Theoretical and philosophical issues in industrial/organizational psychology.

In preparing to address the question posed to the various divisions regarding the extent and character of theoretical and philosophical concerns in the various areas of psychology, I informally solicited input from about 20 Division 14 members. Almost without exception I received the same response: the observation that philosophical issues are not central to the daily activities of most I/O psychologists. After a bit more thought, most were able to identify areas or issues within I/O psychology to which philosophical issues are relevant. In the comments which follow, I will make no attempt to be systematic or complete in presenting the philosophical/theoretical issues facing I/O psychology. I will present examples of different types of issues facing the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligence, training, and employment.

Validity coefficients of cognitive ability tests for predicting job performance are impressive. Nevertheless, a need exists to supplement cognitive ability tests with additional predictors to maximize validity and utility and to minimize adverse impact, even for tests that are unbiased according to psychometric criteria. An agenda for research and practice is presented that includes building on the existing validity of cognitive ability tests for job selection by expanding both the set of constructs used to predict job performance and the set of performance criteria used to quantify job performance. Even greater benefits are likely to be associated with advances in knowledge about effective training. Such advances will require substantial investment in well-designed, large-scale studies and facile adaptation of lessons from other domains, such as cognitive psychology, to the organizational-training context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity and change in industrial/organizational psychology: Learning from previous mistakes.

Previous predictions of changes in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology have failed to materialize due to omissions in mainstream I/O psychology. Three of these deficiencies (ahistorical habits, failure to appreciate continuity, and implicit acceptance of a particular political–economic framework) are explored to examine I/O psychology's past and present and to better predict its future. These 3 characteristics are seen as pathologies in I/O psychology, and their consequences for predictions are regarded as symptoms of the pathology. The analysis suggests that the future will be more like the present than is currently assumed and that I/O psychologists need to better understand the position of their field in history, the historical context of organizational evolution, and the ongoing political economy. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training the Trainee as Well as the Trainer: Lessons to be Learned From Clinical Psychology.

The training literature in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology has benefited from empirical research in experimental psychology on such subject matter as massed vs distributive practice, knowledge of results (KOR), and the transfer of learning from the training setting to the workplace. The purpose of the present paper is to argue that further advances in the field of training will occur when there is a shift in research emphasis from reliance on findings from experimental psychology to building on extant training techniques in clinical psychology, particularly cognitive behavioral psychology. Further advances in the field of training may also occur when there is a shift in emphasis from the recipient of training, namely, the trainee, to the administrator of training, namely the trainer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reciprocal effects of science on practice: Insights from the practice and science of goal setting.

The hypothesis of this paper is that the science and practice of psychology are interdependent. Science drives practice which drives science. The science and practice of 25 years of programmatic research on goal setting theory in industrial-organizational psychology (I/O) is used in support of this hypothesis. I/O research on goal setting includes findings that (1) high goals lead to higher performance; (2) there is a linear relationship between goal difficulty and performance; (3) variables such as feedback, participative decision making, and competition affect performance to the extent that they lead to the setting of and commitment to high goals; and (4) mediators of goal setting are motivational and cognitive, with other variables mediating the effects of goals on performance in I/O settings. Scientists, practitioners, and scientist–practitioners alike are encouraged to work in unison in order to advance psychology for all. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Master's programs in industrial/organizational psychology: Current status and a call for action.

Reviews published and unpublished sources to describe characteristics of terminal master's programs in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology and argues that systematic attention should be paid to issues of education, employment, and professional identity for these master's graduates. The 55 or more programs represent a 3-fold increase in listings in less than a decade. In psycholoy departments, programs enrolled 59% of new I/O graduate students and awarded 67% of terminal graduate degrees during a 1-yr period. Important characteristics include length (about 2.5 yrs), many part-time and employed students, applied focus, emphasis on both industrial and organizational topics, but emphasis on either "psychology core" or technical I/O training. Most graduates find private sector employment, apparently moving away from organized I/O psychology. Implications for the profession are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction: What's What in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Career and personality development in the context of organizational dynamics, development, and change are discussed, and the search for the individual's quality of life, as well as quality of work life, is emphasized in this section on industrial organizational (I/O) psychology. The five articles augment the special issue of Professional Psychology, "Industrial/Organizational Psychology: 1980 Overview" (Meltzer & Stagner, 1980), and we hope that the contributions will be helpful in reviewing the rapidly growing I/O field; projecting goals for I/O psychology; and in accord with the current trend, linking the quality of work life with the quality of life. The task of organizing this section was not without difficulty. Because the entire June 1980 issue of Professional Psychology was devoted to providing "snapshots" of a changing field, the present section of this issue had to cover omissions and changes in directions, integrate the field as a whole, or become a vehicle for propagating a particular cause. The last purpose was manifestly avoided. Contributions were sought that provided an integrated overview or covered omissions and changes in direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitivism: Whose party is it anyway?

Comments on F. I. Craik's (see record 1992-03788-001) argument that cognitive science will have to come back to experimental psychology because psychological questions are empirical and cannot be answered by rationalist means. It is argued that Craik's belief is based on a misapprehension about cognitive science. Cognitive science is not rationalist. It is scientific but redresses an imbalance in the relative regard with which theory and data are typically held by experimental psychologists. It is argued that rather than being buried by cognitive science, experimental psychology should merge with the new theoretical renaissance represented by the cognitive scientific movement. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using Hazard Functions to Assess Changes in Processing Capacity in an Attentional Cuing Paradigm.

Processing capacity-defined as the relative ability to perform mental work in a unit of time-is a critical construct in cognitive psychology and is central to theories of visual attention. The unambiguous use of the construct, experimentally and theoretically, has been hindered by both conceptual confusions and the use of measures that are at best only coarsely mapped to the construct. However, more than 25 years ago, J. T. Townsend and F. G. Ashby (1978) suggested that the hazard function on the response time (RT) distribution offered a number of conceptual advantages as a measure of capacity. The present study suggests that a set of statistical techniques, well-known outside the cognitive and perceptual literatures, offers the ability to perform hypothesis tests on RT-distribution hazard functions. These techniques are introduced, and their use is illustrated in application to data from the contingent attentional capture paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instructional psychology: Past, present, and future.

Traces the history of instructional psychology from the early part of this century to recent developments. Currently, instructional psychology, with the methods and concepts of cognitive psychology, focuses on the acquisition of intellectual competence. Researchers are examining such areas as the knowledge and cognitive processes required in advanced levels of reading and text comprehension, the computational and problem-solving skills needed in mathematics, the skills of learning assessed by aptitude tests, and the effects on school achievement of the interaction between initial ability and classroom variables. The emerging field of instructional psychology can be described in terms of 4 major components: the nature of the competence to be attained, the initial state of the learner, the transition processes between these 2 stages, and ways of assessing and monitoring performance changes in the acquisition of competence. Principles that should guide the development of a psychology of instruction are discussed. (110 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The challenge from biology to cognitive science.

Concepts from cognitive science have largely replaced behaviorist concepts as the primary explanatory tools of contemporary psychology. However, cognitive science is not without its critics and shortcomings. It would therefore be a mistake for psychologists to uncritically accept cognitive science as it uncritically accepted the logical positivism that undergirded behaviorism for so many decades. Effective philosophical criticisms of cognitive science have been offered by Searle (1980) and Dreyfus (1979). In this paper I will present difficulties with cognitive science that arise from the science of biology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition has long held the position as the premier international outlet for psychological studies of memory and cognition. The journal publishes work that is programmatic, rigorously designed and analyzed, and of great theoretical importance. The work published here is widely cited and includes some of the most influential studies in the field of cognitive psychology. The journal has a fairly rapid turnaround time, and the reviews are typically of high quality. As editor, I will work to ensure that all of these positive aspects remain in place, and to make changes that I believe will help the journal maintain its leadership position in the future. There are two main innovations that I will bring to the journal. The first is to broaden coverage to include more articles related to cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. The second is to encourage the submission of shorter empirical articles through the initiation of a Brief Reports section. I also hope to attract some of the highest quality papers in cognitive neuroscience. I encourage my colleagues whose work includes both behavioral and neuroscientific approaches to submit their best papers to JEP: LMC. I hope to be able to continue the journal's long tradition of publishing some of the best and most influential papers in experimental psychology, while opening the door a bit wider to newer perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Industrial/organizational psychology and unions: A viable relationship?

Points out that industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists have traditionally neglected the role of labor unions, although the early history of the profession indicates clear awareness that unions were important, and early American labor leaders lent their prestige to personnel research by psychologists. The recent gap is attributed partly to doubt among union leaders that I/O psychologists are truly impartial, and partly to a feeling that secrecy is too important for outsiders to be allowed access to collective bargaining data. An important contributing factor is that few graduate programs in I/O psychology either mention or provide a thorough introduction to union functions. Despite these handicaps, some psychologists have worked successfully with unions, and a modest data bank of useful material on union functioning has been accumulated. Union officials should consult I/O psychologists on organization problems in a manner comparable to that of management. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Survey of research with psychological tests in India.

The article gives an overview of the research with psychological tests in India. The main emphasis in this summary and critique will be on current research in the area of psychological tests although other areas will be treated. Omitted here is the large volume of work in social psychology, most of which stems from the pioneering work of the Unesco Tensions Project in 1950 for which Gardner Murphy was the consultant. The orientation is still quite British, largely because the older psychologists, who could afford to go abroad for graduate training, either went to London or to Edinburgh. Three clear psychological lines are now evident: (a) pyschological testing for school use--intelligence, achievement, aptitude; (b) studies with applied problems--such as industrial fatigue, research on tests for worker selection, social psychology problems (largely via questionnaires) and tensions between social groups and classes; (c) clinical, taking the form of a preoccupation with the Rorschach and TAT. Departments of psychology are still largely under the dominance of philosophy. Statistics, in line with the cognitive emphasis from Great Britain, is much developed, particularly factor analysis. There is the ever-present tendency to look for "quick solutions" and, on occasion, to adapt foreign psychological techniques too uncritically. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

American female pioneers of industrial and organizational psychology during the early years.

American female psychologists who contributed to the development of industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology during the early years are presented. An overview of the education, scholarship, practice, and professional service activities is provided for 4 pioneers (Marion Almira Bills, Elsie Oschrin Bregman, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, and Mary Holmes Stevens Hayes). These early female I/O psychologists blended research, applications of psychology, and service in ways that prefigure current science and practice within the field. Incorporating women into the history of I/O psychology is imperative to the attainment of a more complete understanding of the past and a fuller comprehension of the present. In addition, lessons for current and future I/O psychologists are ascertained from the accomplishments of these pioneers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology Without Boundaries: Crossing the Longest Undefended Border in the World.

The abolition of boundaries dividing subfields of psychology is made difficult by, among other forces, different reward systems and overwhelming amounts of information. The current collection of papers is an interesting demonstration of the values of transporting intellectual goods across one set of such boundaries: those between I/O psychology and clinical, social/personality, and cognitive/neuropsychological research and theory. Although because of space limitations the demonstration is incomplete, it should encourage more cross-boundary thinking and the recognition that academic and applied psychologists have much to offer to, and to gain from, each other's fields of endeavour. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specialty Guidelines for the Delivery of Services by Industrial/Organizational Psychologists.

The present Specialty Guidelines are are supplements to the generic Standards for Providers of Psychological Services, originally adopted by the American Psychological Association (APA) in September 1974 and revised in January 1977 (APA, 1974b, 1977). These Specialty Guidelines for the Delivery of Services by Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychologists are designed to define the roles of I/O psychologists and the particular needs of users of I/O psychological services. Like the APA generic Standards, the I/O Specialty Guidelines are concerned with improving the quality, effectiveness, and accessibility of psychological services for all who require benefit from them. These Specialty Guidelines are intended to clarify questions of interpretation of the APA generic Standards as they are applied to I/O psychology. This document presents the APA's position on I/O practice. They have been established by the APA as a means of self-regulation to protect the public interest. They guide the specialty practice of I/O psychology by specifying important areas of quality assurance and performance that contribute to the goal of facilitating more effective human functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity Through Applying Ideas From Fields Other Than One's Own: Transferring Knowledge From Social Psychology to Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Subfields of psychology can be arguably characterized as islands of unconnected knowledge. The underlying theme of this paper is that these subfields have much to gain by looking at and studying each other's respective literature. This paper explains how the field of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology has benefited from theory and research in social psychology, and suggests ways it can benefit even more so. Specifically, moral development, the group-serving bias, as well as inducing feelings of hypocrisy so as to foster subsequent behaviour change are discussed. Their potential for leading to further insight into existing problems, refining existing theories, and for raising new questions in I/O psychology is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)