Industrial/organizational Psychology

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

When most people think of psychology they think of it as referring to the study of the human mind or the human condition but many do not realize that psychology is used in many factors of a person everyday life. The field of psychology does indeed pertain to the study of the human mind but it does not only exist in that context. Psychology exists in many other aspects of a person life whether he or she realizes it or not he or she utilize and exhibit and undergo aspects of the field every single day. Take businesses for example, industrial/organizational psychology is a field of psychology that is utilized in businesses to help the business and its employees perform more efficiently. In this paper it will attempt to describe the evolution of the field of industrial/psychology as well as try to explain how industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology is different from other disciplines of psychology. It will also discuss how industrial/organizational psychology can be used in organizations and along with explain the roles of research and statistics in industrial/organizational psychology.

I/O psychology began in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It was founded by Hugo Munsterberg and Walter Dill Scotts (Spector, 2008). The true history of I/O psychology took a stronghold during World War I relying heavily on the industrial side of the where the roots were set in research on assessment, individual differences, and making performance predictions. In the war I/O psychology was used to resign new troops to his duty stations. In 1919 Walter Dill Scotts was elected President of the American Psychological Association and highly considered to be the most prevalent I/O psychologists of his time.

The evolution of I/O psychology was to introduce of scientific study of the workplace and apply the study to make the workplace more efficient for both employees and the organizations. For that to happen the methods of psychology has to be applied to the critical relevance to business. These include everything from coaching employee assessment, training, work life balanced, talent management, performance, and organizational development. I/O psychology is different from the other fields and disciplines of psychology because I/O psychology is from a business aspect. Its primary concern is not for the well being of the individual’s mental

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