Applied Psychology Research Paper Example

Applied Psychology Research Paper Example Applied Psychology Paper Applied Psychology Paper Whether it is the click wheel of your pod, your laptops touch-screen, or computer systems applications for disabled users, many types of applied psychological methods were used to design and develop them. Applied Psychology refers to the use of psychological principles and research methods to solve practical problems we humans encounter everyday. Designing computer Interfaces Like a mouse that glides without wires or the new WI game console, is only one way to apply psychology in todays world. The largest applied areas are in clinical and counseling psychology, but there many others, such as community or social psychology, educational psychology, litany psychology, health psychology and space psychology (Con, Mutterer, 2010). In this research paper I will briefly discuss six diverse fields that impact business, the environment, education, law, sports and human factors. Applied Psychology In business- Industrial/Organizational 1/0 Psychology study the behavior of people at work and in organizations (Mammoth, 2006). Though the goal of 1/0 Psychology Is to increase the productivity and well being of employees, there are two approaches on how this can be accomplished. The Industrial approach (the l In 1/0 psychology) focuses on determining the competencies needed to perform a Job, staffing the organization with employees who have those competencies, and increasing those competencies through training. The organizational approach (the o sinology) creates an organizational structure Ana culture Tanat wall motivate employees to perform well, give them the necessary information to do their job, and provide working conditions that are safe and result in an enjoyable and satisfying work environment. When these approaches are applied, the workers tasks or duties are enhanced thus improving their quality of work life through the training f leaders, better matching of people with the right Job, and improving organizational structure. There are three major areas that are vital for the success of the 1/0 psychologist: leadership, Job satisfaction and personnel psychology. We all know that the key to a successful organization is its leaders. Leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future (Friedman, 2001). The improvement of working culture conditions need to have some sort of rationale behind it and to better understand the rationale we must insider the two basic theories of leadership: Theory X and Theory Y. One of the earliest attempts to improve worker-task efficiency was made in 1923 by Frederick Taylor. To speed up production, Taylor standardized work routines and stressed careful planning, control and organization. Today, versions of Tailors approach are called scientific management. Leaders that tend to be task-oriented are said to be Theory X leaders. As mentioned before Theory X is grounded primarily in scientific management and is concerned only with work efficiency. Theory X leaders tend to assume that workers must be guided into being productive to provide a maximum output at a lower cost; as a result they alter conditions they believe will affect workers such as time schedules, production quotas, bonuses and so on. In Tailors time, when many large companies were manufacturers with large assembly lines, theory X leaders tend to wish that people would act more like well-oiled machines and could work without rest. How ever most 1/0 psychologist recognize that psychological efficiency is Just as important as work efficiency. The term Theory X was first coined by psychologist Douglas McGregor (1960) as a way to distinguish the dervish style associated with scientific management from Theory Y, a newer approach which stresses human relations at work. Theory Y emphasizes psychological efficiency with methods like shared leadership, management by objectives, self-managed teams, and quality circles. In short, Theory Y assumes that people are industrious, creative, and rewarded by challenging work. In shared leadership or participative management, employees at all levels are directly involved in the decision making process. In management by objectives, workers are given specific goals to meet, so they can tell if they are doing a good Job meeting the goals thou having a supervisor breathing down their necks. In any case, workers are free to choose (within limits) how they will achieve their goals; as a result they feel more independent and take personal responsibility for their work. Feedback is also quite important because workers are especially more productive when they receive favorable criticism about their progress. A self-managed team is a group of employees who work together towards a shared goal. These groups can typically choose their own methods of achieving results, as long as they are effective. These names tend to put good use of their individual strengths and talents plus they contribute new ideas and improved motivations. Most of all they encourage cooperation and teamwork, they most likely feel they are being treated fairly at work Ana develop a positive team atmosphere (Large Bayonne, 2 Hymnal In quality circles or employee discussion groups, voluntary members seek ways to solve business problems and improve efficiency. In contrast to self-managed teams, quality circles usually dont have the power to put their suggestions to work directly, but good ideas speak for themselves and many are adapted by company leaders. Quality circles have many limitations, but studies verify that greater personal involvement can lead to better performance and Job satisfaction (Egger, Burke, Seller, 1995). While Theory X makes perfect sense when you Just seek to improve production without taking into account the workers needs, the methods used by the Theory Y leader ultimately improve Job satisfaction, or the degree to which a person is pleased with his or her work. Job satisfaction influences many factors that affect business efficiency, including productivity, absenteeism, morale, and employee turnover. Job distractions promotes Job enrichment which in turn leads to workers having challenges in their tasks, positive attitude, a balanced work-lifestyle through the forming of social groups and organizational cultures, a sense of purpose and self awareness for the duties they perform. Job enrichment involves making a Job more rewarding, interesting and motivating thru the use of such methods as flextime, short work weeks and telecommuting. The most productive employees are those who are happy at work (Mammoth, 2006). Organizations can also improve their chances of success by hiring the right employee in the first place. Personnel psychology is concerned with the testing, selection, placement, and promotion of employees. It begins with Job analysis, a detailed description of the skills, knowledge, and activities required by a particular Job and include the development and use of selection procedures like interviews, biota (facts about the employee), standardized psychological (aptitude) tests, and assessment programs setup within an organization to conduct in-depth evaluations of Job candidates. In the environment- Environmental Psychology study problems related to the physical environment and design plans to solve them. The specialty of the environmental psychologist concerns the relationship between environments and human behavior. Their interest are in both physical environments, whether its natural or man-made, and social environments which is defined by groups of people and how they interact at work, a business meeting, a dance or a party. This form of psychology also studies stressful environments and problems such as crowding, pollution, and wasted resources. The rate of stress in environments vary from the ones that exist in large cities like New York (NY) with all the traffic, congestion, pollution, and crime as marred to a less dense metropolis like Orlando (FL) which would also have the same type of traffic, congestion, pollution, and crime but to a lesser extent. To this list psychologists also added crowding and noise pollution. Overpopulation ranks as one of the serious problems facing the world today. The worlds population is now more than 6 billion and experts estimate that the maximum sustainable population on Earth is between 5 billion and 20 billion. This means the Earth has already entered the lower range of its capacity (Cohen, 1995), and this is based on the last estimated world census calculated between December 2000 and June 2001. Although the results of animal experiments, dealing with overcrowding, cannot be considered as conclusive for humans, they point to some disturbing effects. In these experiments, a null level AT pathological Demeanor developed In Down males Ana Tamales. Females gave up building nests and caring for the young, pregnancies decreased, and infant mortality ran extremely high. Many of the animals became aimlessly aggressive and went on rampaging attacks against others. Social dilemmas, as well as overpopulation and over-consumption, like wasting resources, contribute to these problems. A social dilemma is any social situation that rewards actions that have undesirable effects in the long run. (Van Bug, De Creme, 2002). In a typical social dilemma, no one individual intentionally acts against the group interest, but if many people act alike, collective harm is done. In such situations, the tragedy of the commons occur, in which individuals, each acting in his or her immediate self interest, over use a scarce group resource. An example would be using an abundance of water to water your lawn during a dry spell. Whenever personal convenience or comfort is involved, it is highly tempting to let others worry about it; et in the long run everyone stands to lose. Research shows that physical strategy, like conservation and recycling to name Just two and psychological strategies can be useful in promoting a better environment. Although many problems still exist, it is encouraging to see that behavioral solutions exist for at least some of them. In education- Educational Psychology seeks to understand how people learn and how teachers instruct to improve the quality of learning and teaching. At one time or another, we all dealt with teaching something to someone which was most likely taught to you. There are six basic steps designed to use in a classroom, but it can be applied to many situations: Step 1: Learner Preparation. Begin by gaining the learners attention, and focus interest on the topic. Step 2: Stimulus presentation. Present instructional stimuli like information, examples, and illustrations in a clear and deliberate manner. Step 3: Learner response. Allow time for the learner to respond to the information presented by repeating correct responses or asking questions. Step 4: Reinforcement. Give positive reinforcements in form of praise and encouragement plus feedback like yes, thats erect, to strengthen correct responses. Step 5: Evaluation. Test and assess the learners progress so that both you and the learner can make adjustments when needed. Step 6: Spaced review. Periodic review is an important in teaching because it helps strengthen responses to key words or stimuli. Direct instruction and discovery learning are two of the most basic teaching styles that yield different student outcomes. In direct instruction, factual information is presented by lecture, demonstrations and rote practice, which basically drills the data into the learner by means of mechanical repetition. The National Institute for Direct Instruction considers direct instruction the most successful style of teaching (INFIX National Institute, 2008). In discovery learning, teachers create conditions that encourage students to discover or construct knowledge for themselves (Dean, Kuhn, 2007). As it turns out, both approaches have certain advantages. Students of direct instruction do slightly better on achievement tests than discovery students, however, discovery learners do somewhat better on abstract thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving plus they tend to be more independent, curious, and positive in their attitudes towards school (Peterson, Janice, 1979). In law- Psychology of Law is the study of the behavioral dimensions of the legal system. Psychological factors greatly affect ten law Ana Jury echelons. When a case goes to trial, Jurors must Olsten to days or weeks of testimony and then decide guilt or innocence. Studies of mock juries indicate that decisions made by Juries are not always objective and show that jurors are rarely able to put aside biases, attitudes and value while making a decision (Perlmans, Cowboy, 1983). Problems like these are troubling in a legal system thats supposed to be fair to all. In scientific Jury selection, social science principles are applied to the process of choosing a Jury. Who serves on a Jury will affect the outcome of a trial and law psychologist are often employed to advise lawyers on which potential Juror should be selected or dismissed based on certain social and psychological characteristics. Jury research is perhaps the most direct link between psychology and law, but there are others. Psychologists evaluate people for sanity hearings; do counseling in prison, profile criminals, advice politicians and lawmakers on public policy, help in the selection and training of police cadets and such more. In sports- Sports Psychology is the study of the behavioral dimensions of sports performance (Cox, 2007). As almost all serious athletes now know that to achieve peak performance, you need more than Just physical training. Mental and emotional conditionings are also important. Sports psychologist assist athletes by teaching them to relax, ignore distractions, and sharpen their emotional intelligence to attain the highest point of performance. Self-regulations strategies help focus attention and maintain optimal levels of arousal. In a task analysis, sports kills are broken into subparts, so that key elements can be identified and taught. The task analysis is then used by coaches and trainers to improve performance of motor skills which is basically a series of actions molded into one fluid movement. For example, it doesnt take much to be off target in the sports of marksmanship. The object is to hit a bulls-eye the size off Canadian dime at the end off 55-yard-long (or 165 feet) shooting range, nevertheless an average of 50 of 60 shots hit the bulls- eye with regularity in international competition according to the International Olympic Committee (OIC). Beyond keen eyes and steady hands, the marksmen are conditioned to squeeze the trigger between heartbeats. Apparently the minute tremor created by the heartbeat is enough to send the bullet off target (Belton, 1983). In Human Factors- The human factors psychologist or Ergonomics goal is to design machines, tools and work environments so they are compatible with our sensory perception and motor skill capacities. Psychologist Donald Norman (1994) refers to successful human factors engineering as natural design; because it is based perpetual signals that people understand naturally, without needing to learn them.