Psyc 231 Industrial/Organizational Psychology

EXAM 1 INFORMATION

Length and Duration

The exam will consist of approximately 50 multiple choice questions. You will have one class period to complete the exam.

Topics covered

The exam will cover chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of your text, as well as all the external readings, and any material covered in lecture, especially if it was not covered in the book.

The following are the topics that you should concentrate on for the test. In general, if the topic was not discussed in class, it is unlikely to be on the test. However, you are responsible for knowing the topics discussed in as much detail as is presented in the book. There will also be at least one question from each of the external readings. A good way to prepare for this exam is to try to anticipate exam questions. Go through the book, readings, and notes, flag down important topics, and write a question about it (and make sure you know the correct answer!). To help you create appropriate questions, hereís what a typical test item will look like:

 1. You want to know if part-time employees become more or less happy with their employment over time. Thus, you give a questionnaire to 100 new hires and four months later give the same questionnaire to the same employees. What type of research design have you used?
a. longitudinal survey design
b. field experiment
c. cross-sectional survey design
d. longitudinal observational design

Exam Topics


Chapter 1

Educational requirements of I/O psychologists
Ethical principles of Psychologists
Scientific Management
Hawthorne Studies
What I/O psychologists do and DONíT do
Critical events in I/O history

Chapter 2

Reliability and validity (including types of each)
Threats to internal validity
Confounding and control
Framing hypotheses
Types of research designs (e.g., experiments, surveys, observational designs), including strengths and limitations of each
Hypothesis testing
Descriptive statistics
Correlation
Dependent and independent variables
Inferential statistics

Chapter 3

Sources of job analysis information
Collecting job analysis information
Sources of inaccuracy
Effects of inaccuracy sources on job analysis
Job analysis methods (e.g, task inventories, FJA, PAQ (you will not need to know the specific dimensions that the PAQ and the JCI measure))
Job evaluation
Comparable worth
Job evaluation methods

Chapter 5

Types of tests (ability, personality, integrity, vocational interest)
Structured interviews (how you get an interview to be structured, validity of interviews)
Validity of selection procedures (you donít need specific validity coefficients, just need to know where in the ball park they fall ‚ see lecture slide)
Assessment centers
Work samples

Chapter 6

Validity generalization
Steps to conducting a validation study
Predictors and criteria
Utility
Civil Rights Act, ADA, legal issues
Multiple hurdle, cutoff, and regression approaches to selection


 

Makeup Exams

If you have a planned absence, such as an away game, or a trip, please see me so that you can take the exam before you leave. Make up exams will only be given under unusual circumstances, such as a death in the family, or an illness (with a written medical note), and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. All makeup exams will be administered during the following class period.