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Research in I/O psychology part I.

Why conduct Research?

Answering questions and making decisions

Research and everyday life

Common sense is often wrong

Considerations in conducting research

Ideas

Hypotheses - well thought-out suggestions or ideas

Theories - systematic sets of assumptions regarding the nature and cause of particular events

Hypothesis example 1

Idea or question	What will happen	Why it will happen
	Hypothesis or prediction	Theory or explanation
Does all this noise affect my employees’ performance?	High levels of noise will increase the number of errors made in assembling electronic components.	Noise causes a distraction, making it difficult to concentrate.

Free-rider theory – When things are going well, individuals realize that they don’t need to work hard because the group will carry them

Sucker effect theory – An individual notices that others are not working as hard and reduces his effort so that he will not be the only “sucker” working hard

The third theory is that because individual effort will not be noticed in a group, there will be no reward or punishment for individual peformance.

Hypothesis example 2

Idea or question	What will happen	Why it will happen
	Hypothesis or prediction	Theory or explanation
What employee recruitment source is best?	Employee referrals will result in employees who stay with the company longer than will the other recruitment methods.	1. Realistic job preview theory 2. Differential recruitment-source 3. Personality similarity theory 4. Socialization theory

Literature reviews

Written sources

Journals

Bridge publications

Trade magazines

Magazines

Internet (word of caution)

The location of the study

Locations

Laboratory research

Field research

Issues

Informed consent

Institutional review boards

The research method to be used

Experiments

Independent variable is manipulated {and}

Subjects are randomly assigned to conditions

Dependent variable

Quasi-experiments

Independent variable is not manipulated {or}

Subjects are not randomly assigned to conditions

Archival research

Surveys

Meta-analysis

Independent and Dependent Variables

Independent Variable

Experimental group

Control group

Dependent Variable

Example – Independent and Dependent Variables

A researcher thinks that smaller groups will be more cohesive than larger groups

Independent variable = Group size

Dependent variable = Level of cohesion

Number of Group Members	3	5	7	9	11	13
Cohesiveness rating	87	77	65	60	60	58

Identify the Independent and Dependent Variables

Are employees in large organizations more likely to miss work than those in small organizations?

Will taking a practice test increase scores on the an employment test?

Will making “to do” lists decrease the stress of managers?

A researcher found that employees with customer service training have fewer customer complaints than employees who haven’t been trained.

A researcher found that employees on the night shift make more errors than those on the day shift.

A researcher found that employees paid on commission were more productive but less satisfied than employees paid an hourly rate.

Quasi-Experiments

Used when experiments are not practical or when manipulating a variable may not be ethical

A study is a quasi-experiment rather than an experiment when

The independent variable is not manipulated {or}

Subjects are not randomly assigned to conditions

Cannot determine cause-effect relationships

Example: the Child-Care Center

2013 Employee absenteeism rate = 5.09%

2014 On-site child-care center established (Jan 1)

2014 Employee absenteeism rate = 3.01%

Example - External and Internal Factors

Date	Absenteeism %	External Factor	Internal Factor
1/14	5.3		Child care center started
2/14	5.2
3/14	5.1		Flextime program started
4/14	2.0	Unemployment rate at 9.3%
5/14	2.0
6/14	2.0
7/14	1.8		Wellness program started
8/14	1.8
9/14	2.0		New attendance policy
10/14	2.1
11/14	4.0	Mild weather
12/14	4.2	Mild weather
2014 Total 3.13%

Research in I/O psychology part II.

Surveys

Mail

Personal interviews

Phone

Internet

1998 Survey of Best Motion Pictures

Mail Responses

Gone with the Wind

The Sound of Music

The Wizard of Oz

It’s a Wonderful Life

To Kill a Mockingbird

Email Responses

Gone with the Wind

Star Wars

Schindler’s List

The Wizard of Oz

The Shawshank Redemption

Increasing Response Rates - Mail Surveys

Pre-contact participants

Personalize the survey (e.g., original signature)

Ensure survey responses will be anonymous by using identification numbers

Use a first-class stamp (15% more likely to be opened)

Increasing Response Rates - Email Surveys

Compared to regular mail, email

Faster

Cheaper (5-20% of regular mail cost)

Results in longer, more candid open-ended responses

Has similar response rates (about 30%)

Survey length does not affect response rates

Increasing Response Rates - Phone Surveys

Immediately identify self and affiliation

Provide a phone number if participant is suspicious

Stress the importance of the information

Keep the interview short

Limit the number of response options

Speak clearly

Question Considerations

Will the participant understand the question?

Will the question itself change the way a person thinks?

Do the response options cover the construct?

What are we going to do with the data?

What question are we trying to answer?

How much time, effort, and money are we willing to spend in coding and analyzing responses?

Does the format increase or decrease the probability of responding?

Question Types

Open-ended items

Provide richer quality

Difficult to analyze

Restricted items

Easier to analyze

May limit responses

Open v. Categorical Questions

Age _____

Age

Under 21

21–25

26–30

31–40

41–50

Over 50

What is Wrong With These Questions?

In the past year, how many times did you play golf?

How many times per week do you drink alcohol?

Why is Meta-Analysis Better Than Traditional Reviews?

Statistical method of reaching conclusions based on previous research

Meta-Analysis Steps

Obtain relevant studies

Convert test statistics into effect sizes

Compute mean effect size

Correct effect sizes for sources of error

Determine if effect size is significant

Determine if effect can be generalized or if there are moderators

Finding Studies

Establish time frame for studies

Sources

Journals

Dissertations

Theses

Technical reports

Conference presentations

File cabinet data

Finding Studies Methods

Search Engines

Academic Search Complete

PsycINFO

Lexis-Nexis

Google Scholar

World Cat

Internet

Bibliographies from studies

Phone calls

List serve calls for help

Finding Studies: Deciding Which Studies to Use

Must be empirical

Must have the appropriate statistic to convert to an ‘r’ or a ‘d’

Must have complete set of information

Must be accurate

Converting Test Statistics into Effect Sizes

Two common effect sizes

Correlation (r)

Difference (d)

Conversion Types

Directly using means

(Mexp – Mcontrol) ÷ SDoverall

Formulas to convert t, F, X2, r, and d

Research in I/O psychology part III.

Where Do I Get My Subjects? Who Will Participate?

Size

Students vs. “real world”

Does it Matter?

If you were investigating whether the length of time it took for an employee to report sexual harassment (1 day versus 3 months) influenced jurors decisions, would students as subjects be different from having people from the community?

Where Do I Get My Subjects? Sampling

Types of Samples

Random

Representative

Non-random/representative

Sampling Methods

Random selection

Convenience

Random assignment

What Type of Sampling Method is Being Used?

A researcher has the students in her classes fill out a questionnaire

A researcher gives $6 to people who will participate in his study. As the people arrive, he flips a coin to see if they will be in the experimental or the control condition.

A manager wants to see if a training program will increase performance. She selects every third name from the company roster to participate. Employees with an odd number at the end of their social security number are given one training program and those with an even number are given another.

Where Do I Get My Subjects? Inducements to Participate

Extra credit

Money

Intrinsic reasons

Ordered to participate

Does it Matter?

Would the inducement used affect the type of person agreeing to participate? In what ways?

Where Do I Get My Subjects? Informed Consent

Ethically required

Can be waived when

Research involves minimal risk

Waiver will not adversely affect rights of participants

Research could not be done without the waiver

Is Informed Consent Needed?

An experimenter wants to study the effects of electric shock on reducing patients’ depression levels

A researcher wants to conduct a telephone survey in which she asks people their five favorite TV shows. She will then determine if males and females like different shows.

A researcher wants to determine the types of people who litter. He plans to hide above a road and record information about the people who litter or don’t litter (e.g., age, sex, type of car).

Running the Study

Informed consent

Instructions

Task completion

Deception?

Debriefing

How Do I Analyze My Data? Concept

Numbers will always be different

Are they different by chance or by something true?

Probability levels (p < 0.05)

How Do I Analyze My Data? Types of Statistics

Descriptive Statistics

Mean

Median

Mode

Frequencies

Standard deviation

Statistics showing differences

t-tests

Analysis of variance

Chi-square

Statistics Showing Relationships - Correlation

Does not show causation

Correlation coefficient

Direction

Positive

Negative

Magnitude

Distance from zero

Comparison to norms

Type of Relationship

Linear

Curvilinear

Correlation of 0.50

Salary

Time in Job

Correlation of 0.20

Salary

Time in Job

Ethics in Research

Informed consent

Debriefing

Research Review Boards

Ethics in I/O Psychology

Ethical dilemmas: Ambiguous situations that require personal judgments of what is right or wrong.

Two types

Type A

Type B