lecture 1 material

Question 1

What is organisational psychology

Answer 1

The study of human behaviour in workplace settings and application of psychological principles, theory and research of the work setting

Question 2

Why is organisational psychology important

Answer 2

Jobs are often critical parts of our identity and therefore it helps define who we are and gauge our value in society, family and ourselves and provides opportunity for autonomy and independence. However there is also a large association between work and ill health due to mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and exhaustion/burnout

Question 3

What are 5 factors in the workplace that can increase risk of future depression, anxiety, and exhaustion

Answer 3

1. High cognitive and emotional demands
2. Low control or decision latitude at work
3. Poor social support
4. Unfair rewards
5. Insecurity and injustice

Question 4

What type of issues do organisational
psychologists study and provide solutions for

Answer 4

• Selection: help picking the right person for the job - well suited to the demands of the position
• Training: ensuring adequate training for employees
• Performance management: providing employees with feedback - what are the doing well and what can they improve on
• Promotion: fair promotions across employees based on performance (lack of fairness can cause injustices)
• Human error: when and why are people making mistakes
• Occupational stress: if employees are experiencing high levels of occupational stress, figuring out why and what is causing it
• Procrastination or absenteeism among employees

Question 5

What are the 3 aims of organisational psychology

Answer 5

• increase productivity
• improve performance
• improve quality of working life

Question 6

What was the problem, IV, DV and result of Greenberg (1990): pay cut study

Answer 6

• Problem: organisation perceives need to cut staff pay
• Control group: no change
• Independent variable: pay cut or no pay cut
• Dependent variable: theft or no theft
• Result: high theft in pay cut group

Question 7

What is classic management theory

Answer 7

A style of management emphasising hierarchy, specialised roles, and single leadership to optimise efficiency

Question 8

What is Scientific Management theory

Answer 8

Using scientific methods to develop efficient production processes to increase productivity

Question 9

Explain the key features of Taylor (1911): Principles of scientific management

Answer 9

• Time and motion studies: measuring how long it took to perform a task in order to increase specialisation
• Documentation of optimum performance: standardised procedures (e.g. methods for accomplishing job
  tasks, time for breaks), job simplification
• Skills training: optimising task knowledge to find the best person suitable for a task
• Incentive schemes: rewarding efficient work processes

Question 10

What was the importance of psychology and war in the history of organisational psychology

Answer 10

World wars were involved in the development of tests to classify military personnel including:
o Standford Binet Intelligence Test to test military personnel in large masses to measure people’s aptitude
o Aptitude (e.g. John Watson: perceptual motor skills)

Opportunity to see impact of testing:
o Improved processes for applied psychology

Selection:
o criteria opens path for individuals who thought they were not legible

Human factors:
o Creating equipment considering the human and their experience
o Specialising to the human

Question 11

Hawthorne Studies (1924-1936): What is the Hawthorne Effect and why does it occur

Answer 11

This effect refers to Changes to behaviour and performance may result from short-term psychological factors, such as awareness of being observed.
- e.g. when workers productivity increases as a result of change in the workplace (increasing/decreasing breaks, increasing/decreasing lighting etc.)

Therefore when managers pay attention to employees, better morale and productivity ensue due to these psychological factors

Question 12

What was the focus in organisational psychology during the human relations era

Answer 12

• How attitudes/emotions/beliefs affect
  behaviour
• Emphasis on job satisfaction
• Recognition of workers as individuals

Question 13

What was introduced to protect workers from discrimination regarding selection tests

Answer 13

Title VII of civil rights act (1964) protects workers from discrimination
- It was illegal to use selection tests that weren’t directly related to job performance –> protected against selection tests being used to disadvantage “protected” groups such as women and minority groups
- If a requirement was made (e.g. all employees must be 6ft) employers needed to explain why it was necessary to enforce this requirement and must have valid reasoning

Question 14

What is the Scientist-Practitioner Model

Answer 14

Educational model used to train psychologists

Question 15

What is the key premise of the Scientist-Practitioner Model

Answer 15

Trained professional psychologists should be knowledgeable in research and practice
- practice should be evidence-based (empirical research should always be basis of applied work)
- applied experience (practice) should be used to guide science and advanced scientific thinking

Question 16

Which of the following best describes one of the primary functions of the scientific method?

A) Provides a set of rigid rules for conducting experiments
B) Guarantees the discovery of groundbreaking scientific theories
C) Helps overcome biases and errors of judgment
D) Offers a definitive answer to all scientific inquiries

Answer 16

C) The scientific method helps us to overcome biases and errors of judgement

Question 17

What are the 6 stages of the scientific method

Answer 17

1. Problem Identification
2. Hypothesis Formulation
3. Data Gathering
4. Hypothesis Testing
5. Interpretation and Theory Formulation
6. Solution Implementation

Question 18

What is Problem Identification

Answer 18

Involves identifying gaps in the literature –> incremental gap analysis

Question 19

What is Hypothesis Formulation

Answer 19

Involves directly relevant theory and evidence guiding specific, well-justified predictions –> distantly related theory and evidence guiding specific, somewhat justified prediction

Question 20

What are some types of Data Gathering

Answer 20

Survey: most commonly used method to gather data for workplace research

Interviews, focus groups, observations, peer/supervisor ratings, performance records, electronic measurements, absenteeism data

Experiments: field and controlled/laboratory

Quasi-experiments

Question 21

What are the 3 challenges when conducting applied research

Answer 21

1. design problems:
2. ethical problems:
3. practical problems:

Question 22

Examples of design problems when conducting applied research

Answer 22

o Incomplete or biased sample (e.g. hiding important subgroups)
o Wrong methods chosen (e.g. inferring causality from cross-sectional survey)
o Asking the wrong question (e.g. measuring attitudes to goals, not understanding)
o Inappropriate measure used (e.g. unreliable or invalid measure used)

Question 23

Examples of ethical problems when conducting applied research

Answer 23

o recruitment involves coercion
o researcher fails to get informed consent form participants
o researcher fails to protect anonymity or privacy of participants
o researcher uses copyrighted methodologies without permission/payment
o researcher overpromises regarding potential results/implications of research

Question 24

Examples of practical problems when conducting applied research

Answer 24

o some stakeholders oppose research project
o organisation pulls plug on project
o findings not useful to organisation
o ensuring participants have sufficient time in their schedule to participate
o difficulty recruiting specialist populations
o world-wide pandemic happens and halts face-to-face research