INP4004 Exam #1 Review

Criterion

An outcome variable that describes important aspects or demands of the job; the variable that we predict when evaluating the validity of a predictor

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Federal legislation that prohibits employment discrimination and business practices on basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, which define what are known as protected groups; required employers to justify the use of tests for selection

Personnel psychology

Field of psychology that addresses issues such as recruitment, selection, training, performance appraisal, promotion, transfer, and termination

Hofstede's Theory

Five basic elements on which cultures can be distinguished...Individualism/Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity/Femininity, Long-term versus Short-term orientation

Linear

Relationship between two variables that can be depicted in a straight line

TIP (The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist)

Quarterly newsletter published by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: provides I-O psychologists and those interested in the field with the latest relevant information about the field

predictive validity design

criterion-related validity design in which there is a time lag between collection of test data and criterion data

Individual differences

dissimilarities between or among two or more people

Non-experimental design

does not include any "treatment" or assignment to different conditions, i.e. observations

Organizational Psychology

field of psychology that combines research from social psychology and organizational behavior and addresses the emotional and motivational side of work

intelligence test

instrument designed to measure the ability to reason, learn, and solve problems; i.e. Stanford-Binet test (alpha army test)

Expatriate

manager or professional assigned to work in a location outside his or her home country

Marginally close

means statistic is not significant but is trending

Quasi-experimental design

participants are assigned to different conditions, but random assignment to conditions is not possible, i.e. gender studies

Human Resources Management (HRM)

practices such as recruitment, selection, retention, training, and development of people in order to achieve individual and organizational goals

Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede's Theory)

the extent to which members of a culture feel comfortable in unstructured situations

Generalize

to apply the results from one study or sample to other participants or situations

Statistical Control

using statistical techniques to control for the influence of certain variables. Such control allows researchers to concentrate exclusively on the primary relationships of interest

Construct validity

validity approach in which investigators gather evidence to support decisions or inferences about psychological constructs; often begins with investigators demonstrating that a test designed to measure a particular construct correlates with other tests in the predicted manner

Collectivist Culture

values the group more than the individual, i.e. Japanese culture; Swedish culture

Individualist Culture

values the individual more than the group, i.e. United States culture

Vertical culture

A culture that accepts and depends upon distances between individuals

Horizontal culture

A culture that minimizes distance between individuals

Scientific Management

A movement based on principles developed by Frederick W. Taylor, who suggested that there was one best and most efficient way to perform various jobs; Lillian Gilbreth, PhD, applied these principles to the educational setting, i.e. utilized to develop optimal job efficinecy

Big 5 Assessment

A taxonomy of five personality factors; the Five Factor Model (FFM)

Power test

A test with no rigid time limits; enough time is given for a majority of the test takers to complete all of the test items

Speed test

A test with rigid and demanding time limits; most test takers will be unable to finish the test in the allotted time; yield greater variability allowing for more effective predictions

Test-retest reliability

A type of reliability calculated by correlating measurements taken at time 1 with measurements taken at time 2

Stanford-Binet Test (Army Alpha Test)

A well-known intelligence test designed for testing once individual at a time. Originally developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in 1905. The Binet-Simon test was updated starting in 1916 by Lewis Terman and colleagues at Stanford University, which led to the test's current name

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 early 20th century, cause factory workers to be unhappy, prone to resist management attempts to increase productivity, and sympathetic to labor unions

Experimental Control

Characteristic of research in which possible confounding influences that might make results less reliable or harder to interpret are eliminated; often easier to establish in lab studies that in field studies

Effect Size

Emphasis on the size of the difference rather than confounding this with sample size.

Statistical significance

Indicates the probability of the observed statistic is less than the stated significance level adopted by the researcher ( commonly p < .05). A statistically significant finding indicates that the results found are unlikely to have occurred by chance, and thus the null hypothesis is rejected

Experimental design

Participants are randomly assigned to different conditions

Triangulation

Rogelberg & Brooks-Laber (2002): the approach in which researchers seek converging information from different sources

Multiple Correlation Coefficient

Statistic that represents the overall linear association between several variables (i.e. cognitive ability, personality, experience) on one hand and a single variable on the other hand (job performance)

Inter-rater reliability

Statistics calculated to show the level of agreement between multiple raters of the same examination

Measures of Central Tendency

Stats that indicates where the center of a distribution is located, i.e. mean, median, & mode

Descriptive Statistics

Stats that summarize, organize, and describe a sample of data

Inferential Statistics

Stats used to aid the researcher in testing hypotheses and making inferences from sample data to a larger sample or population, i.e. t-test, analysis of variance, chi-square test

Regression line

Straight line that best "fits" the scatterplot and describes the relationship between the variables in the graph; can also be presented as an equation that specifies where the line intersects the vertical axis and what the angle or slope of the line is

Bias

Technical and statistical term that deals exclusively with a situation where a given test results in errors of prediction for a subgroup, i.e. if a test under-predicts job performance of women and over-predicts job performance of men

"West versus the Rest" mentality

Tendency for researchers to develop theories relevant to U.S. situations, with less concern given to their applicability in other countries (Hermans & Kempen, 1998)

Individualism/Collectivism (Hofstede's Theory)

The degree to which individuals are expected to look after themselves versus remaining integrated into groups (usually the family)

Power Distance (Hofstede's Theory)

The degree to which less powerful members of an organization accept and expect an unequal distribution of power

Masculinity/Femininity (Hofstede's Theory)

The distribution of emotional roles between the genders, with the masculine role being seen as "tough", emphasizing accomplishment and technical performance, while feminine role seen as "tender", emphasizing interpersonal relationships and communication

Long-term vs. Short-term orientation (Hofstede's Theory)

The extent to which members of a culture expect immediate versus delayed gratification of their material, social, and emotional needs

Skew

The extent to which scores in a distribution are lopsided or tend to fall on the left or right side of the distribution

Variablity

The extent to which scores in a distribution vary

Statistical Power

The likelihood of finding a statistically significant difference when a true difference exists

Observational design

The researcher observes employee behavior and systematically records what is observed

Human Relations Movement

The results of Hawthorne studies ushered in a movement which focused on work attitudes and the newly discovered emotional world of the worker

Human engineering (human factors psychology)

The study of the capacities and limitations of humans with respect t a particular environment

Predictor

The test chosen or developed to assess attributes (i.e. abilities) identified as important for successful job performance

Why do I/O psychologist engage in research?

To understand, predict, and influence behavior related to workplace; benefit to business

Criterion-related validity

Validity approach that is demonstrated by correlating a test score with a performance measure; improves researcher's confidence in the inference that people with higher test scores have higher performance

Fairness

Value judgement about actions or decisions based on test scores, i.e. physical strength test for job criterion would be unfair because women lack upper body strength that men usually have

Scientist-practitioner model

a model that uses scientific tools and research in the practice of I-O psychology

performance test

a test that requires the individual to make a response by manipulating a particular physical object or piece of equipment, i.e. a test administered to a dental hygienist candidate

telecommuting

accomplishing work tasks from a different location using electronic communication media

Unstructured interview

an assessment procedure in which the interviewee is asked to describe in specific and behavioral detail how they would respond to hypothetical situation

Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology

an association to which many I-O psychologists, both practitioners and researchers, belong. Division 14 of the APA

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

application of psychology principles to the workplace and the impact of family responsibilities, cultural influences, employment related legislation, an individual personality

Science

approach that involves the understanding, prediction, and control of some phenomenon of interest

Structured interview

assessment procedure that consists of very specific questions asked of each candidate; includes highly crafted scoring schemes with detailed outlines for the interviewer with respect to assigning ratings or scores based on interview performance

Reliability

consistency or stability of a measure

Hypothesis

prediction about relationship(s) among variables of interest

Welfare-to-work program

program that requires individuals to work in return for government subsidies

Research design

provides the overall structure or architecture for the research study; allows investigators to conduct scientific research on a phenomenon of interest

James McKeen Cattell

recognized for being among the first to realize the importance of individual differences (differential psychology) as a way of predicting behavior

Non-linear (curvilinear)

relationship between two variables that cannot be depicted by a straight line; most easily identified by examining scatterplot

Hawthorne Studies

research done at the Hawthorne, Illinois, plan of the Western Electric Company that began as attempts to increase productivity by manipulating lighting, rest breaks, and work hours. This research showed important role that workers' attitudes played in productivity

differential psychology

scientific study of differences between or among two or more people

Positive skew

scores or observations are bunched at the bottom of the score range, i..e. low test scores from a very hard exam

Negative skew

scores or observations are bunched at the top of the score range, i.e. high test scores from a very easy exam

Correlation coefficient

statistic assessing the bivariate, linear association between two variables. Provides information about both the magnitude (numerical value) and direction (+ - ) of the relationship between two variables

Time & Motion Studies

studies that broke every action down into its constituent parts, timed those movements with a stopwatch, and developed new and more efficient movements that would reduce fatigue and increase productivity, i.e. utilized to develop optimal job efficiency

virtual team

team that has widely dispersed members working together toward a common goal and linked through computers and other technology

Screen-in tests

test used to add information about the positive attributes of a candidate that might predict outstanding performance; test of normal personality are examples of screen-in tests in employment setting, i.e. Big 5

Screen-out tests

test used to eliminate candidates who are clearly unsuitable for employment; tests of psychopathology are examples of screen out tests in employment setting, i.e. MMPI Test

validity

the accuracy of inferences made based on test or performance data; also addresses whether a measure accurately and completely represents what was intended to be measured

Hawthorne Effect

the change in behavior that results from researchers paying attention to the workers