Psychology at Work

Health Psychology
A new era of behavior research and practice that reflects the view that both body and mind are important determinants of heath and illness.

Behavioral Medicine
combines behavioral and biomedical science for prevention and treatment of disorders ordinarily thought of as being within the domain of medicine.

Stress is an important factor which affects physical health adversely and has
contributed to the rapid development of health psychology and behavioral medicine. Many events that are stressful have the following characteristics:

 They are so intense that they produce a state of overload such that we can no longer adapt to them. They evoke incompatible tendencies for example, to approach or to avoid an object or an activity. They are uncontrollable that is, they are beyond our limits to control.

Psychology as a Career

Applied Psychology includes all the fields of psychological employment which are
not primarily concerned with the functions of teachings and research.

Professional practice in psychology is concerned principally with the following locales:

Schools Colleges Governmental Agencies Medical Institutions Community Agencies Private Practice

Academic Psychology
The primary function of academic psychologists is teaching and research.

College Teaching
Teaching, preparing examinations and evaluating students achievement, the college teacher takes part in many professional activities such as organizing and preparing course materials, sitting in academic committees or carrying out administrative responsibilities. As academic psychologists, they also devote a part of their time doing research in various psychological areas. Teaching positions as psychologist for the rank of assistant profession and above require a Ph.D. degree.

Research
The most common work settings of research psychologist are the universities and the research foundations.

General Research involves the study of basic theoretical problems in such fields as
learning, perception, motivation and emotional behavior.

Clinical Psychology
The largest branch of applied psychology which is concerned primarily with adjustment problems in mental health.

Clinical Psychologist
Recognized as Professional Mental Health Worker Refers to a person who have received a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from a recognized university.

Psychometrist
A specialist in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of standardized psychological test.

Careers in Hospitals

Careers in Hospital
Psychiatric Hospital/Mental Hospital is the largest single source of employment for clinical psychologists.

Child Guidance
The principal psychological function in child guidance is essentially the same as in adult guidance. The psychologist administers various test to the child, diagnoses behavior problems and participates in some form of treatments such as play therapy.

Counseling Psychology
It is educational. It deals with problems of normal, everyday adjustment which can be solved on an intellectual level. It aims to help individual analyze his own problems and arrive at his own intelligent decisions in achieving more mature adjustments.

The specific types of guidance which the counseling psychologist may offer are:
Vocational Guidance Vocational Rehabilitation Guidance in Schools Guidance with Criminals and Delinquents Guidance for the Aged and Family Counseling

Industrial Psychology
It includes the application of psychological knowledge and methods not only to business and industrial problems but to all types of organizations whose operations involve the cooperative efforts of large groups of individuals.

The approaches used by industrial psychologist which involves human relations are:
Those concerned with personnel within the organization. Those concerned with the customer, public and society as a whole.

Personnel Interviewing
The primary task of a psychologist engaged in personnel work is to produce a smooth running, happy, and efficient working unit. This involves the use of scientific method in selection, classification and training, as well as maintaining employee morale and optimum satisfaction of workers economic and psychological needs.

Personnel Orientation and Training

Orientation involves both formal and informal methods of acquainting the worker
with the job and the organization, familiarizing the worker with company policies and benefits and giving the worker a feeling of belonging to the group.

Supervisor Training has become an important function of the personnel

psychologist who uses his knowledge in psychology to increase the supervisors skill in maintaining worker morale and efficiency.

Labor Relations
Labor Specialist task is negotiating with employees in management-labor disputes.

Personnel Research
Research Psychologist conduct studies related to human relations and personnel management. A principal industrial research function is job analysis, or the analysis of specific jobs in terms of the operations involved and the abilities and training required. Another form of industrial research is time and motion study a step-by-step analysis of the hand and body motions used by the worker to perform a specific task. Its function is to increase the efficiency of work methods by establishing the best method of performing the job with the greatest efficiency and least effort.

Public Administration
In a broad sense, industrial psychology is the psychology of administration, of cooperative action to achieve purposes.
The task of the psychologist is the application of human relations methods to the activities of executive agencies.

Public Opinion Polling

The public opinion psychologist is a technician in sampling techniques, scientific methodology and statistical analysis.

Public Opinion Psychologists often specialize in a branch of polling known as

market research, which is closely related to advertising.

Market research is concerned with determining the buying habits and needs of

people, and their attitudes and reactions towards various product in order to obtain greater sales and public satisfaction.

Regulation of Psychologist
Society finds itself a victim of Pseudo-Psychologists who are inadequately trained.
The regulation of psychological practice is a social and professional necessity. A quack is someone engaged in the professional practice of psychology, operating under the title of psychologist, but not properly qualified in the field by training and experience.

Finding the Right Job

Any requirement requires specifications. The person has to consider employers specification and the requirements for the job, which the individual must meet if one is to be hired.

1. Education
There are educational requirements for any kind of job. 2. Intelligence A number of psychological surveys show a close relationship between an individuals level of general intelligence and success in a particular occupation.

3. Special Abilities
Most occupations require applicants to possess certain special abilities.

4. Physical Ability
There are jobs or occupations that need endurance and strong physique.

5. Temperament
Vocational success and Satisfaction are definitely related to a persons temperament. Social Intelligence which is the ability to get along with people, is an important determiner of successful adjustment in many situations and vocations.

6. Interest
It is also important that one should choose a vocation that will arouse ones interest.

Finding the Right Employee

It is important to find the right employees so as to prevent excessive turnover and absenteeism, increase efficiency and minimize accidents and spoilage. To find the right employees, employers sometimes make use of selection devices such as letters of application, letters of recommendation or photographs.

Psychological Test
The best device for predicting employee suitability is psychological tests.

1. Personality Inventories
This is an instrument for measuring personality traits by asking applicants to give information about them. For example:

Study of Values test ( Allport, Vernon, Lindzey 1960)

Measures a persons values.

Strong Vocational Interest (Strong 1943)

Compares the interest of the client with those of individuals who have been notably successful in different occupations.

Kuder Preference Record

Assesses three areas. The respondents score indicates the area of his/her major interest and, with experienced counseling, the right occupation selected.

Difference Aptitude Test (DAT)

A battery of tests that measure the basic aptitudes of the respondents in relation to their potentiality in different kinds of occupations.

2. Situational Test (Behavior Sampling)

Used to measure personality traits which are very complex or not well defined.

Understanding Human Behavior in Organizations

There are times when employees are dissatisfied even with adequate wages and reasonable working hours. Floyd Ruch (Psychology and Life, 1963) suggested several pointers on how industrial monotony may be corrected:

1. Select the right workers

The employer should take care that the workers they hire do not object to routine.

2. Schedule Rest Periods.

Rest periods will not only serve to break the monotony but will also increase production for the day.

3. Allow social contacts.

If the workers allowed making social contacts without interfering with their efficiency, production will increase.

4. Plan after-work activities.

The psychological disturbance caused by monotonous routine work may be relieved if the leisure time of the workers is used for recreation and self-improvement.

5. Show how the job is important

Monotonous work will be more interesting if it has meaning. The management should hold an open house where employees are invited to go through the factory to explore corners they have not known existed, to witness operations they have never seen before.

6. Build identity with enterprise system

The need to belong is an important factor in job satisfaction. Management can help satisfy this need by encouraging teamwork and fostering social groupings. They will also increase production. Two-way communication can be achieved through employee opinion polls, use of natural leaders in the work force and written or printed communications which must be made readily understandable to the workers.