I&O-psychology
Chapter 1
Module 1.1
Authenticity An emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive and
responsible mode of human life. This is a trend of interest within the I&O- psychology
Industrial & Organizational psychology The application of psychological principles, theory and
research to the work setting. It’s not just work orientated. It could also relate to many other situations like
family.
Society for industrial and organizational psychology An association to which many I-O
psychologists, both practitioners and researchers, belong. Designated as division of the APA.
According to this society the actual definition for I-o psychology is:
Industrial-organizational psychologists recognize the interdependence of individuals, organizations and
society and the recognize the impact of factors such as increasing government influences, growing
consumer awareness, skill shortage and the changing nature of the workforce. I-O psychologist facilitate
responses to issues and problems involving people at work by serving as advisors and catalysts for
business industry, labor, public, academic, community and health organization.
They are scientist who derive principles of individual, group and organizational behavior through research.
I-O psychology is originally divided into three categories:
- Personnel psychology A field of psychology that addresses issues such as
recruitment, selection, training, performance, appraisal, promotion, transfer and termination
Human resource management Practices such as recruitment, selections, retention, training
and development of people in order to achieve individual and organizational goals
- Organizational psychology Field of psychology that combines research from social
psychology and organizational behavior and addresses the emotional and motivational side of
work
- Human engineering Human factor psychology. The study of the capacities and
limitations of humans with respect to a particular environment.
Scientist- practioner model A model that uses scientific tools and research in the practice of I-O
psychology. So they actually uses all their knowledge in practice
Module 1.2
The past:
Two scientists who had a lot of influence on the development of I-O psychology: Hugo Munsterberg and
James Mckeen Catell.
Hugo Munsterberg Measure individual abilities and tie those to performance. He was also the
first to write a textbook on this subject.
Catell One of the first to realize the importance of differences among individuals is a
way to predict their behavior.
Walter dill scott Along with walter van dyke he developed methods for selecting and training
sales personel.
,Elton mayo
Revery obsession Australian psychologist Elton Mayo proposed that this mental state
resulted from mind- numbing, repetitive and difficult work. That characterized US factories.
Causing factory workers to be unhappy, prone to resist management attempts to increase
productivity and sympathetic to labor unions
Generalizations from the past:
1. Mental ability test have always played an important part in the practice of industrial psychology
2. Most industrial psychologists were focused on improving productivity and reducing counterproductive
behavior such as absenteeism and turnover
3. There was a tendency to see the three different branches of I-O psychology as unrelated to, and
possibly in competition with, one another to explain industrial behavior
4. It was taken for granted that the unit of analysis was the individual work rather than the group,
organization or even culture.
The future:
Four challenges of future I-O psychology:
1. It needs to be relevant So study the problems of today, not the past
2. It needs to be useful I-O psychologists must always think of a way to put the theory to
action
3. It needs to think bigger Relate it to different global problems like poverty
4. It needs to be grounded As long as we use science to do things people will have faith in I-O
psychology
Module 1.3
Culture A system in which individuals share meanings and common ways of viewing events
and objects
Culture plays an important role in bringing people together. Many views on life can differ which makes it
easy to clash with people.
The dynamic of top-down and bottom up process across level of culture
Global National Organizational Group culture Individual
,Chapter 3: Individual differences and assessment
Individual differences Dissimilarities between or among two or more people
Cattell plated a big part in the development of I-O psychology.
Mental test Instrument designed to measure a subject’s ability to reason, plan,
and solve problems and intelligence test. Founded by Cartell
Differential psychology Scientific study of difference between or among two or more people
After studying under Galton, Cartell had developed a method of measuring mental ability
Psychometrics Practice of measuring a characteristic such as mental ability, placing it
on a scale or metric
After this differential psychology combined with psychometrics
Early differential psychologists most commonly measured intelligence or, cognitive abilities. The g-factor.
In addition to cognitive abilities I-O psychologists consider individual differences in physical abilities,
personality, interest, knowledge and emotion.
Module 3.2: Human attributes
The taxonomy of Fleishman is a taxonomy that defines human abilities according to three categories:
Cognitive, physical and perceptual- motor abilities. They do not cover personality, affect or interest which
means its rather objective
Cognitive abilities
IQ Abbreviation of intelligence quotient. A measure of intelligence obtained by giving a subject a
standardized IQ test. The score is obtained by multiplying the ratio of the subjects mental age to chronical
age by 100. In I-O psychology it is usually defined as the ability to manipulate information. Measure of the
G-factor is reasoning ability, knowledge acquisition and problem solving ability.
Intelligence is important at work. Almost every job requires certain ways of manipulation of information.
A person with a higher g-factor is more successful in complex tasks than someone with a lower G factor,
but this not always guarantees success. When it comes to interpersonal skills, someone with a high g-
factor can also fail. Jobs can diver in how much the depend on information processing
‘’G’’ is practically said to be an important factor in all countries
Cognitive abilities beyond the g-factor are defined as specific abilities and there are a few of those, but
there is not a certain amount. Cognitive abilities have layers to them.
- Highest layer: G- factor
- Middle layer: Fluid/crystalized intelligence, memory, visual perception, auditory perception,
information retrieval and cognitive speed
- Lowest layer: These are abilities derived from middle layer, like information ordering and spatial
relation
People with higher scores on the math part of the SAT’s were more likely to go into a career involved with
technology or science
People with high scores on verbal parts of the SAT”s were more likely to go into a career involved with
humans
Memory is also an import part that I-O psychologist often research. Because of multitasking. The ability to
juggle more tasks simultaneously
, Physical abilities
Physical abilities are defined in three categories:
- Muscular strength
- Cardiovascular endurance
- Movement quality
Physical abilities decrease when you get older. Females have less muscle mass to begin with and the also
have less cardiovascular endurance.
Physical screening are giving to see if someone’s fit enough for the job, but also to predict whether
someone is likely to be injured. If so, the wont make it through, because companies don’t want to pay for
that.
Sensory abilities Physical functions of all the senses and kinesthetic feedback. These belong to
the category of movement quality. These are often tested in would-be employees, but they can not be
rejected because of it. That would be rejecting someone because of the fact that they are disabled. In this
model a question mark is put after this, because of the previous model of intelligence. In this model non
cognitive abilities are linked to cognitive abilities. So that would make the rejection based on cognitive
abilities.
Psychomotor abilities Physical functions of movement, associated with coordination, dexterity and
reaction time, also called motor or sensori-motor abilities.
Personality and work behavior
Personality plays a big role in I-O psychology. Probably even bigger than the G-factor. The seven reasons
why personality matters in a work space:
- They are weight as heavily as the g-factor
- Personality address the ‘’will do’’ aspect and intelligence covers the ‘’can do’’ aspect
- When combining personality traits, the relationship between personality and work performance
becomes even stronger
- Personality improves the prediction of work behavior next to intelligence and experience
- There are smaller difference on ethnicity when it comes to personality
- Personality measure success in life
The big five
O Openness to experience Curious, imaginative, independent, creative
C Conscientiousness Tendency to be responsible, organized, planful and achievement
oriented. Charachterized by: Responsible, persistent, planful, achievement orientated
E Extraversion Sociable, assertive, talkative, energetic
A Agreeableness Like, easy to get along with, friendly. Characterized by: Cooperative,
trusting, likable, friendly
N Emotional stability (neuroticism Secure, calm, poised, relaxed
Criticism on the big 5: Overarching importance of conscientiousness, the were to few to capture all traits,
there is a strong correlation between conscientiousness and extraversion, also conscientiousness isn’t
strongly correlated to actual measure of work behavior and the combination of the factors led to better
prediction than just one factor.
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