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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.

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

⦿ Email

⦿ 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

S a la

r y

Time in

Job

CORRELATION OF 0.20

S a la

r y

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