Psychological Research Methods

Introduction to I/O Psychology

• I/O psychology applies psychological principles to the workplace.
• The purpose is to enhance the dignity and performance of humans and within organizations, by advancing the science and knowledge of human behavior.
• Organizations can benefit by increased employee motivation.

Differences Between I/O and Business

• I/O psychology focuses on factors affecting people in an organization, while business programs focus on organizational performance.
• I/O psychology uses data from action research to find solutions, while business focuses more on overall performance.
• I/O psychology relies on extensive research, quantitative methods and testing techniques with use of empirical data and statistics.
• I/O psychologists don't conduct therapy.
• I/O psychologists use a scientist-practitioner model.
• They act as scientists and apply research findings.

Impact & Perspective

• I/O psychology professionals can positively impact people's lives.
• Advocate for worker well-being, benefiting society.
• From a societal perspective I/O psychology can improve life quality by increasing employee effectiveness.

Major Fields in I/O Psychology

• Two approaches exist in I/O psychology.
• Industrial Approach
  • Focuses on competencies needed for a job and staffs the organization accordingly.
  • Increases competencies through training
  • Helps organizations hire the right people
• Organizational Approach
  • Creates an organizational structure and culture to motivate employees.
  • Provides safe, enjoyable, and satisfying work environments.
  • Focuses on building the entire organization's structure.

Major Fields in I/O Psychology

• Personnel Psychology concentrates on employee selection and evaluation.
• Personnel psychologists analyze jobs to gain a picture of what.
• Organizational Psychology studies employee behavior within an organization's context.
  • Concerned with issues within organizations.
  • Conduct surveys and act as consultants and seek to make sure that workflow of an organization is efficient.
• Human Factors/Ergonomics studies the interaction between humans and machines.
  • Collaborates with technical professionals to create safer, more efficient workplaces.

Brief History of I/O Psychology

• 1903: Walter Dill Scott wrote "The Theory of Advertising".
• 1910: Hugo Münsterberg wrote "Psychology and Industrial Efficiency".
• 1911: Walter Dill Scott wrote "Increasing Human Efficiency in Business."
• Formerly termed "economic psychology," "business psychology," "employment psychology."
• Had its beginnings during World War I (Army Alpha and Army Beta tests).
• Army Alpha: Intelligence test for soldiers who can read.
• Army Beta: Intelligence test for soldiers who cannot read.
• Frank and Lilian Moller Gilbreth were among the first scientists looking to improve productivity and reduce fatigue by studying motions used by workers.
• Refers to Hawthorne studies.
  • Series of studies conducted at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois, which represent any change in behavior because of a reaction to a change in their environment.
    • Hawthorne effect specifically speaks to when employees change their behavior because of being observed.

Four Major Changes in I/O Psychology in the 1980s & 1990s

• Increased use of sophisticated statistical techniques and analysis methods.
• New interest in applying cognitive psychology to industry.
• Increased interest in how work affects family life and leisure activities.
• Renewed interest in developing methods to efficiently select employees.

Employment & Educational Requirements for I/O Psychologists

• Employment can be found at places such as Chairman and CEO positions, City manager, Compensation analyst, Consultant, Director of assessment and selection, Director of organizational effectiveness, Director of training and development, Director of workforce planning, EEO/Diversity specialist, Employee relations manager, HR director/generalist/representative/specialist/supervisor, Industrial-organization Manager, Personnel roles, President, Professor, Recruiter, Research positions, Senior partner, Staffing manager, Trainer, Training coordinator/manager, Vice President positions, and so on.
• Educational Requirements (Philippine Context)
  • Bachelor's Degree.
  • Optional BLE Psychometrician.
  • Master's Degree (I/O Psychology)
  • BLE Psychologist.
  • Professional Membership.
  • Optional PsyD or PhD.

Research

• Conduct research to answer questions and make decisions with the goal of helping organizations make money.
• Research also can help us to analyze and criticize
• Common sense is portrayed as often wrong

Considerations in Conducting Research

• Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories
• Literature Reviews
• The Location of the Study
• The Research Method to Be Used
• Subject Samples
• Running the Study
• Statistical Analysis

Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories

• Hypothesis is an educated prediction about the answer to a research question.
• Theory a systematic set of assumptions regarding the cause and nature of behavior.

Literature Reviews

• Journals: written collections of articles describing methods and new research results (Ex: Applied Psychology).
• Bridge Publications are publications usually by professors for practitioners, less formal/statistical than journals (Ex: Academy of Management Executive, Harvard Business Review).
• Trade Magazines are collections of articles for those "in the biz" about related professional topics, that seldom directly report new research (HR Magazine and Training).
• Magazines collect unscientific articles on wide-ranging topics (Ex: People, Time, and Cat Fancy).

Location of Study

• Laboratory Research
  • Refers to External Validity, which is the extent research results can be expected to hold true outside the setting in which they were obtained.
  • Generalizability is a consideration, which refers to the extent to which research results hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained.
• Field Research
  • Conducted in a natural setting (not a lab).
  • Researchers require subjects to participate in the study of their own free will.
  • Informed Consent: the subjects must give permission to be included in a study through formal process.
  • Institutional Review Boards: ensures the ethical treatment of research subjects and close attention to confidentiality.

Research Methods

• Experiments
  • Determine cause-and-effect relationships.
  • Type of research where the independent variable is manipulated by the experimenter
  • Requires the ability to manipulate things.
  • Manipulation refers to by the experimenter in expectation that the alteration will result in
    • a expectation that the alteration will result in a change in the dependent variable.
  • Random assignment of variables.
  • Independent Variable (Manipulated)
  • Dependent Variable (Expect behavior change).
  • Experimental group = treatment being assessed
  • Control Group = no treatment
• Quasi-Experiments
  • When experimenters cant manipulate independent variables or can not be randomly assigned to conditions.
  • Often used to evaluate the results of a the new program implemented by an organization.
• Archival Research
  • Using of previously collected data
• Observations
• Surveys

Statistical Analysis

• Correlation = a statistical procedure used to measure the relationship between two variables
• Intervening Variable = a third variable that can often explain the relationship between two other variables.

Considerations in Conducting Research: Ethics

• Type A Dilemma
  • High level of uncertainty as to what is right or wrong, or what is the best solution (positive and negative consequences).
• Type B Dilemma
  • (Rationalizing dilemmas) clear difference between right and wrong.
  • Individuals know what is right, but choose the solution that is most advantageous to themselves.

Job Analysis

• Job analysis is the base from which almost all human resources activities are derived from.
• It is the process of gathering and analyzing information about the details associated with the work an employee performs including the worker characteristics needed to perform under the conditions of which work is performed.
• It would be difficult to hire without this for legal reasons.
• Job analyses yield lists of job activities can be systematically used to create training programs.

Importance of Job Analysis

• Writing Job Descriptions
• Employee Selection
• Training
• Personpower Planning
• Performance Appraisal
• Job Classification
• Job Evaluation
• Job Design
• Compliance with Legal Guidelines
• Organizational Analysis
  • One written product is a job description.
  • A summary of the job requirements.
  • Job analysis is where information is identified, and job descriptions are written.

Employee Selection Considerations

• Employee selection includes and is dependent on skills, qualifications and experience.
• Having a clear understanding of tasks to be performed and and the competencies needed is essential.
• Important to understand if employees are able and willing to move from one job to another.
• Organizations tend to promote good employees until incompetent (Peter Principle).
• Allows matching jobs so that there is better alignment between personal requirements.

Performance Appraisal

• Use of job analysis aids in the creation of a instrument.
• Assessment of an employee's job performance and overall contribution to a company is key.
• Assessment of employee knowledge can improve employee training/counseling.

Job Classification

• Useful for determining pay levels, transfers, and promotions.
• Job analysis enables classifying jobs into groups based on similarities.

Job Evaluation

• Job analysis information can determine the worth of the job.
• Determining content and method of how work is performed.
• Analyzed information can be used to find optimal ways that a job should be performed.

Compliance with Legal Guidelines

• During the process of the job analysis, analysts often are aware of certain problems within the organization.

Job Analysis Interview

• Information is collected from a person by having them talking about the function for which it's used in.
• During the course of the interview, job analyst could become aware of certain problems within the organization.

Writing a Good Job Description

• A summary of the job and should usually two to five pages.
• Descriptors can be useful for allowing for potential actions.
• Needs detailing.
• According to Hurtz and Wright (2012) description should contain eight sections including...
  • Job title, brief summary, work activities, tools and equipment used, work context, performance standards, compensation information, and personal requirements.
    • An accurate title has to accurately describe the nature of the job

Brief Summary

• Summarizes in a paragraph everything about the nature of purpose.

Work Activities & Tools

• This is to define the tasks and which worker its related to.
• This can be used to identify the tools and equipment used to perform the work activities.

Job Context, Work Performance, and Compensation Information

• Section describes environment in which those tools are implemented.
• Its important for people with disabilities to see if they match within a particular job circumstance.
• The job description should outline standards for performance
• The details related to compensation (salary).

Job Competencies

• Contains job specifications/competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities).
• Important to divide information into subsections.
• Job Specifications
• the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform a job.
• Two subsections define the difference

Preparing for a Job Analysis

• Decisions should be made and what type of analysis prior.
• Questions to answer include...
  • Who will conduct the analysis?
  • How often should a job description be updated?
  • Which employees should participate?
  • What types of information should be obtained?
• A trained individual in the Human Resources department will conduct most of the job analysis, but can also be conducted by the job incumbents, supervisors, or outside consultants.
• Job descriptions should be updated significantly, high-tech jobs descriptions change across time
• Important to define which job to craft

Which Employees Should Participate?

• For many organizations, it is advisable to have people take part.
• When they are committed to an assessment (people who know about the jobs and includes job incumbents, supervisors, customers, and upper-level management).
  • The end goal is to generate information about the tasks performed, and can include field workers.
• Job participation is about how a method can have the job analyst to perform it.

Writing Task Statements

• Task inventory = defining tasks performed in a job.
  • Good task statements include where it is made, and when it is done.
  • The process of training is dependent on this.

Job Evaluation

• Is the process of determining monetary worth of a job.
• Once a job analysis has been completed and the job description written, it is important to determine employee wages. There are two ways to approach it: determining internal or external pay equity.
  • Internal: comparing jobs within an organization to ensure that the people in jobs worth the most money are paid accordingly.
  • External: comparing jobs externally.
• Evaluated job factors include:
  • Level of responsibility, physical/mental demands, education/training, working conditions and so on...
  • How companies measure to see how well those positions are reviewed over another organization's

Exploring key concepts in psychological research, including independent variables, placebo effects, and cause-and-effect relationships. Also covers organizational psychology, the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and the ethical considerations of informed consent. Touches on historical contributions and the Hawthorne effect in the field.