Organizational Psychology
The University of Tulsa prepares Industrial/Organizational psychologists to deal with individual problems in the workplace. This philosophy matches my research area of interest on the effects of individual differences in the work environment. I believe that individual differences influence nearly every aspect of human behavior and interaction, including those in the workplace. By necessity, a successful manager is one who understands the potential influences of individual differences in the work environment. As an example, the management style utilized (as I have learned first hand) must match the personalities of the employees being managed. By conducting research in this area, theory relevant to motivating individually diverse employees may be developed and then applied. Of particular interest is the motivation of aging employees. The elimination of a mandatory retirement age has greatly increased the need for further research in this area.
My interest in the University of Tulsa is strengthened by the required practicum and field experience, as well as, excellent faculty and facilities. I intend to pursue a career in applied research and organizational consulting, therefore, these qualities are imperative to myself and my career.
My career goals are to: (a) initially gain practical experience in the field through employment with a consulting firm, and (b) eventually acquire a teaching position with a college or university, while continuing research and consulting endeavors. It is my intention to contribute empirically based findings to the Industrial/Organizational psychology field through my research and practice. I also hope to be a strong influence and encouragement in students' lives through my contact with them during their academic careers.
I have assisted Dr. Whitsett of the University of Northern Iowa psychology department in the writing of his book on merging companies with different organizational cultures. For Dr. Whitsett, I selected and condensed pertinent information from audio-taped organizational interviews. Dr. Whitsett's book has not yet been submitted for publication. My research experience will be expanded during the spring, when I will be assisting Dr. Whitsett with a research endeavor on Vroom's Expectancy Theory. I will also be a teaching assistant for Dr. Whitsett's psychology research methods class.
I believe I possess particular strengths that will contribute to my success in a graduate program. I am intrinsically motivated, possess a strong desire to remain "on task", and I persevere when confronted with obstacles and difficulties. Also, being a disciplined person, I have developed very useful time management skills to handle my busy work and class schedule during my undergraduate education.
“I am superman; I am invincible”, is what one young man thought of himself on August 30, 2009. He left a friend’s house with a young woman in the car with him; it was a dark night and he was feeling good about himself. He thought he would try to impress the young girl and went way too fast. As he topped the hill, he ran off the road, over-corrected, and lost control of his vehicle. The accident claimed both their lives. Numerous car accidents involve young teenage drivers. Raising the minimum driving age to 16 would greatly reduce the number of automobile accidents involving teen drivers because they lack experience on the road, they lack maturity, and they would have less accidents resulting in safer roads.
Traditionally, the role of motivation in the work place has been tailored to the average worker. In a lot of motivational research, the common focus revolves around how to motivate employees to be the best and most productive version of themselves. As today’s workforce is becoming increasingly dominated by an aging population of workers, the image of the average worker changes. The average age of retirement is on the climb and as a result recent literature in Industrial/Organizational Psychology has begun to focus upon how to how effectively motivate the aging and elderly portion of the workforce. In addition, recent research has begun to focus on how to properly motivate employees to maintain an optimal level of performance as they age. The
Industrial and organizational psychologists contribute to an organization's success by improving the performance, satisfaction, safety, health and well-being of its employees. An IO psychologist conducts research on employee behaviors and attitudes, and how these can be improved through hiring practices, training programs, feedback, and management systems. As well as helping organizations transition among periods of change and development. Although I am lacking training and experience within this direct field, I have been placed in situations where I have had the opportunity to observe individuals behavio...
Levy, Paul E. Industrial Organizational Psychology. New York: Worth, 2013. Print. The. Laird, Dugan, Sharon S. Naquin, and Elwood F. Holton.
There are a number of professions individuals can choose under the broad umbrella of human services. Typically, these professions are categorized into three broad classifications: nonprofessionals, human service professionals, and specialists (Woodside & McClam, 2015, p. 179). While these seemingly disparate career paths, ranging from physicians to probation officers, appear to have nothing in common, they all rest on one key goal: improving the well being of others. Each career will entail different education, training, and licensing requirements (contributing to their placement in the previously mentioned categories [Woodside & McClam, 2015, p. 179]), as well as have different career outlooks and salary ranges. It would behoove any individual seeking out a career in human services to do their due diligence; he/she needs to know exactly what a particular career path will demand and potentially provide. This paper sets out to examine the human service profession of industrial-organizational psychology.
Public Safety Officials have been battling the difficult question of profiling for quite a while. The question is how do they know the suspected individual fit the category associated with an offense? While it has been proven that many profiling cases are somewhat directed to a racial profile, it can be proven that people, given the discretion, are able to identify explanations for a series of behavioral events by identifying what that behavior accredits to. This theory, identified by Frite Heider, “suggested that we have a tendency to give casual explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition,” called the attribution theory. Until recently, a study of the like was considered to be a branch of sociology and not a form of psychology. Social psychology essentially became the focus on the individual rather than the group as a whole. Many thoughtful ideas are collected in response to the studies of social psychology. Human cognition is understood to arise from interacting socially; highlighting the importance of socialization. We use social cognition to develop our explanations and our ideas on why a person’s behavior is/does what it is/does.
Social psychology is a very fast growing, and increasingly relevant, explanation of human behaviour . There are a multitude of studies on human behaviour, including looking at areas such as social learning theory, social cognition and attribution theories. Understanding human behaviour in social contexts is a key element of social psychology, and, as Baron, Byrne and Suls (1989) explained, social psychology is ‘the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour in social situations’ . Social psychologists focus on how individuals interact with others within society. Looking at different interactions between individuals in certain circumstances, psychologists understand in more depth the reasons for
...eir brains are underdeveloped which can cause problems to make good decisions on the road, and some may be easily distracted while using technology like cells phones. Some legislators would suggest that they should extend the driver permit and make the written test harder for teens to pass.
The main reason the driving age should be raised, it will be a decrease in car accidents for 16-18 year-olds. Driving is one of the most dangerous things people do on a day to day basis. Teenagers are at a high risk of being in an accident than an older driver. A study show of car crashes during the past two years found a high proportion of newly licensed drivers have serious accidents. Drivers 16-18 are commonly known for speeding, fatigue, alcohol and not wearing seat belts lead to car crashes. More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes. The rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.(.2...)
Organizational behavior is the study of the many factors that have an impact on how people and groups act, think, feel, and respond to work and organizations and how organizations respond to their environments. (George & Jones, 2005) Organizational behavior is particularly important to managers, who are responsible for supervising the activities of one of more employees.
The real birthday of Shakespeare is unknown, but it is said his birthday was on April 23rd, 1564, in his father’s home in Henley Street in Stratford.
“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time,” said by Steven Wright. Teenagers look forward to their sixteenth birthday so they are able to drive. Everyone has felt that feeling where they can hardly wait to get behind the wheel and start driving. Little do people know teen drivers are more likely to die from a car accident than from a homicide, suicide, or cancer combined (Littlefield). They are mostly inexperienced with the road and how to handle distractions. If the age were moved to eighteen teenagers would have more driving experience (Sostarecz). Teenage drivers are extremely eager to drive because of freedom, but they are not aware of the distractions and peer pressure on the road; their experience of driving is not as well as others and statistics show how many deaths are caused due to teenage driving.
Today in the world you see how driving has become an everyday thing, everybody uses a car to get to the destination they need whether it’s their job or just to go out. Many out have their driver’s license, while other are just starting to learn how to drive to obtain their driver’s license. Everybody has always had an issue with what the right age should be to allow people to obtain their driver’s license and drive. While some people don’t argue with the age that teenagers should be allow to drive, others don’t agree on letting teenagers get their driver’s license at such young age. People had always had various good reasons on why the driving age should be adjusted or why it should left as it is. In my opinion and what I think is that for
Driving a car and obtaining a driver’s license does perhaps seem to provide people with a great sense of independence and freedom. Teenagers need to feel independent in order to learn to become successful on their own as well as realize how to handle life situations on their own, and having a license seems the perfect start and most effective way to do so. When teenagers feel this independence they tend to act more mature, knowing the responsibilities they must now carry on their own (More4Kids). Teenagers often look forward to the freedom that driving offers as well. Teenagers are able to take drives to escape from life’s many stressed, and leave any troubles at home behind without rebelling out against their loved ones.
One of the more popular areas of psychology is Educational Psychology. Educational Psychology can be explained several ways. The idea is to study theories and concepts from different parts of psychology and apply them in educational settings. These educational settings may occur in different school settings such as preschool. The goal of educational psychology is to create a positive student-teacher relationship. Educational psychology uses five different types of psychology, behavioral, cognitive, developmental, and social cognitive, and constructivist in this research paper I will be briefly discussing each type of psychology listed above.