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Industrial/Organiational Psychology

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Industrial/organizational psychology is an area of study that has been studied since the early times of psychology (Spector, 2008). In the beginning industrial/organizational psychology put all of its emphasis only all the industrial side of the field. With only concentrate and on the industrial side of the field did not work well with the management side of the business; so a lot of emphasis was placed on human resources. If you look at the other side of the field, the organizational side puts on improving workplaces and work conditions. As psychology began to combine the two fields; they field began dealing with the full spectrum of industry and organization. Industrial/organizational psychology is explained as an applied field that concentrates on the development and application of scientific principles to the work environment (Spector, 2008). A more practical view of industrial/organizational psychology is that it is used to improve the quality of the work environment for the employees and to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of employee behavior in that environment (Barnes –Holmes et. al., 2006).

Industrial/organizational psychology dates back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It was at this time that the early psychologists were attempting to combine psychology with the organization of business’s (Spector, 2008). Two scientists that were both professors at universities Huge Munsterburg and Walker Dill Scott were accredited with the founding studies of industrial/organizational psychology. These two scientists were both interested the employee selection and application of psychological testing on the subject of the particular industry.

An engineer by the name of Frank Gilberth and a psychologist by the name of Lillian Gilberth took industrial/organizational psychology a giant jump forward in technological applicability after the binding their

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