Study Questions for Psychology 404 Final

The final exam will be a sampling of the topics listed below. Be ready for some short-essay questions (selected from those below) and possibly some multiple-choice items on these same topics.

Ch 1 Be able to provide a brief history of I/O psychology, including some of the prominent names, effects of WWI and WWII, and the Hawthorne Studies.

List and describe the areas of specialty within I/O psychology.

Ch 2 Identify and differentiate between the five primary research methods used in I/O psychology.

What is meta-analysis? How is it useful?

Ch 3 What is job analysis; what is its purpose and value?

Provide a discussion of job evaluation and comparable worth.

Ch 4 Know the meanings of reliability and validity. Describe the different types of each.

What are some of the main choices of “tests” that might predict an applicant’s work performance.

How valid are these different types of predictors?

Ch 5 Explain the steps you should go through if you were involved in research to measure the validity of a personnel selection test.

Explain the concept of validity generalization and its importance.

Ch 6 What are some of the main types of personnel training?

What steps should you follow if you were to evaluate the effectiveness of a training program?

Ch 7 Describe and discuss some of the issues and problems involved in measuring a person’s work performance.

Ch 8 Describe the three types of teams and some of the recent research on teams in the

workplace.

Ch 9 Provide a short essay on the concept of organizational justice.

Ch 10 Provide a short essay on work stress (sources, consequences, moderators).

In what ways can an organization help its employees cope with work stress.

Ch 11 Be able to explain and evaluate the following theories of

work motivation: equity theory, expectancy theory, and goal-setting theory.

Ch 12 Be able to explain and evaluate the following theoretical approaches to leadership: trait, behavior, power & influence, situational.

Ch 13 Suppose you were an entrepreneur with a new and growing business. How could the job characteristics model be of help to you?

What is organizational development? When is it used and how is it done?

Ch 15 Define ergonomics (human factors) and provide an example

of ergonomic research.

Ch 16 Select one of the trends identified in this final chapter. Describe it and explain why it is of interest to you.