I/O Psychology

The study of psychology has various fields and branches. One of these branches would be industrial/organizational psychology. Most individuals who are drawn to this branch would be individuals whom have an overt interest not only in psychology but also in subjects such as statistics, computers, engineering or product design. To be able to understand how this branch of psychology works one must also take into consideration the evolution of the field. Like with any other subject one must know the background of the subject at hand and the factors that will impact it. The research and statistics which play a major role in industrial/organizational psychology will also be addressed in this paper.

Encyclopedia Britannica (2010),"Industrial/organizational psychology is defined as the application of concepts and methods from several subspecialties of the discipline such as learning, motivation, and social psychology to business and institutional settings" (Industrial-organizational psychology, para. 1). The focus of I/O psychology is to increase productivity in the workplace and other related issues such as the mental and physical welfare of employees.

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Gravestone of Wilhelm Wundt, father of psychology,...

Spector

I/O psychology is split up into two divisions, the industrial and the organizational. These two major divisions are closely related to one another, being that these divisions grew out of different traditions that derived from similar traditions in the history of the field it may not be easy to separate the two. Industrial psychology was the original name of the field which focused on the managerial perspective of organizations; the organizations would only be resourceful with appropriate use of people and human resources (Spector, 2008). The purpose of Industrial psychology was to address employee issues such as selection, training, evaluation and the efficiency of the job at hand. On the other hand organizational psychology derived from human relations and the impact they may have on an...