are the best source of unbiased and accurate information
about a topic.
○ Trade magazines contain articles usually written by professional writers who have developed expertise in
a given field.
○ Trade magazines present the research on a topic in an easy-to-understand format; however, the articles
in these publications do not cover all the research on a topic and can be somewhat biased
○ Magazines are good sources of ideas but terrible sources to use in support of a scientific hypothesis.
○ Magazine articles are often written by professional writers who do not have training in the topic and thus
little expertise in what they are writing about.
○ An increasingly popular source of information is the Internet.
■ A problem with relying on secondary sources such as the Internet is that one cannot be sure if the
information in a secondary source accurately reflects the information in the primary source.
The Location of the Study
● One disadvantage of laboratory research is external validity, or generalizability, of results to organizations in the
“real world.
● Another location for research is away from the laboratory and out in the “field,” which could be the assembly line
of an automotive plant, the secretarial pool of a large insurance company, or the interviewing room at a personnel
agency.
○ What field research obviously gains in external validity it loses in control of extraneous variables that are
not of interest to the researcher (internal validity).
○ Field research also provides researchers with an ethical dilemma.
○ Psychologists require that subjects participate in studies of their own free will—a concept called informed
consent
○ Universities have institutional review boards to monitor research to ensure ethical treatment of research
participants.
The Research Method to Be Used
● The choices include experiments, quasi-experiments, archival research, observations, surveys, and meta-
analyses.
● Experimental research. As you might recall from your general psychology course, the experimental method is
the most powerful of all research methods because it is the only one that can determine cause-and-effect
relationships.
○ Two characteristics define an experiment: (1) manipulation of one or more independent variables and (2)
random assignment of subjects to experimental and control conditions
○ In an experiment, the researcher intentionally manipulates one or more aspects of the question of
interest, called the independent variable, and measures the changes that occur as a result of that
manipulation, called the dependent variable.
○ The employees who received the training are collectively called the experimental group, and the
employees who did not receive the training are collectively called the control group.
● Quasi-experiments. Quasi-experiments are often used to evaluate the results of a new program implemented by
an organization
● Archival Research. Archival research involves using previously collected data or records to answer a research
question
○ Archival research has many desirable features, such as not being obtrusive or expensive, but it also has
severe drawbacks
○ Furthermore, the type of data needed by a researcher may not be in the archives because the data were
never recorded in the first place
● Survey. Another method of conducting research is to ask people their opinion on some topic.
○ Contrary to popular belief, providing incentives and sending reminders do not increase survey responses
● Meta-Analysis. Meta-analysis is a statistical method of reaching conclusions based on previous research.
○ With meta-analysis, the researcher goes through each article, determines the effect size for each article,
and then finds a statistical average of effect sizes across all articles. A metaanalysis results in one
number, called the mean effect size, which indicates the effectiveness of some variable.
○ Correlation coefficients (r) are used as the effect size when researchers are interested in the
relationship between two variables, and the majority of studies use correlation as their statistical test.
○ A difference score (d) is used as the effect size when researchers are looking at the difference between
two groups.
■ Although it is commonly written that effect sizes (d) less than .40 are considered to be small;
those between .40 and .80 are moderate, and those higher than .80 are considered large
■ It is important to note that these numbers are “rules of thumb”; the actual practical significance
of an effect size depends on many factors and even a small effect size can result in great
monetary savings for an organization
Subject Samples
● Decisions also must be made regarding the size, composition, and method of selecting the subjects who will
serve as the sample in a study
● To obtain the best research results, it is essential to use a random sample so that the sample will be as
representative as possible.
Running the Study
● Once the subject is finished with her participation, she should be debriefed, or told the purpose of the experiment
and be given a chance to ask questions about her participation.
● Statistical analysis helps us determine how confident we are that our results are real and did not occur by chance
alone.
● Significance levels indicate only the level of confidence we can place on a result being the product of chance.
They say nothing about the strength of the results.
● ignificance levels tell us the statistical significance of a study, and effect sizes (combined with logic) tell us the
practical significance of a study
Correlation.
● Correlation is a statistical procedure that enables a researcher to determine the relationship between two
variables
● It is important to understand that correlational analysis does not necessarily say anything about causality
○ an intervening variable, often accounts for the relationship between two variables
