Recently, on a flight to Boston, I found myself immersed in thought about the psychological preferences that are categorized and defined by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I suppose this is what one does with their ‘off time’ when they are immersed in a doctoral program in industrial-organizational psychology. In parallel with the hum of the engines, I quietly reflected, acknowledging how many times I have taken this assessment tool over the past eight years and my subsequently varying four-letter outcomes during vastly different life experiences in that timeframe. I couldn’t help but remark and marvel at how these considerable transitions in preference underscore a woman in her doctoral journey.
Sometimes one of the most difficult things for Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychologists to explain to non-I-O psychologists is what exactly it is that they do.
The field of I-O psychology is, in fact, a varied one, encompassing almost any aspect of the workplace and people within organizations. I-O psychologists’ job titles and employment environments can be even more varied—ranging from employment consultants in private firms to testing and assessment experts in government agencies to human factors professors in University or research settings. (For a PDF explaining potential job titles of I-O psychologists, read “What’s in a Name?” here. For informational brochures about I-O, click here.)
The purpose of this brief blog editorial is to serve as a catalyst for serious action-oriented exchanges about the impact of I-O psychology and SIOP. Does I-O psychology matter? Does SIOP matter? What is the impact of I-O psychology research on important human-capital trends? To what extent does I-O psychology research inform the work of practitioners? To what extent is I-O psychology research fulfilling SIOP’s mission to “enhance human well-being and performance in organizational and work settings by promoting the science, practice, and teaching of industrial-organizational psychology”?
The news stories in this column have been gathered through the use of a Google News Feed. They are neither filtered nor endorsed by SIOP but aggregated automatically using specific search terms.
