Matakuliah : L0074/Psikologi Industri dan Organisasi 2
Tahun
: 2008
Introduction to Performance Psychology
Pertemuan 1
WHAT IS PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY?
• Human beings are born to perform. Many integral parts of our
culture, such as education, work, and sport, explicitly value
successful performance.
• In contemporary Western society, the urge to perform successfully
has been seen as a basic drive.
• The psychology of performance seeks to understand the behaviours
initiated by the strivings for competence, or even excellence.
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AIMS OF PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY
• Performance psychology is interested in reaction time  speed of
response  example : completing tests in a set time, or reacting to
hazards during driving. (Matthews, Davies, Westerman, &
Stammers, 2000)
• The psychology of Human Performance studies how people can do
whatever they do better and/or faster. (C.S. Clarke, 1999)
• Performance psychology is the systematic application of
psychological principles and techniques to performance, particularly
when there is a time element and one must perform on demand.
(Brown, 2008)
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DISTINCTION BETWEEN COMPETENCE AND
PERFORMANCE
•
Competence refers to the fundamental capacity of the mind to
perform some task or set of computations
•
Performance refers to what the mind does compute in a given set
of circumstances.
•
Explaining performance requires both a model of competence and
an understanding of how the expression of that competence in
observable behaviour varies with factors such as stress and
voluntary intentions.
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THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE
PSYCHOLOGY
• The root of performance psychology start since early 19th century, when
Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory.
• At the end of 19th century, Ebbinghaus studies of memory and forgetting,
and sir Francis Galton’s studies of individual differences in ability to
perform.
• During the early 20th century, the momentum for behaviorism taking the
view that psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable
patterns of stimulus and response.
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• Also during the early 20th century, the development of branches of applied
psychology concerned with performance, and the application of scientific
principles to the management of industrial workforces, by Fredrick Taylor
(1856 – 1915).
• World war II provided the study for human operator by complex new war
technologies exceeded human capacities.
• Over the next decades, the disciplines of ergonomics and human factors
were established, and the notions of the (hu)man – machine system and
human engineering came into being.
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The Computational Metaphor for Performance
• The theory of human performance derives primarily from cognitive
psychology.
• The brain considered function like a computer, with groups of
neurons performing logical operations or computations.
• Modeling is fundamental to cognitive psychology, performance
psychologists often build and test such models.
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HUMAN INFORMATION PROCESSING
• Human brain = information processing in CPU.
• Input  processing unit  output
• Input (stimulus)  brain  output (response).
• Information  senses  internal representation  response.
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LIMITATIONS OF THE COMPUTER METAPHOR
1. There are a variety of philosophical issues which relate to
traditional questions such as the mind-body problem.
2. The metaphor may be broadly correct but unhelpful,
because of the diversity of possible computational
systems.
3. The computer metaphor may be appropriate to some
psychological functions, but not to some of the essential
attributes of humanity such as emotion, personality,
creativity and intelligence.
4. The computer metaphor suggests undue passivity.
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APPLICATIONS OF PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY
- Clinical psychologist  to understand disorders of cognition
- Sports psychologist  to advise sports people on optimal
training regimes
- Educational psychologist  developing valid tests of academic
learning.
- Applied most extensively to industrial & organizational
psychology :
* Ergonomics & human factors
* Stress & wellbeing
* Individual differences : Selection & assessment.
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ERGONOMICS
• Ergonomics  studies the interaction of technology and its human
users.
• The objective is to promote the safe and efficient utilization of
technology
HUMAN FACTORS
Application of human performance can focuses on:
- Fitting the job to the person  designing the technology
to fit human capacities
- Fitting the person to the job  selecting people for jobs.
DETERMINANTS OF WORK PERFORMANCE (from Blumberg &
Pringle, 1982)
Capacity
Performance
Willingness
Opportunity
STRESS AND WELLBEING
• Stress is commonplace at work.
• Stress may contribute to accident & wellbeing.
• Stress also affect the “willingness” as well as the “capacity” aspect
of work performance  promoting resentment, loss of motivation,
& absenteeism.
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• We must distinguish between external sources of stress (stressors)
and the person’s internal reactions.
• Stressors may have an arousing, energizing effect, or perceived as
challenges to overcome.
• Stress may also be a consequence of performance.
• Work activities should match the person’s abilities and interests,
without offending their values and principles.
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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
• Individual has many differences, like in speed or
accuracy, cognitive aptitudes, personality, mood,
and ageing.
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ASSESSMENT
• Organizations assess the performance of individuals to :
- recruit able trainees.
- track performance change during training.
- monitor the contributions of existing personnel.
• The assessment process concerned with both “capacity” and
“willingness” factors.
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CRITERIA OF GOOD PERFORMANCE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Job-specific task proficiency
Non-job-specific task proficiency
Written and oral communication task proficiency
Demonstrating effort
Maintaining personal discipline
Facilitating peer and team performance
Supervision / leadership
Management / administration
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