Rank Ordering of Course Usefulness for
Jobs
First Full-Time Job
Present Full-Time Job
Course
Personnel Psychology
Legal Issues
Training
Psychometrics
I-O Psychology
Organizational Psychology
Advanced Statistics
SPSS
Thesis
Experimental Design
Individual Differences
Methods & Ethics
Advanced Social
Psychology
Ranking
Mean Rank
Ranking
Mean Rank
1
2
3
4
5.5
3.05
4.95
5.07
5.10
5.90
1
6
4
2
3
3.76
5.94
5.42
4.82
5.29
5.5
7
8
9
5.90
6.55
6.56
7.05
8
7
5
9
6.24
6.00
5.53
6.76
10
11
12
13
7.10
8.33
9.00
11.00
10
12
11
13
6.82
9.00
8.73
10.59
Growth in I/O Programs From 1986 - 2004
Increase in doctoral programs:
47.7%
Increase in master’s programs:
221.7%
Number of programs
____________________________________________________
Program
type
1986
2004
___________________________________________
MA/MS I-O Psych
22
66
PhD I-O Psych
40
52
Some Reasons for Growth in I-O Psychology
Economic --- Profit, Efficiency, Productivity
a) Macro and micro level
Technology --- Automation, Job changes, Job eliminations
• Training need
Social --• Employee education
• Employee needs regarding jobs (Enrichment, decision-making,
benefits)
• Dual careers
Legal --- Discrimination Law; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
Key Areas of Personnel Psychology
• Job Analysis
• Recruitment
• Selection (reliability, validity)
• Test Development
• Training
• Performance Appraisal
Knowledge Needed in Personnel Psychology
• Statistics (e.g., analysis, interpretation, application; SPSS)
• Discrimination Law (e.g., Adverse Impact, Title VII, ADA,
ADEA, FMLA, Sexual Harassment)
• Human Learning & Cognition
• Psychometrics (test/scale development)
• Social Psychology (e..g., schemas, self-fulfilling prophecies)
FMLA,
Applied work:
a)
Performed job analysis of the position of trolley car operator and
developed a performance test using mock trolley cars
b) Studied the effect of street lighting on driver and pedestrian safety
c) Developed early polygraph test
•
Heart rate
•
Blood pressure
•
Free association latency test
•
Automograph
Books:
Hugo Munsterberg
Musterberg Biography
On The Witness Stand (1907)
Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1913)
Applied work:
a) Director of the Bureau of Salesmanship Research at Carnegie Institute
b) Director of the Commission on the Classification Personnel in the Army
c) President of Northwestern University
Books:
Walter Dill Scott
Walter Dill Scott Biography
Theory of Advertising (1903) || Psychology of Advertising (1910)
Influencing Men in Business (1911) || Personnel Management (1923)
Psychology of Advertising Theory and Practice (1921).
a) Part of the team of psychologists that developed the Army Alpha and Beta tests
during WWI
b) Was instrumental in developing intelligence and aptitude tests in industry
c) Began the department of Applied Psychology (Carnegie Institute of Technology
1915)
Walther Bingham
Walter Bingham Biography
a)
Chair of the committee that created the Army Alpha and Beta intelligence tests
during the First World War
b) Involved in the creation of the Yerkes-Bridges Point Scale of Intelligence (1915)
Robert Yerkes
Applied work:
Founder of Scientific Management movement
a) Design of work methods (time & motion studies, tool design,
standardization of work)
b) Rest periods and performance
c) Employee selection & training
Books:
Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
Frederick Taylor
Applied work:
Worked with Munsterberg on street lighting project in Boston
Developed methods to select aviators, detect deception, enhance effectiveness
of advertising, employment testing/selection
Harold Burtt
Books:
•Principles of Employment Psychology (1926)
•Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1929)
•Legal Psychology (1931)
•Psychology of Advertising (1938)
Applied Psychology (1948)
Influences on the field of I-O Psychology
World War I:
• Need for group assessment for selection and placement of military recruits
• Development of Army Alpha & Beta intelligence tests
• Development of Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (1st self-report personality test)
Woodworth Personnel Data Sheet
• Purpose to identify military recruits likely to break down in combat
• 116 questions with yes/no response
• Items selected from lists of known symptoms of emotional disorders and from
questions asked by psychiatrists in their screening interviews
Robert
Woodworth Woodworth Biography
Members of the Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits
By mid-year of 1917, the first year of its existence, the team constructed 5 forms of the Army
Alpha test (verbal test), and developed the Army Beta exam, a nonverbal test for illiterate and
non-English speaking recruits. Final forms of the Army Alpha and Beta tests were published in
the beginning of 1919. By the time the war ended, the tests had been administered to
approximately 2 million recruits.
• The tests were the first instruments designed for group administration
• They also generated a great deal of interest in the application of intelligence testing
Sample Items from the 1917 Version of the Woodworth Data Sheet
6: Do you have too many sexual dreams?
29: Have you ever lost your memory for a time?
31: Were you happy when 14 to 18 years old?
38: Has your family always treated you right?
42: Do people find fault with you more than you deserve?
44: Did you ever make love to a girl?
48: Do you think drinking has hurt you?
50: Do you think you have hurt yourself by going too much with women?
52: Did you ever think you had lost your manhood?
53: Have you ever had any great mental shock?
54: Have you ever seen a vision?
57: Have you ever felt as if someone was hypnotizing you and making you act against your will?
58: Have you ever been bothered by the feeling that people are reading your thoughts?
62: Are you troubled with the fear of being crushed in a crowd?
81: Do you find it difficult to pass urine in the presence of others?
113: Can you stand pain quietly?
115: Can you stand disgusting smells?
Between the 1st & 2nd World Wars
• Development of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (now O*Net)
• Formation of the Psychological Corporation (James Cattell)
• Formation of the Institute for Sales Research
• Formation of the Journal of Applied Psychology (1917)
Cattell
Scott
• Doctoral degrees in industrial psychology begin being offered at U.S. universities
• The Great Depression (e.g., unemployment, government regulations)
• The Hawthorne Studies [effect of environmental changes e.g., lighting, on performance
discovered the key roles of: informal work groups, worker attitudes, supervisory style,
informal communication networks]
Elton Mayo
World War II:
• Development of training simulators (e.g., flight/aviation)
• Development of situational exercises [the Assessment Center method]
for "managerial" positions
• Growth of ergonomics or human factors
• Significant increase of females in the workforce
After WWII:
• Civil Rights Acts (1964, 1972, 1991)
• Organizational Psychology officially recognized (I-O Psychology)
Some Issues in I-O Psychology
a) Limited attention to research and practice in other countries
b) Focus on the perceived needs and concerns of management
c) Relative lack of applied training within I-O doctoral programs
d) Use of techniques without proof of adequate psychometric properties
e) Differences between I-O researchers and practitioners