Module 5: History and Development of Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Question 1

Who did Wilhelm Wundt train in the 1880s who would have a major influence on the eventual emergence of I-O psychology?

Answer 1

1. Hugo Munsterberg (Director of Psychological Laboratories, Harvard University)
2. James McKeen Cattell

Question 2

What field of psychology did Hugo Munsterberg and James McKeen Cattell have major influence on?

Answer 2

eventual emergence of I-O psychology

Question 3

What were Hugo Munsterberg’s contributions?

Answer 3

• first to measure abilities in workers and tie those abilities in performance
• applied rudimentary statistics to “analyze” the results of his studies
• Psychology and Industrial efficiency 1913 - first I/O book

Question 4

What is Hugo Munsterberg’s position?

Answer 4

Director of Psychological Laboratories, Harvard University

Question 5

What are James Mckeen Cattell’s contributions?

Answer 5

• importance of differences among
  individuals as a way of predicting
  their behavior
• interested in general laws of
  behavior and less interested in the
  differences

Question 6

What are Walter Dill Scott and Walter Van Dyke Bingham’s contributions?

Answer 6

• developing methods for selecting and training sales personnel
• adapted a well-known intelligence test (the Stanford–Binet test, designed for testing one individual at a time) to make it suitable for mass group testing. This new form of test was called the Army Alpha.

Question 7

What is Hollingworth’s occupation?

Answer 7

An early applied psychologist

Question 8

What were Hollingworth’s contributions?

Answer 8

➤ was asked by Coca-Cola to help the company persuade the federal government that caffeine, which was an important part of the recipe for the drink, was not harmful to those who ingested it. The government contended that caffeine impaired motor performance and mental efficiency
➤ Request for consulting help: How to interview farmers, effect of perfume on emotions, hours of
the day when advertising was most effective, correct height for work benches, best color for a
railroad to paint its boxcars, legibility of traffic signs, differences in buying habits of men and
women, value of auditory versus visual channels for advertising, selection of clerks, legibility of typeface

Question 9

What are Elton Mayo’s contributions?

Answer 9

➤ revery obsession Australian psychologist Elton Mayo proposed that this mental state resulted from the mind-numbing, repetitive, and difficult work that
characterized U.S. factories in the early 20th century, causing factory workers to be unhappy, prone to resist management attempts to increase productivity, and sympathetic to labor unions.
➤ Hawthorne studies in Harvard
➤ embark on a much more extensive series of interviews with workers

Question 10

What were the contributions during WWII?

Answer 10

➤ Applied psychologists suggested that cockpits be standardized with respect to the placement of displays and controls and that controls be given unique shapes so that a pilot would know simply by grasping a control that it was the correct one
➤ renewed interest in ability testing
➤ Henry Murray, was in charge of the assessment center for the Office of Strategic Services

Question 11

What were the contributuons during Post WWII?

Answer 11

➤ a boom time for industry, with many jobs to be filled and applicants to be tested
➤ increasing trend toward labor unrest
➤ unprecedented interest in worker attitude surveys
➤ By 1950, as employers realized that interests and attitudes and personality might be contributors to desirable outcomes such as productivity and workforce stability, a glut of tests had entered the market.
➤ Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Question 12

In the case of work psychology, what type of behavior does psychology deal with?

Answer 12

Psychology deals with behavior. In the case of work psychology, that means the behavior of workers, or worker performance.

Question 13

What are the variables that I-O psychologists have used as measures of performance?

Answer 13

Consider the following variables that I-O psychologists have used as measures of performance (Campbell,
McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993):
➤ Time to complete a training course
➤ Number of pieces produced
➤ Total days absent
➤ Total value of sales
➤ Promotion rate within an organization

Question 14

What is performance (according to Campbell’s Model of Job Performance)?

Answer 14

Actions or behaviors relevant to the organization’s goals; measured in terms of each individual’s proficiency

Question 15

What is effectiveness (according to Campbell’s Model of Job Performance)?

Answer 15

Evaluation of the results of
performance; often controlled by factors beyond the actions of an individual.

Question 16

What is productivity (according to Campbell’s Model of Job Performance)?

Answer 16

Ratio of effectiveness (output) to the cost of achieving that level of effectiveness (input)

Question 17

What is Declarative Knowledge?

Answer 17

Knowledge about facts and things; an understanding of a given task’s requirements: facts, principles, goals, self-knowledge

Question 18

What are Procedural Knowledge and Skills?

Answer 18

Knowing how to do things: cognitive skills, psychomotor skills, physical skills, self-management skills, interpersonal skills

Question 19

What is motivation?

Answer 19

Choices that individuals make: choice to perform, level of effort, persistence of effort

Question 20

What are determinants of performance?

Answer 20

Basic building blocks or causes of performance,
which are declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and motivation

Question 21

What are performance components?

Answer 21

Components that may appear in different jobs and
result from the determinants of performance; John Campbell and colleagues identified eight performance components, some or all of which can be found in every job.