Lecture 1: Intro to Work Psych

Question 1

What is work psychology?

Answer 1

The application of psychological principles, theory and research to the work setting

Question 2

What is a scientist?

Answer 2

Someone with expert knowledge of one or more of the sciences

Question 3

What is a practitioner?

Answer 3

A person who actively engages in the practice of a discipline, profession or technique

Question 4

What is the scientist-practitioner model?

Answer 4

• Aim to provide a thorough foundation of scientific, methodological and theoretical knowledge and skills
• Idea that practitioners can assess and critically evaluate scientific research and theory to inform evidence-based practice or aid in the development innovative approaches

Question 5

What are the 4 sources of information that evidence-based practices uses?

Answer 5

• Practitioner expertise and judgement

-Evidence from the local context

• A critical evaluation of the best available research evidence
• The perspectives of those people who might be affected by the decision

Question 6

What is psychology?

Answer 6

The science of people

The study of psychology incorporates:
- Emotions (Affect)
- Behaviours (Behaviour)
- Thoughts (Cognition)

Question 7

What ways is psychology a science?

Answer 7

• Empirical
• Systematic and theoretical framework
• Involves measurement
• Various ways of collecting data

Question 8

What does work psychology do within the workplace?

Answer 8

• Hiring the best people for the job
• Training them optimally
• Motivating them to work hard
• Ensuring they have good well-being (happy workers are productive workers and they stay in their jobs)
• Developing effective teams
• Hiring and developing the right types of leaders
• Bringing in changes to organisations in the most effective manner

Question 9

Why is work psychology important?

Answer 9

• International Labour Organisation estimates that there are around 3 billion people employes in the world
• Mose people spend a large amount of time at work
• “People are business”
• 57% of typical organisation’s cost are labour or payroll costs
• Costs a lot to replace employees/workers

Question 10

What are the research stages in psychology?

Answer 10

• Theory and hypotheses
• Research design/methods
• Analysis and interpretation

Question 11

What is a theory?

Answer 11

An explanation for the way things are

• Systematically developed through intensive understanding of the existing research in an area

Question 12

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 12

A possible way things could be

• Proposed on the basis of theory, which in turn derives from what we already know

Question 13

What is research design/ methods?

Answer 13

The specific ways in which data is collected

Question 14

Gives examples of research design / methods

Answer 14

• Questionnaires
• Diaries
  -Interviews
  -Social network analysis
  -Objective data
  -Field experiments
• Observations
  -Lab / online experiments
  -Psycho-physiological measure (e.g. heart rate)

Question 15

What is analysis and interpretation?

Answer 15

When psychological research is quantitative it often involves statistical analysis

Can look at difference between groups (e.g. men vs women) or relationships between constructs (e.g. is age associated with stress)

Use findings of our analyses to interpret the evidence in light of our original predictions

Question 16

What did Niven do in 2015?

Answer 16

• Hypothesis: Plsying music will reduce customer aggression in the workplace
• Field experiment study design using call centre workers
• Make callers in inbound call centres listen to ‘hold music’ while waiting for their call to be answered
• Music was changed without the employees’ knowledge from regular hold music to prosocial music and neutral music (blind condtitions)

-Employees rated callers’ anger and aggression ever hour for three weeks

Question 17

What did Milgram do?

Answer 17

• Said to be a memory experiment
• Subjects always assigned role of teacher and confederate always given learber
• Learner was seen to be strapped to electrically wired chair
• Subject told to give increasing shock at each mistake from 15 - 450 volt range
• Subject able to hear learner’s response to pain from shock
• Experimenter gives prompts called prods for subjects to continue experiment

Question 18

What were Milgram’s findings?

Answer 18

• All participants went to 300V
• 65% obeyed throughout and adminstered the maximum voltage
• Shows impact of authority on obedience
• Human cost: Subjects showed great stress and symtoms which were similar to a nervous breakdown

Question 19

What are the ethical codes of conduct for modern psychologists?

Answer 19

• Informed consent
• Minimal deception
• Full debriefing
• Right to withdraw from experiment
• Confidentiality
• Protection from harm for participants