PSYC 321 Midterm 1

What are qualitative studies in I/O pscyh?

acknowledge issues with random assignment in organizations- obtain data rich descriptions of single organization, interview many employees, identify themes and report back to company- done more in consulting than research, not good external or internal validity

Role of Walter Dill Scott in I/O psych?

applied psych to advertising

What are selection effects

biased selection of who gets the treatment

What is theory X?

boss assumes employees lazy. disgusting, disinterested and work only when pushed

What influences an individual in an organization?

Individual processes, group processes, organization structures- makes organizational research challenging

Role of Robert Yerkes in I/O pscyh?

introcduced psych testing to military

What are lab studies in I/O psych?

involve simulations where studnets pretend to be managers and employees, random assignment possible, great control, external validitiy is major issue

What is common method variance?

know that using the same tool with same people, get artificial correlations

What is validity?

legitimacy or correctness if the inferences that are drawn from a set of measurements or procedures

What are halo errors?

conflation of peoples qualities- if you think someone is attractive, you also may think they are smart

How to analyze data?

depends on design of study, correlation studies, linear regression, T-tests, ANOVA, multivariant

Role of Hugo Munsterbery in I/O psych?

father of I/O psych- empiricism and psychology and industrial efficiency

Role of Fredrick Taylor in I/O psych?

father of scientific management- theory of scientific management

What is central tendency?

rate people all the same in middle of scale- not answering accurately

Anti- discrimination section of canadian human rights act

section 8- applies to any federal jobs- cant refuse to employ or promote, each family has varying additional grounds

What are adverse impacts?

selection rated for a protected group is lower than that for a comparison group- 4/5ths rule

What is single item vs. scales?

shrink surverys for time and then dont have sufficient data

What is improper naming of variables?

something done for years with different name vs new thing- emotional intelligence vs. personality

Anti- discrimination section of charter?

Section 15- excludes programs with goal to improve conditions of disadvantaged people

What is two groups design?

Two predetermined groups get different treatment/conditions. ex. one department gets extra training, the second doesnt- only history effects controlled for, maturation and mortality partially controlled for

What happed in 1939-1945 for I/O psych?

WWII- needed to sort millions of soldiers into jobs- Walter Bingham influenced testing. Army General Classification Test looked at skills of soldiers and classified them. Stress studies to see how sleep deprived and sensory deprived soldiers could handle- post war psych blossomed

Pre-post design

a reserach design wherein a trait is measured at the beginning, then some sort of intervention, treatment or condition is put in place and the trait is measured agin afterward. ex. organizational commitment before and after people oriented leadership style training program- 4 threats to internal validity

What are history effects?

changes in the environment outside of the study that could produce changes in the variable under study- pay raise would increase commitment

What are maturation effects?

changes in the individuals over time that would have occured naturally anyways- as workers age they become more committed

How are employment equity programs developed?

create support for the program, determine current representation of workforce, set reasonable targets, remove the problematic systematic barriers, monitor changes and adjust interventions to meet targets

What is theory Y?

employees have pride in their work and are trustworthy

What is external validity?

generalizability of the treatment/condition outcome

What is the employment equity act?

goal to achieve equality in the workplace, target groups: women, aboriginal, disabled, minorities- employers must identify and eliminate barriers and institute policies to achieve proportional representation

What is the 4/5ths rule?

hiring ration of protected group should be close to 4/5ths hiring ratio of non-protected groups

What are the 4 threats to internal validity ?

maturation effect, history effects, selection effects, mortality effects

What are reasonable accomodations?

onus on employer to make reasonable accomodations- financial cost, disruption of collective agreement, lower morale of existing employees, flexibility of workforce, magnitude of risk, reasonable alternative, undue hardship

What is retrospectove bias?

people misremember previous events in the organization

What is two groups with random assignment to treatment design?

people randomly assigned to each group- one randomly gets treatment/condition, they other doesn't- not really possible with organizations- all threats controlled except mortality partially controlled

What are the Hawthorne Studies?

started in 1924 at Western Electric- wanted to see how to improve productivity- made many changes but they all improved productivity- showed it had little to do with the changes and more to do with how employees were treated- management cared

The empirical research cycle..

statement of the problem, design of research study , measurement of variables, analysis of data, conclusion from research then cycles back to problem

Statisfaction within the workplace...

tends to flutuate around a mean level- mean is different for everyone- it is smarter to invest in more generally satisfied people

What are mortality effects?

those leaving the study before T2 are systematically different than those that remain

Why conduct research in organizations?

to gain better understanding of behaviour, improve wellbeing of employees, understand and improve management, apply psych to specific problems

What are bona fide occupational requirements?

validated tests as predicitive of job performance, need to implemented in good faith and have empirical support- no longer sufficient- need reasonable accomodations too

What are adverse effects?

when recruiting/selection practice is well intentioned or neutral but has a negative effect on protected grounds

What is internal validity?

whether an experimental treatment/condition makes a difference or not and if there is enough evidence to support the claim