Lecture 1
Marxism
Marxism is a political, cultural and economic philosophy, founded by Carl Marx, that theorized that
social conflict exists due to constant power struggles between capitalists and workers.
He saw the capitalists society divided into two classes:
→ The bourgeois: They own capital (money, land, means of production and materials.)
→ The workers: They didn’t own capital. They sell their labor powers to the bourgeois, who exploit
them to make profit.
“The poor will become poorer and the rich will become much richer.” (He was wrong, because the
poor did get a bit rich.)
Frederick Taylor
“People don’t like their jobs, so let’s make sure to give them bonus rewards.”
Brief History of I-O Psychology
1876-1930:
● Hugo Munsterburg, James McKenn Cattell, Walter Dill Scott, & Walter Van Dyke Bingham.
● World War I : Army Alpha (Group-administered test to evaluate U.S military recruits) &
Army Beta Tests (Tests for the illiterate recruits).
● 1917: First Ph.D. in industrial psychology awarded to Lilian Gilbreth → Research in time and
motion study = Human Engineering
1930-1964:
● The Hawthorne studies: They wanted to look for the influence of light in human behavior.
○ The Hawthorne effect: If there’s a camera your behaviour will change.
○ Measuring someone’s mental state is an invention of their privacy.
○ Attention and treating them as human beings makes them change and be more
productive.
● Human Relations movement:
○ Theories of motivation
○ Emotional world of the worker
○ Studies of job satisfaction
● World War II:
○ Before the WWII was the great depression
○ Civil Rights Act And Title VII→ 1960’s Civil Rights movement: Gender, race
equality became much more important. People thought about equality in the work for
the first time.
○ With WWII, there was a catalyst for ideas of leadership, how do you lead people?
,Changes in the workplace since 1980
→ Personal computing: Using a computer in the work space.
→ Telecommuting and virtual teams
→ Videoconferencing
→ Providing a service (now more) vs. manufacturing “goods”
→ Nature of work more fluid
→ Team (now more) vs. the individual
→ Little stability
→ Family friendly workplaces
→ Greater diversity
→ Global workplace
What motivates most?
1. Financial incentives
2. Interpersonal support
3. Acknowledgement for good work
4. Making progress
5. Clear goals
Answer = Making progress (Because it’s a moment of growth, where you feel like you have a clear
sense of direction.)
Self-determination Theory
(Deci & Ryan, 2001) Theory that argues that there are three essential needs for humans. It is the
leading motivation theory.
People are looking for:
● Competence: The need to produce desired outcomes and to experience mastery
● Relatedness: The need to feel connected to others.
● Autonomy: The need to feel ownership of one’s behavior.
When lockdown (in 2020) happened…
● Competence → People started to learn less, because the ways of learning previously were
social learning (from other people) and going to work for learning.
● Relatedness → People stopped meeting new people and meeting friends
● Autonomy → It went up, since there was more time for being with oneself.
The solution was Hybrid Working.
,Culture Issues in I-O Psychology
Multiculturalism
Culture: System in which individuals share meaning and common ways of viewing events and
objects. Sharing meanings and interpretations.
Cultural dimensions:
- Collectivism is the goal and Individualism is the standard. // When wealth goes up,
collectivism goes down.
- In difficult times, people get closer together. (E.g. Covid 2020)
- You can measure cultures in terms of dimensions, but be careful not to stereotype.
Research Methods and Statistics
Methods of Data Collection
Qualitative Methods:
● Includes procedures like observation, interview, case study and analysis of written documents.
● Generally produce flow diagrams and narrative descriptions of events/ processes.
Quantitative Methods:
● Rely on tests, rating scales, and physiological measures.
● Yield numerical results
, Common Research Designs
Experimental:
→ Random assignment of participant to conditions
→ Conducted in a laboratory or workplace (harder)
Non-experimental:
→ Does not include manipulation or assignment to different conditions
→ Two common designs include:
● Observational design: Observes and records behavior
● Survey/ Questionnaire design (Most common)
Quasi-experimental:
→ Non-random assignment of participants to conditions
Most common research is qualitative and experimental
Generalisability in Research
1. Application of results from one study or sample to other participants or situations
2. The more areas a study includes, the greater its generalisability
3. Every time a compromise is made, the generalisability of results is reduced
Measures of central tendency
● Mean: Average of a data set
● Mode: The most frequent number
● Median: The value in the middle of a data set
Statistical Power
Likelihood of finding statistically significant difference when true difference exists.
The smaller the sample size, the lower the power to detect a true or real difference.
