History of I/O Psychology

An overview of the origin and major events that defined the filed. Objective:

• history
• differences between different research designs
• correlational research and limit

History: early years 1900-1916

This is during the industrial revolution era.

Frederick Taylor wanted to get factory workers to be faster. Focused on

• industrial efficiency
• what can we do about the work environment and people to get people to be more productive on the assembly line

Hugo Munsterberg focused on consumer psychology (now called forensic psychology). He's the grand father of I/O psychology as he made the first textbook, called Psychology & Industrial Efficiency. He focused on how to find the best person for the job and design jobs for efficiency.

Robert Yerkes created the Army Alpha and Beta Tests to screen military recruits and place them. The war contributed a lot to this field:

• applied psychology emerged as a discipline
• huge emphasis on testing and created selection/placement tests, group ability testing (AGCT), situational tests, stress test for spies and sabotage agents.

Between the wars

Applied psychology emerged as a discipline

• emphasis on employee welfare led to personnel counseling during the Great Depression
• the US Employment Service developed the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) for the federal government.
• The US Employment Service completed a large-scale systematic analysis of jobs, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)
  • Realized the importance of matching individuals with job requirements.
  • predecessor of O*NET

Hawthrone-Western Electric Studies

Studied the workers at the Hawthrone plant:

• elimination study: what is the best lighting?
• Relay assembly test room study: how changes in job responsibilities are interpreted
• Interviewing program
• Bank wiring room observation study: showed that colleagues can put pressure on you to work at the same level

They found weird results, like every time the lights were dimmed, productivity went up. The most important result was that they found that workers' behaviors may have been changed because they were being observed, now known as the Hawthorne Effect.

History: WWII (1941-1945)

Testing became IO Psychologists' major contribution.

• selection and placement test
• group ability testing (AGCT was the predecessor to ASVAB)
• early situational tests: select, train pilots; measure attitude, morale
• US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) created a situation stress test for selecting spies and sabotage agents.

History: Specialization (1946-1963)

Development of more employment tests for industry, and more psychologists began to work for companies Development of college and graduate programs in IO psychology. Creation of division 14 of APA Sub-specialties crystallized.

History: government intervention 1964-1993

Government scrutiny emerged as a second authority. A lot of society issues arose during this Civil Rights movement. Lots of legislation were passed in regards to discrimination of individuals.

• civil rights act
• regulation of testing
• uniform employee guidelines
• Americans with disabilities act
• family and medical leave act - pregnancy

The current military selection test (ASVAB) was create during this time.

History: information age (1994-2018)

Internet accelerates change, experienced explosive growth, increased speed of delivery

Few new sectors created, enabled by technology.: social media, modern information based companies (google, ebay, amazon), e-business, virtual workspace.

Technology and simulations are used in selection.

History: experience age (2019-present)

Focus on seeking new experiences and connecting with others, the impact of COVID-19 on the worker and workplace, how employees experience and respond to mental health issues. AI and virtual reality.

The current trends in this field are captured in this SIOP article

The Scientist-Practitioner Model

40% of I/O psychologists are in academics.

A model or framework for education in an academic discipline based on understanding the scientific principles and findings evidenced in the discipline and how they provide the basis for the professional practice

• In other words, how do you apply what academics/scientists find to real practice?
• There is a gap in these two fields.

Research Methods

Primary Research

Steps

1. statement of the problem: all research starts with a question. This involves theory development and hypothesis testing.
2. design the research study: research design, naturalness of the setting, degree of control, external vs internal validity.
3. Use any primary research method
4. Measurement and analysis:
   1. measurement of variables: quantitative and categorical, research variables - independent, dependent, predictor, criterion.
   2. the correlation coefficient (r): reflects degree of linear relationship (-1 to 1). can be either negative or positive. it's magnitude is a size that is the index of strength of the relationship
   3. determining casualty: cannot be inferred from correlation. Determine causality through non-experimental methods is highly controversial.
5. Conclusion: boundary conditions for generalizability
   1. representativeness of subjects, degree of fit between subjects and research task, research method, debate about university students as subject
   2. research as a cumulative process.

What are primary research methods?

1. true experiment: causality. The key is randomization and generalizability (trade off between realism and control).
2. Quasi-Experiment: less control, more generalizability, used when you are unable to have random assignments to groups
3. Non-experiment: no manipulation of variables/assignments of participants to conditions. Examples include survey/questionnaire (response rate problem, truthfulness of response, internet surveys, m-turk approach) and observation (find relationships in data, generate ideas for further testing, rich in data in environment where behavior being studied occurs.).

Secondary Research

1. Meta-analysis: statistical study of studies, or aggregating existing results. It estimates the "true" relationship. Has subjective decisions, file drawer effect on non-published studies. Problem from differences in level of analysis of original studies. Increase population size to make it more accurate.
2. Data mining ("big data"): used to reveal patterns in large data sets. Correlation coefficient and other statistics analyzed. Not necessarily used to test theories. characterized by immense volume, velocity, and variety.

Qualitative Methods

Not very common in I/O research.

Includes: participative observation, interviews, focus groups, snowballing, and case studies.

Sources of data

Organizational records: frequently used in archival research. Ideal to control for differences in groups using statistical analysis. Questionnaire: response rate problem, quality of questions, truthfulness of responses, internet survey (m-turk) Observation: generate ideas for further testing, rich with data in environment where behavior being studies occurs, hawthorn effect. Interviews/Focus Groups: focus groups are asked to respond to a question through a facilitated discussion in which participants build on answers. Frequently used with qualitative research.

Organizational neuroscience: scientific study of neural activity as evidence in organizational attitudes and behaviors. Techniques include MRI, fMRI, EEG, MEG, HRV, TMS.

Ethics

APA code of ethics: 5 rights of participants (informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, protection from deception, debrief)

Presentation of results: fabricating data, HARKing.