Becoming an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Dennis Doverspike, Catalina Flores

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351061841
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Psicología
• Categoría: Historia y teoría en psicología

So you want to be an Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychologist? You may have heard that it is one of the fields of the future, fast-growing, and a highly sought-after profession. But what is Industrial-Organizational Psychology? What does an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist do? Answering these questions and many more, Becoming an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist is the perfect introduction, providing an expert overview of careers in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, the study of human behavior in the workplace.

Part 1 of the book discusses what I-O Psychology is and what I-O Psychologists do, including the history of the field, research areas, and job types and titles. Part 2 discusses the undergraduate years, including how to make oneself competitive for graduate school, and going through the process of identifying graduate programs, applying, and deciding on the right program. Part 3 focuses on the graduate years, including advice on success in a graduate program and in internships, as well as additional issues like licensure and transitioning from other careers. Finally, Part 4 discusses how to find a job and begin a career in the various sectors of I-O Psychology: academic, consulting, industry, and government.

PART 1

Beginning Thoughts

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

So, you want to be an Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychologist. Congratulations on your choice of a prospective career and thank you for picking up this book. With the right combination of motivation and career guidance, you should be able to attain your goal. This book has been written to assist you with the academic and career choices you will need to make in order to obtain the education and experience required to gain entry into the I-O profession. Starting with what you will need to think about as an undergraduate, we take you through a series of steps that finishes with choosing specific specialty areas within I-O Psychology.

On the day you begin work as an I-O Psychologist, we are confident you will find it to be an exciting, dynamic, and enriching profession.

What is I-O Psychology?

You probably already know that psychology is the “study of the mind and behavior.” I-O Psychology then is the study of behavior in the workplace, including 1) the analysis of jobs, people, and organizations; 2) the measurement of behaviors and mental processes related to the workplace; 3) the development of interventions and training aimed at improving job performance and satisfaction; and 4) the evaluation of our work to determine whether we are really making a difference in job and organizational performance.

Psychologists are those professionals who study the mind and behavior. Psychologists are sometimes categorized into heath care providers (primarily clinical and counseling psychologists), basic researchers (most of whom are academics), and general applied psychologists. I-O Psychologists would fall under the category of the latter. Chapter 2, and really the book as a whole, attempts to provide you with an answer to the questions of “What is I-O Psychology and what does an I-O Psychologist do?”

How do i Become an I-O Psychologist?

Typically, to get a job as an I-O Psychologist, you need to obtain at least a master’s degree. Of course, to obtain a master’s degree you have to apply for and be admitted to graduate school after completing a bachelor’s degree. Part 2 of this book discusses the undergraduate years, beginning with Chapter 3, which covers what you should be thinking about as an undergraduate if this is a possibility for you. The process of applying to graduate school and making decisions with regard to where to attend can be an adventure in and of itself and are covered in Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Once you are admitted and choose your graduate program, you can look forward to anywhere from two to as many as six years of graduate study (and sometimes even longer), which is the topic of Part 3 on the graduate years. Fortunately, graduate school can be an exciting time and you will probably never know more about psychology and statistics than you will know in that stage of your career. Chapter 7 discusses the graduate school experience, including how to be successful and relatively happy.

Prior to applying for full-time employment, many individuals pursue an internship, which allows students to gain supervised, structured experience in the field. Fortunately, there are many internship options for those interested in I-O; however, the experience of applying for and completing a developmental internship can still be a challenging one. We offer our advice in Chapter 8.

In most states, an individual must be licensed as a psychologist to use the title “Psychologist” or “I-O Psychologist.” However, many I-O Psychologists are opposed to licensure and the licensure requirement is a controversial one. In Chapter 9, we discuss licensure, and offer our views on this hotly debated topic.

Many individuals may not decide to pursue graduate study in I-O right out of college. Some people may choose to become clinical or counseling psychologists for example, and then decide after a few years that providing therapy is not what they want to do every day. Chapter 10 is for those individuals who would like to transition into I-O Psychology from either a totally different career area or from a different psychological specialty.

How do I Find a Job?

You have walked across the stage and received your diploma, completed an internship, and now you need to find a job. As you celebrate, you cannot help but worry about what the future might hold. Will you land your dream job? How do you get started with your job search? What types of employers should you consider?

In Part 4 of this book, Chapters 11 through 14, we discuss how to find a job and begin a career in various sectors of I-O Psychology. We use the term “sector” to correspond to different types of employers. The sectors are academic (Chapter 11), consulting (Chapter 12), industry (Chapter 13), and government (Chapter 14). For each sector, we review how to look for jobs, when and how to apply, how to present yourself, and what to expect during recruitment and onboarding. Wrapping up, we offer final thoughts in Part 5, Chapter 15.

Who Should Read This Book?

In writing this book, we hoped to make it applicable for a wide, diverse audience. Although primarily oriented toward readers in the United States, most graduate programs receive applicants from many different countries. Whether you are a high school student considering a college major, an undergraduate curious about graduate school, a first-year graduate student adjusting to life in academe, or a midcareer psychologist considering transitioning into I-O Psychology, we have tried to provide information and content that will help to meet your needs in making your educational and career decisions.

We also envision that this book could be used as a supplement to other textbooks in an undergraduate I-O Psychology class. For those schools that offer a Careers in Psychology course, this book could serve as supplemental reading.

Online Materials

We would be the first to admit that there is a wealth of material that can be found online. YouTube, for example, has a plethora of videos on the topic of becoming an I-O Psychologist. There are several excellent blogs covering different I-O topics as well. In this book, our approach to online materials has been to mention websites where material can be found, especially the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology site (also known as SIOP or Division 14), but not to provide links that might change. If you are interested in following up on researching any of the online materials mentioned in this book, you can simply Google the topic, ask Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant.

Textbox 1.1 Youtube

Go to YouTube and type in “Industrial Organizational Psychologist.” You will be amazed at how many videos you find there. You could probably spend a year just watching all the videos, something we do not recommend.

Career Vignettes

Textbox 1.2 An Old Joke Recycled

I saw a college student walk into the Career Guidance Office at the University and tell the guidance counselor, “I do not know what I want to do with my life, I am a psychology major and I am so confused.” The guidance counselor places three objects on the table – a cute little mouse, a stack of Rorschach inkblot cards, and a stack of dollar bills. The counselor says to the student “Pick one.” Now, unbeknownst to the student, this is a simple vocational test. If the student picks the mouse, the student will become an experimental psychologist. If the student picks the Rorschach cards, the student will become a clinical psychologist. If the student picks the stack of money, the student will quit psychology and go into a career as a salesperson. The poor undecided student pauses for a second and then picks all three. The guidance counselor quickly says, “Better get ready to apply for graduate school, someday you will be a successful Industrial-Organizational Psychologist.”

To help to illustrate the points made in the book, we asked friends and colleagues to contribute their stories with regard to becoming an I-O Psychologist. Those stories appear in chapters throughout the book, with our own stories appearing in the Preface.

Career vignettes were provided by:

• Matt O’Connell, Ph.D. was Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Select International and now has started a second career as an author of fictional, historical novels (Chapter 2).
• Kate Ferguson is currently an undergraduate at The University of Akron (Chapter 3).
• Cheryl Hardy is currently an undergraduate at The University of Akron (Chapter 3).
• Ketaki Sodhi, M.A. is a Ph.D. student at The University of Akron (Chapter 4).
• Eric S. Hutchison, M.B.A., M.S. is a Ph.D. candidate at Walden University and works in the public sector (Chapter 5).
• Russell Steiner is currently an M.A./Ph. D. student at The University of Akron (Chapter 6).
• Katya Caravella, M.A. is a graduate of The University of Akron and a Human Resource (HR) Project Specialist at Northwood Investors, LLC in Colorado (Chapter 7).
• Tyler Slezak, M.A. is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Akron and an Innovation Intern at Shaker International (Chapter 8).
• Brodie Gregory Riordan, Ph.D. is a graduate of The University of Akron and is currently a Manager in Partner Learning and Development at McKinsey & Company (Chapter 9).
• Ernest Hoffman, Ph.D. is a graduate of The University of Akron and works as a Senior Management Consultant at PRADCO, Columbus, OH (Chapter 10).
• Alexandra I. Zelin, Ph.D. is a graduate of The University of Akron and is an Assistant Professor of I-O Psychology at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (Chapter 11).
• Jacqueline Carpenter, Ph.D. is a graduate of The University of Akron and is currently a consultant with Shaker International, Cleveland, OH (Chapter 12).
• Andrew (Drew) Lam, Ph.D. is a graduate of The University of Akron and the Senior Manager of Organization Development at Shearer’s Snacks (Chapter 13).
• Gina Seaton, Ph.D. is a graduate of The University of Akron and serves as Global Talent Assessment and Development Manager with PepsiCo (Chapter 13).
• George Vaughn, M.A. is a Manager of Employment Testing at the Cuyahoga Country Personnel Review Commission, Cleveland, OH (Chapter 14).

About the Authors

Of course, you may be curious as to who we are and what gives our opinions any credibility. Let us introduce ourselves.

Dennis Doverspike, Ph.D., ABPP, is the President of Doverspike Consulting, LLC. He formerly held the title of Full Professor of Psychology at The University of Akron, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Life-Span Development and Gerontology, and Director of the Center for Organizational Research. He is certified as a specialist in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and in Organizational and Business Consulting by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) and is a licensed psychologist in the State of Ohio. Dr. Doverspike has over 40 years of experience working with consulting firms and with public and private sector organizations. He is the author of three books and over 200 other professional publications. Dennis Doverspike received his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1983 from The University of Akron. He has taught courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and directed dissertations, theses, and practica.

Catalina Flores, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at The University of Akron. Her research interests are in diversity in the workplace, employee selection, and performance management. She has taught undergraduate courses in Psychology and Statistics, and served as Managing Director for the Center for Organizational Research (COR), a consulting center at The University of Akron for two years prior to beginning an internship at Shaker International. During her time working for COR she has gained experience managing a variety of hands-on projects with organizations across multiple industries, in the areas of selection, employee surveys, and statistical analysis.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the people who have helped us make this book a reality. Our career vignette contributors were integral to our vision of highlighting the many twists and turns in becoming an I-O Psychologist and we are thankful that they were willing to share their stories. We also want to thank the faculty, staff, graduate students, and alumni of The University of Akron who have served as a sounding board and source of support throughout this process. At Taylor & Francis, we would like to thank our editor, Julie Toich, and Christina Chronister, who encouraged us to consider authoring the book. We also want to thank the copy-editor Melani...