This document provides an overview of psychology, particularly focusing on industrial/organizational psychology (I/O psychology), which applies psychological principles to enhance workplace productivity and employee well-being. It outlines the ethics, types of psychologists, various divisions of psychology, and the specific roles and objectives of I/O psychologists in improving organizational efficiency and employee performance. Additionally, it discusses the relationship between organizational psychology and human resource management, including job analysis and personnel selection processes.

1. CHAPTER 01
Prepared By: Ms.Faizal Antanat Shamila
Institution: Eastern University, Sri Lanka

2. After Studying this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand What is Psychology
• Ethics of Psychologist
• Types of Psychologists
• Division of Psychology
• Understand Industrial/organizational psychology
• Objectives of I/O Psychology
• Relationship between Organizational psychology and
Human Resource Management function.

3. Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior.
The word “psychology‖ comes from the Greek words
“psyche, ‖ meaning life, and “logos, ‖ meaning
explanation.
Psychology means “the study of psychological issues in
order to seek knowledge for its own causes rather than
for its practical application”.

4. • Psychology is the science of human behaviour.
“The scientific study of the behaviour and
mental process of human and other animals”
(Croooks and Stein, 1988).
“The science of mental life” (Miller, 1996).
Mental life refers to three phenomenon those
are behaviour, thoughts and emotions.

5. History of Psychology

6. Ethics of Psychologist:
1. Competence: A psychologist only does work that he/she
is competent to perform.
2. Integrity: Psychologists are fair and honest in their
professional dealing with others.
3. Professional and Scientific Responsibility:
Psychologists maintain high standards of professional
behavior.
4. Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity: Psychologists
respect the rights of confidentiality and privacy of others.
5. Concern for Other’s Welfare: Psychologists attempt to
help others through their professional work.
6. Social Responsibility: Psychologists have a
responsibility to use their skills to benefit society.

7. Types of Psychologists
Aviation Psychologists
Clinical Psychologists
Counselling Psychologists
Community Psychologists
Comparative Psychologists
Consumer Psychologists
Cross-Cultural Psychologists

8. Educational Psychologists
School Psychologists
Engineering Psychologists
Environmental Psychologists
Forensic Psychologists
Health Psychologists
Military Psychologists
Social Psychologists
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists

9. Industrial/organizational psychology
Industrial/organizational psychology (I/O Psychology) is a
field of psychology that applies the fundamental scientific
principles of psychology to the workplace environment to
make work more fun and more productive.
Industrial-organizational psychology is the branch of
psychology that applies psychological theories and principles
to organizations. Often referred to as I-O psychology, this field
focuses on increasing workplace productivity and related
issues such as the physical and mental well-being of
employees.
Industrial-organizational psychologists perform a wide variety
of tasks, including studying worker attitudes and behavior,
evaluating companies, and conducting leadership training.

10. Guion (1965) - “The scientific study of the
relationship between man and the world at work: the
study of the adjustment people makes to the places
they go, the people they meet, and the things they do
in the process of making a living”
Blum & Naylor (1968) - “The application or
extension of Psychological principles to the problems
concerning human beings operating within the
context of business and industry.

11. The Two Sides of I-O Psychology
Industrial side, which involves looking at how to best match
individuals to specific job roles. This segment of I-O psychology is
also sometimes referred to as personnel psychology.
People who work in this area might assess employee
characteristics and then match these individuals to jobs in which
they are likely to perform well.
Other functions that fall on the industrial side of I-O psychology
include training employees, developing job performance standards,
and measuring job performance.
.

12. The organizational side of psychology is more
focused on understanding how organizations
affect individual behavior.
Organizational structures, social norms,
management styles, and role expectations are all
factors that can influence how people behave
within an organization.
By understanding such factors, I-O psychologists
hope to improve individual performance and
health while at the same time benefiting the
organization as a whole.

13. Division of Psychology
1. Physiological Psychology:
Physiological psychology is a subdivision of behavioral
neuroscience (biological psychology) that studies the
neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through
direct manipulation of the brains of nonhuman animal
subjects in controlled experiments.
This field of psychology takes an empirical and practical
approach when studying the brain and human behavior.
Most scientists in this field believe that the mind is a
phenomenon that stems from the nervous system. By
studying and gaining knowledge about the mechanisms of
the nervous system, physiological psychologists can
uncover many truths about human behavior.

14. Unlike other subdivisions within biological psychology, the main
focus of psychological research is the development of theories
that describe brain-behavior relationships.
Physiological psychology studies many topics relating to the
body’s response to a behavior or activity in an organism. It
concerns the brain cells, structures, components, and chemical
interactions that are involved in order to produce actions.
Psychologists in this field usually focus their attention to topics
such as sleep, emotion, ingestion, senses, reproductive behavior,
learning/memory, communication, psychopharmacology,
and neurological disorders.
The basis for these studies all surround themselves around the
notion of how the nervous system intertwines with other systems
in the body to create a specific behavior.

15. 2.Cognitive Psychology:
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mind and
mental function, including learning, memory, attention,
perception, reasoning, language, conceptual development,
and decision making.
The modern study of cognition rests on the premise that
the brain can be understood as a complex computing
system.
It studies about how people perceive, learn, remember and
think about information.
Experiment, psychological studies, self report, case
studies, observations are the some method of cognitive
psychology.

16. 3. Development Psychology:
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and
why human beings change over the course of their life.
Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has
expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging,
and the entire lifespan.
This field examines change across three major dimensions:
physical development, cognitive development, and socio
emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a
broad range of topics including motor skills, executive
functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social
change, personality, emotional development, self-
concept and identity formation.

17. • Developmental psychology examines the influences
of nature and nurture on the process of human
development, and processes of change in context and
across time. Many researchers are interested in the
interaction between personal characteristics, the
individual's behavior and environmental factors,
including social context and the built environment.

18. 4. Personality Psychology
Personality also refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings,
social adjustments, and behaviors consistently exhibited
over time that strongly influences one's expectations, self-
perceptions, values, and attitudes.
It also predicts human reactions to other people, problems,
and stress. Gordon Allport (1937) described two major ways
to study personality: the nomothetic and
the idiographic. Nomothetic psychology seeks general laws
that can be applied to many different people, such as the
principle of self-actualization or the trait
of extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to
understand the unique aspects of a particular individual.
The study of personality has a broad and varied history in
psychology with an abundance of theoretical traditions.

19. Personality psychology is a branch
of psychology that studies personality and its
variation among individuals. Its areas of focus
include:
• Construction of a coherent picture of
the individual and their major psychological
processes
• Investigation of individual psychological
differences
• Investigation of human nature and
psychological similarities between individuals

20. What does an organizational
psychologist do?
• Apply psychological research to the workplace
• Work within human resources offices
• Help businesses hire more qualified employees
• Help train and motivate workforce
• Assess job performance
• Increase business efficiency
• Improve organizational structure
• Improve quality of life for employers and employees
• Study consumer behaviour

21. • Work as a consultant
• Training and development
• developing employee.
• Ergonomics
• Performance management
• Work life
• Organizational development
• Resolving Conflicts
• Team Building

22. Objectives of I/O Psychology
The overall goal of this field is to study and understand
human behaviour in the workplace and provide the
basis for minimizing some of the human problems in
the industry.

23. Relationship between Organizational psychology
and Human Resource Management function
1. Job Analysis
Job analysis has a few different methods but it primarily
involves the systematic collection of information about a
job.
The task-oriented job analysis, involves an examination of
the duties, tasks, and/or competencies required by a job,
whereas a worker-oriented job analysis, involves an
examination of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics (KSAOs) required to successfully
performing the work. Job analysis information is used for
many purposes, including the creation of job-relevant
selection procedures, performance appraisals and criteria,
or training programs. So, through the psychology
organization easy to recruit employees’ performance.

24. 2. Personnel Selection
Personnel selection involves both the newly hired
and individuals who can be promoted from
within the organization.
Common selection tools include ability tests (e.g.,
cognitive, physical, or psychomotor), knowledge
tests, personality tests, structured interviews, the
systematic collection of biographical data, and
work samples.
I–O psychologists must evaluate evidence
regarding the extent to which selection tools
predict job performance, evidence that bears on
the validity of selection tools.

25. 3. Performance Appraisal/Management
Performance appraisal or performance evaluation
is the process of measuring an individual’s or a
group’s work behaviors and outcomes against the
expectations of the job.
An I–O psychologist would typically use
information from the job analysis to determine a
job’s performance dimensions, and then construct
a rating scale to describe each level of
performance for the job.

26. 4. Individual Assessment and Psychometrics
Individual assessment involves the measurement of individual
differences.
I–O psychologists perform individual assessments in order to
evaluate differences among candidates for employment as well as
differences among employees.
The constructs measured pertain to job performance. With
candidates for employment, individual assessment is often part of
the personnel selection process.
These assessments can include written tests, aptitude tests,
physical tests, psycho-motor tests, personality tests, integrity and
reliability tests, work samples, simulation and assessment
centers.
Psychometrics is the science of measuring psychological
variables, such as knowledge, skills, and abilities. I–O
psychologists are generally well-trained in psychometric
psychology.

27. Remuneration and Compensation
Compensation includes wages or salary, bonuses,
pension/ retirement contributions, and perquisites that
can be converted to cash or replace living expenses.
I–O psychologists may be asked to conduct a job
evaluation for the purpose of determining
compensation levels and ranges. I–O psychologists
may also serve as expert witnesses in pay
discrimination cases when disparities in pay for
similar work are alleged.

28. Training and Training Evaluation
Training can be beneficial for the organization
and for employees in terms of increasing their
value to their organization as well as their
employability in the broader marketplace.
I–O psychologists make corrective adjustments
while the training is ongoing. The basic
foundation for training programs is learning.

29. Motivation in the Workplace
Motivation can often be used as a tool to help predict
behavior, it varies greatly among individuals and
must often be combined with ability and
environmental factors to actually influence behavior
and performance.
Work motivation “is a set of energetic forces that
originate both within as well as beyond an
individual’s being, to initiate work-related behavior,
and to determine its form, direction, intensity, and
duration” Understanding what motivates an
organization’s employees is central to the study of I–
O psychology.

30. Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational health and safety is concerned with how the
work environment contributes to illness and injury of
workers.
Particular importance are psychosocial hazards or risk
factors that include fatigue, workplace violence, workplace
bullying. Other factors important to employee health and
well-being include work schedules (e.g., night shifts),
work/family conflict, and burnout.
Tools have been developed by I/O researchers and
psychologists to measure these psychosocial risk factors in
the workplace and “stress audits” can be used to help
organizations remain compliant with various occupational
health and safety regulations around the World.

31. Why Is Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Important?
• Industrial-organizational psychology helps
organizations to,
• Increase profitability
• Recruit and select more talent employees
• Identify and development of leaders
• Improve operational efficiency
• Train and develop their workforces
• Improve employee morale

32. Thank You