IO psych ch.1
Distinguish between experimental and statistical control
- experimental: confounds are controlled by researcher - statistical: confounds are controlled by using statistical techniques, multiple regression and standardized betas
Understand the Civil Rights Act of 1964
-Equality: race, color, religion, sex, origin
Be able to identify and explain the three main goals of I-O psychologists
-Help employers treat employees fairly -Make jobs more interesting and satisfying -Help workers be more productive
What are the main differences between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee engagement?
-Job satisfaction refers to an overall attitude based on an appraisal of the job or work environment. -Organizational commitment refers to a person's attachment or relationship to the organization and can have multiple forms. Employee engagement refers to a high level of enthusiasm and identification with work (they share the organization's values and are excited to help it achieve its goals). A person could be committed (because they don't want the hassle of looking for jobs) and satisfied (because they like where they live, the financial benefits, and have an easy-going boss) but still not be engaged (because they don't share the organization's values and they spend a lot of time at work surfing the internet; only put in the minimum effort to not get fired).
Distinguish between junk science, pragmatic science, irrelevant science, and hopeless science.
-Junk science: "chocolate diet" (poorly conducted, relevant science) -Pragmatic: well conducted, useful info -Irrelevant science: well conducted, not useful -Hopeless science: poorly conducted, not useful
Be able to identify and briefly explain the three main areas of I-O psychology
-Personnel: addresses recruitment, training, performance (HRM) -Organizational: emotional and motivational part of work ex. fairness -Human factors: develop an environment that is comfortable for the worker
Identify the five stages of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and five types of job enrichers
-Physiological needs-basic needs food, water and sleep -security needs-secure environment free of threats- job security, family and health security -love or social needs-desire to be accepted by others, friendship, family, sexual intimacy -self-actualization-develop their needs to the fullest -esteem needs- respected for accomplishments or capabilities Job enrichers: -skill variety, task identity (rewarding), task significance (does this work make a positive difference), autonomy (more freedom on job), task feed back (what they are doing well, what they aren't)
Understand the three modes of Ingelhart's cultural theory
-Pre industrialization- traditional values -Industrialization: bureaucratic hierachial standardization -Post industrialization: increased influence of autonomy and self expression
Identify the four stages of action theory and briefly describe what occurs in each stage.
-Predecisional - examining ones desires in order to determine which desire is the strongest and most easiest to obtain -Postdecisional- planning and developing strategies for successful action -Actional- actually expending effort to achieve the desired outcome -Evaluative- comparing what was achieved with what was desired Provide an example of a goal that meets the SMART criteria. Specifically, state the goal
Identify and briefly describe the four main challenges that I-O psychologists face in the 21st century.
-Relevance: focused on current science -Useful: getting used by organizations -Think bigger: outside of immediate context -Grouped in scientific method
Distinguish between self-esteem, self-regulation, and self-efficacy
-Self esteem - pride in who one is as a human being, often boosted by the satisfaction having accomplished a difficult task -Self regulation- process by which individuals take in information about behavior and make adjustments or changes based on that information -Self-efficacy- the belief in ones capability to perform a specific task or reach a specific goal
Distinguish between Valence, instrumentality, and expectancy in VIE theory
-Valence- strength of an individuals preference for obtaining an outcome -Instrumentality- individuals belief that accomplishing the task will result in obtaining the valued outcome -Expectancy- individuals belief that they can accomplish the task with increased effort
Distinguish between absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover
-absenteeism: isn't at work because they are sick or lack of desire to attend -presenteeism: person is at work, but functionally absent -turnover: % of employees that leave the job over a specific time period
Distinguish between contingent and intermittent rewards in Skinner's theory
-contingnent- a reward that depends on or is contingent on a particular response -Intermittent- a reward that is given for only some correct responses
Distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
-extrinsic: driven by external rewards, ie. Money -intrinsic: driven by internal awards, self satisfaction
How would you move an employee from fixated work satisfaction to constructive work dissatisfaction to progressive work satisfaction?
-move up the scale
Understand the job performance equation
-performance=(motivation*ability)-situational constraints
Understand the three metaphors that are used to guide motivation theory research
-person as a machine- peoples reactions and behaviors are reflexive and involuntary and are unconscious -person as a intentional-humans are not perfectly rational, but are purposeful in planning their own behavior - person as a scientist- people are active information gatherers and analysts who seek knowledge and understanding as a way to master their environment
Understand the five criteria (SMART) of an effective goal in goal-setting theory
-specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timebound
Distinguish between the three types of organizational commitment
Affective commitment- an emotional attachment to an organization -continuance commitment - perceived cost of leaving an organization -normative commitment - an obligation to remain in an organization
An employee is offered a higher-paying job in another company. However, the hours are longer and it would involve relocating the person's family, so the employee decides to remain with her current organization. This is an example of:
Continuance commitment
Understand the three criteria for causation and why correlation is not necessarily causation
Covariance: established by inferential and descriptive stats Temporal precedence: established by manipulation or by longitudinal designed by logic Control: eliminates confounds -example: height causes weight but weight doesn't cause height
Explain the difference between criterion-related validity and content-related validity.
Criterion: correlate test scores with performance measures Content: proficiency doing a task, make sure tasks are fair
Understand Hofstede's cultural theory and 5 dimensions
Each culture varies on what they like/dislike in the work place -Individualism/collectivism: western cultures are more individualistic -Power distance: western cultures prefer less power, eastern cultures like power -Uncertainty avoidance: Latin American cultures tend to accept uncertainty more than Europe and the US -Masculinity/femininity: performance/wealth valued, relationship/environment valued -Long term vs. short term orientation: US and Russia look at short term effects, China/Japan value long term
Understand the five different types of research designs and be able to identify what type of design researchers use from a description of an I-O study
Experiments: direct research control, random assignment Quasi-experiments: no random assignment, less internal validity; more external Naturalistic observation: watch employees in workplace, identify the frequency of specific behaviors Survey (covariance): frequency (identify the prevalence of one variable), correlational, longitudinal (temperal precedence), multiple regression (partial control)
Distinguish between face, content, concurrent, and predictive validity and understand how I-O psychologists establish each type
Face validity: the degree to which a procedure, especially a psychological test or assessment, appears effective in terms of its stated aims Content: selection procedure represents an adequate sample of work behaviors and activities Concurrent: empirical evidence that a measure is valid at the same time Predictive: time lag between test data and criterion data, predicts what would have happened due to the hiring test to what is actually happening
Understand fixated job dissatisfaction, resigned job satisfaction, constructive job dissatisfaction, and progressive job satisfaction and explain why organizations should be concerned about each of them
Fixated work dissatisfaction- person is dissatisfied with their job. They do nothing to change this feeling and gets stuck with it. frustration and defensive mechanisms arise. Aspiration continues. Resigned job satisfaction- a person feels indistinct work satisfaction and decreases the level of aspiration in order to adapt to negative aspects of the work situation on a lower level. by doing this they are able to be happy again. Constructive job dissatisfaction- a person feels dissatisfied on the job. They keep their aspiration and try to overcome the problem with problem solving attempts with motivation and minimal frustration. Progressive work satisfaction- a person is satisfied with work and increases aspiration to try and achieve higher levels of satisfaction which leads to creative dissatisfaction.
Understand the six motivational theories discussed in class and know how to apply them to motivate people in the workplace. Specifically:
Goal setting broadly: goals driven toward relevant activities, challenging goals, opportunity to adjust, committed, efficient time, and SMART Specific goals: better than "increase productivity" Goal setting: require effort but aren't overwhelming, set between supervisor and employee Control theory: people change environment instead of having it change them, feedback to self regulate behavior, emphasis of feedback and self regulation Self-efficacy: mastery experiences: by doing it, they improve until they get better, social persuasion, physiological states Action theory: pre decisional- have a need to accomplish, post decisional- plan for achievement, actional- put plan to action, evaluate- did it work and why
Margaret is an employee working at your local fast-food restaurant. She believes that her co-worker Sally got a promotion and is making more money even though Sally has done less work. Now Margaret is expressing her frustration by showing up late and taking longer to fix customers' meals which is leading to an increase in complaints. How would you motivate Margaret to work harder using equity theory?
I would make her feel more motivated by showing her that she does more work and that is why Sally got a promotion.
Be able to identify four types of reliability and understand how researchers establish each type
Internal consistency: multiple questions measure the same construct Test-restest or equivalent forms: same constructs measured at two different points in time Equivalent forms Inter-rater: observes classical behaviors similarly
Dr. Groeneveld and Dr. Duran are investigating whether drivers are wearing their seatbelts. They stand on opposite street corners and tally how many drivers passing by are wearing their seatbelts. What type of reliability should they establish?
Interrater reliability
Distinguish between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee engagement. Which one is the strongest predictor of job satisfaction? Why?
Job satisfaction: positive emotional state resulting from approval of a job Organizational commitment: wanting to remain at work place, caring about it, feel like they should stay because of all the work they put in Employee engagement: truly involved in work (strongest predictor)
Understand four ways to increase self-efficacy
Mastery experiences- successful performance of challenging tasks strengthens beliefs in ones capabilities whereas failures decrease those beliefs. -Modeling- if a person sees someone similar to themselves complete a difficult task then their own efficacy beliefs can be strengthened -Social persuasion- individuals can be encouraged by others who express confidence in their ability to accomplish a difficult task -physiological states- when someone gets stressed out or tired they take it to interpret this as an indication that the task exceeds their capabilities
Brief and Weiss (2002) believe that the low correlation between job satisfaction and job performance is due to:
Measuring job satisfaction as an attitude instead of a feeling
Understand the 4 tenets of affective events theory
People have natural dispositions that influence moods 2. Specific event interact with moods 3. emotional experiences are multidimensional
The belief that we can achieve a specific goal is called:
Self-efficacy
Understand revery obsession and how the Hawthorne studies changed I-O psychology
Showed that a workers attitude affected productivity
An important distinction between an experimental design and a quasi-experimental design is that:
Unlike a quasi-experimental design, an experimental design randomly assigns participants to groups
Which of the following psychologists is most likely concerned with how humans interact with technology?
a human factors psychologist
An I-O psychologist is developing a hiring test to screen potential police officers. The I-O psychologist finds that veterans who have received high performance evaluations score higher on the test than officers who have received low performance evaluations. In this case, the I-O psychologist is establishing:
concurrent validity
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against all of the following except:
disability
If an employee's primary reason for working is to be respected for accomplishments or capabilities, on which level of Maslow's need hierarchy is this employee focused?
esteem
Cultures in which people, relationships, and the environment are most important can be best characterized as:
feminine cultures
Understand how equity theory explains motivation
inputs and outcomes, fairness is evaluated by comparing outcome/input ratio to others
An employee stays late after work in order to meet a deadline because the employee believes that this project will help her get a promotion. This belief is an example of:
instrumentality
The idea that humans deliberately plan their behavior is characteristic of which metaphor?
person as intentional
4. Margaret has got sick with a severe contagious cold, but she fears being criticized for taking a sick day, so she comes to work even though she cannot concentrate and do a good job. Assuming the company loses money from her decreased work performance, this would be an example of:
presenteeism
Dawson Inc. states that due to changes in economic conditions, they will not give any bonuses this year and will reduce benefits to employees in the company. Meredith responds by saying, "I will spend more time surfing the Internet during the day and I will leave an hour earlier each day. I get to spend more time with my family. I'm so excited, I love this company!". According to Bussing, Meredith is showing:
resigned work satisfaction
Disinterestedness refers to the notion that:
scientist should strive to be objective and not influenced by bias or prejudices
Understand the 4 elements of core self-evaluations
self esteem, self efficacy, locus of control, emotional stability
Identify and briefly describe the four elements of core self-evaluations.
self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, absence of neuroticism
How can workplaces maintain fair hiring practices while embracing multiculturalism and acknowledging rather than ignoring cultural differences?
think critically about how workplaces that ignore cultural differences may perpetuate stereotypes and prejudice without realizing it. Also, that there are actual authentic differences between groups that need to be acknowledged and embraced rather than ignored.
The Hawthorne studies are considered landmark studies in the field of I-O psychology because they:
ushered in the human relations movement
Distinguish between work withdrawal and job withdrawal
work withdrawal- action that represents an attempt by the individual to withdraw from work but maintain ties to the organization and the work role; includes lateness and absenteeism job withdrawal- action that represents an individuals willingness to sever ties to an organization and the work role: includes intentions to quit or retire