I-O Psychology Material for Exam 2

2.24.09
• Stress: a threat you perceive acquiring adjustment which taxes the individual to
near, or beyond the limits of his/her resources.
○ Stimulus definition: stimulus factors that are impinging upon us
○ NOT a threat- NOT stress
○ NOT the same for everyone
○ NOT event that caused stress BUT perceived aspect
○ Response definition: how we respond to stress Physiologically &
Psychologically
 Psychological security- (resources) like motivation comes from
within
 Difficult to measure
• Perceived demand that causes us to adopt our resources
• Threat, frustration = causes of stress
○ Threat: anticipation of harm
 Future oriented/ hasn’t happened yet
 Some spend their whole life worrying
○ Harm/Frustration: form of stress that’s already occurred
 Past oriented
 Some spend whole life fixated/ruminating about past events
 One reason women are more likely to be depressed (2:1) ratio, they
ruminate while men change activities. Women have a response called
“tend-and-befriend”; tending involves nurturing activities to protect
from stress, befriending involves building social groups or networks, in
kind.
• Conflict: occurrence simultaneously of 2 or more non-compatible action tendencies
or goals.
○ Approach - Approach: 2 alternatives/choices that are both (+) in
valance/nature
 Gift of Lexus or Mercedes, can’t have both
○ Approach - Avoidance: Single choice that has both (+) and (-) valances
 Offered supervisor promotion: increased stress (-) & increased money
(+)
 Classic example is marriage
○ Avoidance - Avoidance: 2 choices that are both (-) in valance
 Don’t want to study but will fail the exam if not
 9/11: Jump or burn
Stress Video
• Hans Selye; “in our everyday life we experience wear & tear =stress”
○ General Adaptation Syndrome:
 Alarm- mobilizes, increases heart rate, digestions slows, fight or flight
 Resistance- tries to cope/resist a threat we are working our bodies
harder
 Exhaustion- body begins to succumb to illness, signaling high lvl of
stress
○ Physical and Chemical Stress
• Psycho/neuro/immunology (PNI): External conflict causes physical degradation
then illness, Dr.Adler
• Post Tramatic Stress Disorder: Extreme situation of death or serious trauma.
Those vulnerable to PSD are marked by: worry, irritability, and/or aggression. It
 affects ones way of concentration; the self-preoccupied can be consumed with
addictive habits.
• Behavior Modification: changes response to a stimulus
○ Cognitive retraining therapy: given opportunities to help each other, self-
esteem builders, make independent; gives meaning to life
• Hardiness: ppl who can survive stressful situations show traits for control, that
doesn’t mean of environment but over self, emotions & behavior
○ They do something about a problem- best antidote for stress
○ Think of solutions creatively- then seek to carry them out.
• Attitudes toward our conditions are almost self-fulfilling prophecy
○ Existentialist philosophy: responsible for our choices, freedom to choose
○ Neurotic behavior: mal-adjustment personalities, Narcissism, Obsessive
Controlling, unhappy and not stable mentally

3.3.09

• Leadership: interpersonal influences, exercise in a situation and directed through

the communication process, toward the achievement process of organizational goals.
The ability to persuade individuals to follow his/her directions and achieve a goal.
○ Trait Approach Theory: attempted to find what set leaders apart from
others
 Didn’t find any consistent pattern
○ Followership: the pattern between leaders and followers
 It’s not about the characteristics, it takes an interpersonal relation to
direct a set of followers
○ 3 Poor Leadership Traits:
 Lack of training
 Lack of cognitive ability
• Can’t think strategically or find alternatives
 Lack of Personality/ Personality pblms
• Most damning quality- narcissism
• Must be center of attention take all the credit for success &
none for failure
○ Behaviorist Approach: only observable trait is behavior, what leaders do
 X & Y Theory: (X) approach to management assumes ppl are lazy &
dislike work therefore they have to be led; consideration is low. (Y)
Assumes ppl find satisfaction in their work when their leader allows
them to participate in working toward goals; structure is high.
 Consideration: (Like Theory Y)
• Causes an increase in production rates
 Initiating Structure: (Like Theory X)
• Setting goals, syst. Of rewards & punishments
• International Harvestor Study: (no longer in business)
○ Kennedy-“if you don’t lower prices on steel I’ll buy your material from other
(foreign) industries”
○ If you take care of employees productions will take care of your production
○ Formen Opinion Questionnaire: like theory X&Y
 Measured consideration and structure
 Found high scores on (X) pre-training, low on consideration @
supervisor lvl. To correct they sent them to a (human relations
oriented) training facility. After training the results were flipped, more
(Y). Followed them back and continued study which resulted in
structure being even higher and consideration at all time low.
  Top Dog must be fixed first, you must start at the top b/c ppl will lead
as their directed to lead.
• If leader doesn’t do it he doesn’t validate or give it credibility.
• Prudential Study: find an organization large enough that they could find several
groups performing the same job under the same circumstances b/c invariably some
groups will produce more than others- does leadership have an effect on production?
○ Commonalities with leaders of High Producing groups: emergencies
should be at a minimum!
 Less direct emphasis on production as a goal
• They’re ppl oriented –ppl taken care will take care of production
 Less close supervision from their own supervisors
• We treat ppl differently when already doing what we want
 Employee centered
 More time in supervision in straight production work
 More confident in role as supervisor
 Knew where they stood in organization
 Encourage Employee involvement/ participation decision-making
○ Classic b/c it was replicated several times
• Characteristics of 1st-line supervisors
○ Person centered
○ Supportive & helpful
○ Democratic
○ Flexible
○ Emphasize quality
○ Provide clear directions
○ Give timely feedback
3.5.09
• Counter factual Thinking: what might/would have been
○ Leaders are usually decisive; consider these variables that may be derisive to
organizational goal.
○ 3 Facets
 Characters of Leaders
 Followers
 Nature of the situation
• Transactional: focuses on the relationship btw leaders and followers, what the
leader can do is based on followers.
• Transformational: can transform or change beliefs of their followers; those who
challenge or inspire followers by creating a vision and communicating it well. Score
high on extroversion & agreeableness and are charismatic.
○ High energy Lvl
○ Individualized consideration
○ Intellectual Stimulation
• Power: allows us to influence others, right to make a decision
○ 3 Main traits:
 Able to obtain more resources
 Able to dictate policy/changes/standards
 Advance further in the organization
○ 3 Types of Power (derived from formal organization):
 Legitimate: derived from organizations formal power structure
 Coercive: ability to punish
 Reward: ability to reward
○ 2 Types of Power (derived from leaders themselves):
 Expert: expertise believed to be had
  Referent: respect & likableness, derived from followers are easily
identifiable to them.
• To move up in an organization you have to make yourself visible, allow yourself to be
known.
• Women perform as well as or better than men in assessment centers, highly
competitive, adopt leadership styles more interactive & democratic, just as
successful, entrepreneurial BUT only 2-4% of corporations are run by Females. 42%
less in pay than men and often restricted to staff/ advisory positions. There is still a
glass ceiling, to change this we need to change the socialization of our children.
• Reasons for these disparities:
○ Persistence of Male stereotypes
○ Exclusion from informal networks
○ Lack of line experience [sales asst -> finance -> …]
○ Inhospitable corporate culture
○ The Glass Ceiling
○ When women succeed their success is attributed to circumstance/ external
factors- males, ability
• Martina Horner- went to a large mid-west university and distributed paper to Males
and Females: “At the end of the year ‘Annie’ finds herself at the top of med. School
grad class” (F); where males were asked to write about ‘John’. Asked to write a
fictitious story about their character
○ 10% of males said negative things about ‘John’
○ 60% of Females said negative things about ‘Annie’
○ Motivation to Avoid Success: catch so much flack it’s not worth-while to
pursue

3.24.09
• Performance Evaluation/Review: Formal structured system of measuring &
evaluating an employee’s job related behaviors and out-comes.
○ The purpose for appraisals is
 1.) Administrative reasons; pay increases & promotions
 2.) Research; validating selection instruments
○ EEOC is concerned with the Reasonableness and Validity of the test
○ Burden of proof rests with the corporation
○ Out-Comes = Productivity; Most important aspect
○ One to measure behavior & another to see what they produce
• In a Meta-Analysis, it was revealed that student reviews of teachers, say nothing of
what a professor does but rather what they make students do.
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): sets guidelines for
employment decisions and selection procedures not ltd. to hiring but also promotion,
demotion, transfer, layoff discharge or early retirement. Increases chances of success
when defending against claims of discrimination.
○ Race Bias: known to persist in job assignment, pay, promotion, & other
personnel decisions.
○ Age Bias: Older workers receive significantly lower ratings on measures of
self-development, interpersonal skills & overall job performance.
○ Labor Unions: represent 11% of US workforce, assert seniority opposed to
assessment of merit be cause for promotion.
• Common Goals:
○ Record of Performance
 documentation of pro/demotions, pay increases
 used to justify actions taken with an employee
○ Provide an Employees Potential for Advancement:
  Maintains employee initiative,
 Helps identify those w/ potential.
○ To determine Performance & Training Needs:
 Lets employees know where they stand
 Should provide feed-back
 Necessary at all lvls to be effective (Prudential Study)
○ Motivate Employees
 When employees receive (+) evaluations it doesn’t necessarily
produce an increase in productivity BUT (-) evaluations WILL decrease
it.
○ Provides a Validation for Selection Tests
 Validity is dependent on correlation to some measure of job
performance
 Provide information for validating employee selection techniques.
 Has a bad name b/c criterion to evaluate are fraught w/ error
 Anytime one person tests another, there is some lvl of subjectivity
• Inherent Problems with Tests
○ Halo Effect: tendency to judge all aspects of a person’s behavior or
character on the basis of a single characteristic. Appearance is the #1
attribute looked at.
○ Constant/Systematic Bais: A source error in performance appraisal based
on the different standards used by raters; each person has a unique lvl of
standards
○ Most-Recent Performance Error: A source error in performance appraisal
where rater tends to evaluate most recent job behavior rather than behavior
throughout period since last appraised. We can’t let the most recent activity
to affect our judgment, the total performance is key.
○ Inadequate information Error: A source of error in performance appraisal
in which supervisors rate their subordinates even though they may not know
enough about them to do so fairly & accurately. Being able to pass the blame
on to another. Decentralization allows us to reduce this error?
○ AVG Rating/(Leniency)Error: rater is unwilling to assign extreme scores
one way or another, consequently most fall in the mid-range BUT if everyone
is AVG then no one is really apt.
 20/80 Rule: 20% carry 80% of the work
○ Attribution: A source of error in performance appraisal in which rater
attribute/assign (+) or (-) explanations to an employees behavior/ attributing
cause. Why do ppl perform poorly? Supervisors will blame employees of being
lazy in nature when rather, they may only need training. OR Interpersonal
Affect: Our feelings or emotions toward another person. In performance
appraisal, the emotional tone of the relationship btw the manager and the
employee, whether (+) or (-) can influence the assigned ratings
○ Role Conflict: A situation that arises when job responsibilities are
unstructured or poorly defined.

• Judgmental Performance Appraisal Methods:

○ Merit Rating: objective rating method designed to provide an objective
evaluation of work performance.
 Rating Method: specify how or to what degree worker posses
relevant job characteristics. Attempts to reduce personal bias by
observing worker performance; not nearly reliable or effective. Diff
from ranking b/c it relates an individuals past performance with
current.
  Ranking Method: A Performance appraisal technique in which
supervisors list the workers in their groups in order from (highest to
lowest) or (best to worst). Diff from rating b/c it relates individual
performance with all others in group- Not a direct measure of job
performance.
 Paired-Comparison Technique: A Performance appraisal technique
that compares the performance of each worker with that of every other
worker in the group. Similar to Ranking but more systematic/controlled
but confined to small groups no more than 6-8 ppl
 Forced-Distribution Technique: performance appraisal technique in
which supervisors rate employees according to a prescribed
distribution of ratings/categories (top 10%, top 50%). makes an
assumption that tests have normal distributions/bell curve, but it
doesn’t adequately appropriate what AVG is; group may all be better
than AVG.
 Forced-Choice Technique: performance appraisal technique in
which raters are presented with groups of descriptive statements and
are asked to select the phrase in each group that is most descriptive or
least descriptive of worker being evaluated. Not used often, difficult to
test.
○ Behavioral Observation Scales (BOS): A performance appraisal technique
in which appraiser rates the frequency of critical employee behaviors.
○ Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS): A performance appraisal
technique in which appraiser rates critical employee behaviors specific to
successful or failure.
○ MBO Management By Objective: [now use Total Quality Mgt.] involves a
mutual agreement btw employee and manager on goals to be achieved in a
given period. --Being at lowest lvl, they report their goals to the next lvl
above. It creates tremendous accountability. Problem with set goals is that
they tend to be set low b/c they tend to be raised. The result is settling for
mediocrity if you don’t have control over the contingencies in the
environment, which is almost never the case. Not valid or reliable.
• How to Improve Performance Appraisals:
○ Training: (persons who conduct appraisal) creates awareness that abilities and
skills are usually distributed in a bell curve & developing the ability to define
objective criteria for work behavior.
○ Provide Feed-back to Raters: reduces leniency errors
○ Subordinate Participation: leads to trust in employee management, increases
satisfaction, increased reports of fairness & motivation to improve.

3.26.09
Consumer Psychology
• Consumer Psychology: Consumer decides success of an organization or/object so we
have to have them surs- Market, Advertise & Sell our product
• 3 Major Purposes of Advertising
○ Produce an Awareness of & Knowledge about a company, service, or product
○ Create a (+) regard; make ppl feel good about company
○ To (Stimulate) a Desire; you can’t create a desire, like a motivation, it has to
already exist. Important b/c I-O Psychologists were accused of brainwashing
essentially.
• Survey Consumer Method: Actual buying behavior or response/reactions to a
product. Ppl not always accurate/reliable.
○ Most Popular methodology
○ Don’t tell the truth
 ○ Can’t articulate meaningful information
○ Much of responses subconscious- unaware of intentions
• Motivational Analysis (In-Depth): Not interested in preference rather (WHY?)
motivation for purchasing product. Projective Techniques, uncover subjective,
unconscious reasons (Roarchat/ Ink Blot Test) Pretest of focus group. What kinds of
cognitions/affects group perceives from ad. Is what they’re looking at.
• Why Ppl Behave the Way the They Do
○ Eye Camera: in dpt. Studies b/c want to know where/what ppl are fixating on.
(end of aisle)
○ Pupil Dilator/Autonomic Response: pupils increase when perceiving a desirable
object, constrict on decreased desirability. Gives validity
○ Sales Test: Run ad in one area/ not another; if sales increased in the place as
was run and not the other, then it worked
○ Aided Recall: Most frequently used method show part of ad & ask the group to
fill in the missing part of the advertisement
○ Packaging: Ppl consider convince, security, does it fit where it’s usually kept,
aesthetics, packaging makes up more of product cost than product itself
• Can spend so much on advertising b/c they pass the bulk on to the consumer
• 2 Major Pblms w/ Sexy Ads
○ Very little recall on product
○ Appeal to wrong audience
• Has to appeal to different ethnic group.
○ High status by up high quantity.
○ High SES shop down b/c they don’t have anyone to impress
○ Social Climbers buy ridiculous $800 Jimmy Choo Shoes

Working Conditions
• Psychological and Physical factors that satisfy efficientcy
• Factors:

○ Physical: Location, design, size, landscape

○ Temporal: work hours, rest pauses
○ Psychological: boredom, fatigue, job simple
 Sm. Corporations : have increased interaction
 Lg. Corporations very impersonal, very structured
○ Indoor Pollution: very LG buildings, enclosed with polluted air in recirculation
 Air planes are a perfect example
• Illumination Important_ know ft.candle
• Noise
• OCEA
○ No noise in work should exceed 90 decibels
○ 130 + cause near instant hearing loss
• Color, Coding devices, most employees prefer pastels or cool colors
• Music in work place, humanizing attempt doesn’t increase production unless the job
is repetitious
• Nominal work hours, shift work (esp. Rotating) is extremely deleterious to ones
health.
 CH VOCABULARY
CH 5 Performance Appraisals
• Peer Rating: A Performance appraisal technique in which managers or executives at
the same lvl assess one another’s abilities and job behaviors.
• Self Ratings: managers assess their own abilities and job performance.

CH 7 Leadership
• Authoritarian Leadership: style where leader makes all the decisions and tells
followers what to do.
• Bureaucracy: formal, orderly, and rational approach to organizing business
enterprises.
• Charismatic Leadership:
• Consideration Leadership Functions: Leadership behaviors that involve
awareness of and sensitivity to the feelings of subordinates.
• Contingency Theorizes: theory in which a leader’s effectiveness is determined by
the interaction btw the leaders personal characteristics & the situation.
• Democratic Leadership:
• Implicit Leadership Theory: describes a good leader in terms of one’s past
experiences w/ different types of leaders.
• Initiating Structure Leadership Functions: leadership behaviors concerned with
organizing, defining, and directing the work activities of subordinates.
• Leader-Member Exchange: theory that focuses on how the leader-follower
relationship affects the leadership process
• Path-Goal Theory: theory that focuses on the kinds of behaviors leaders should
exercise to allow their subordinates to achieve personal and organizational goals.
• Pygmalion Effect: self-fulfilling prophecy in which managers’ expectations about
the lvl of their employees’ job performance can influence that performance.
• Self-Managing Work Groups: Employee work groups that allow the members of a
work team to manage, control, and monitor all the facets of their work, from
recruiting, hiring, and training new employees to deciding when to take rest breaks.

CH 10 Working Conditions
• Environmental Psychology: the study of the effect of workplace design on
behavior and attitudes.
• Flextime: A sys of flexible working hours combining core mandatory work periods
with elective work periods at the beginning and end of the workday
• Job Simplification: The reduction of manufacturing jobs to the simplest components
that can be mastered by unskilled or semiskilled workers.
• Nominal Working Hours: The prescribed number of hours employees are supposed
to spend on the job; not all of these hours are actually spent performing job tasks.

CH 12 Stress at Work
• Occupational Health Psychology: the field study of dealing with the health effects
of job stress and other aspects of employee well-being.

CH 14 Consumer Psychology