CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO I/O PSYCH Flashcards
A branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to the workplace
Industrial-organizational 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 industrial approach (the “I” 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.
organizational approach (the “O” in I/O psychology)
The field of study that concentrates on the selection and evaluation of employees.
study and practice in such areas as analyzing jobs, recruiting applicants, selecting employees, determining salary levels, training employees, and evaluating employee performance.
Personnel psychology
The field of study that investigates the behavior of employees within the context of an organization.
concerned with the issues of leadership, job satisfaction, employee motivation, organizational communication, conflict management, organizational change, and group processes within an organization.
Organizational psychology
A field of study concentrating on the interaction between humans and machines.
concentrate on workplace design, humanmachine interaction, ergonomics, and physical fatigue and stress.
Human Factors/Ergonomics
An intelligence test developed during World War I and used by the army for soldiers who can read.
Army Alpha
An intelligence test developed during World War I and used by the army for soldiers who cannot read.
Army Beta
year when Walter Dill Scott publishes The Theory of Advertising
1903
the term “industrial psychology” was seldom used prior to World War I. Instead, the common terms for the field were
employment psychology, economic psychology, or business psychology
Two of the most interesting figures in the early years of I/O psychology were the husband and wife team of ________who were among the first, if not the first, scientists to improve productivity and reduce fatigue by studying the motions used by workers.
Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth
A series of studies, conducted at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois, that have come to represent any change in behavior when people react to a change in the environment.
Hawthorne studies
When employees change their behavior due solely to the fact that they are receiving attention or are being observed.
Hawthorne effect
A situation in which a student works for an organization, either for pay or as a volunteer, to receive practical work experience.
Internship
A paid or unpaid position with an organization that gives a student practical work experience.
Practicum
A formal research paper required of most doctoral students in order to graduate.
Dissertation
An educated prediction about the answer to a research question.
Hypothesis
A systematic set of assumptions regarding the cause and nature of behavior.
Theory
A written collection of articles describing the methods and results of new research.
Journals
A collection of articles for those “in the biz,” about related professional topics, seldom directly reporting the methods and results of new research.
Trade magazines
An unscientific collection of articles about a wide range of topics.
Magazines
The extent to which research results can be expected to hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained.
External validity
Like external validity, the extent to which research results hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained.
Generalizability
Research conducted in a natural setting as opposed to a laboratory.
Field research
The formal process by which subjects give permission to be included in a study.
Informed consent
A committee designated to ensure the ethical treatment of research subjects.
Institutional review boards
The result of a well-controlled experiment about which the researcher can confidently state that the independent variable caused the change in the dependent variable.
Cause-and-effect relationships
A type of research study in which the independent variable is manipulated by the experimenter.
Experiment
The alteration of a variable by an experimenter in expectation that the alteration will result in a change in the dependent variable.
Manipulation
The manipulated variable in an experiment.
Independent variable
The measure of behavior that is expected to change as a result of changes in the independent variable.
Dependent variable
In an experiment, the group of subjects that receives the experimental treatment of interest to the experimenter.
Experimental group
A group of employees who do not receive a particular type of training so that their performance can be compared with that of employees who do receive training.
Control group
Research method in which the experimenter either does not manipulate the independent variable or in which subjects are not randomly assigned to conditions.
Quasi-experiments
Research that involves the use of previously collected data.
Archival research
Used in metaanalysis, a statistic that indicates the amount of change caused by an experimental manipulation.
Effect size
Used in meta-analysis, a statistic that is the average of the effect sizes for all studies included in the analysis.
Mean effect size
A statistic, resulting from performing a correlation, that indicates the magnitude and direction of a relationship.
Correlation coefficients
A type of effect size used in meta-analysis that is signified by the letter d and indicates how many standard deviations separate the mean score for the experimental group from the control group.
Difference score
The extent to which the results of a study have actual impact on human behavior.
Practical significance
A sample in which every member of the relevant population had an equal chance of being chosen to participate in the study.
Random sample
A nonrandom research sample that is used because it is easily available.
Convenience sample
The random, unbiased assignment of subjects in a research sample to the various experimental and control conditions.
Random assignment
Informing the subject in an experiment about the purpose of the study in which he or she was a participant and providing any other relevant information.
Debriefed
A statistical procedure used to measure the relationship between two variables.
Correlation
A third variable that can often explain the relationship between two other variables.
Intervening variable
