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Is I/O psychology and organizational psychology the same thing?
Question : Is I/O psychology and organizational psychology the same thing?
I am looking up graduate programs and I have come across several different search results that have associated I/O psychology with organizational, applied, social, and personnel psycholgy. I want to make sure I get a degree in the right field.
organizational psychology
Best answer:
Answer by senlin
I/O stands for Industrial / Organizational psychology. The Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology has a good web page about graduate programs. Here is the link: http://www.siop.org/GTP/
The acronym is industrial/organizational psychology. In a nutshell, organizational psych refers to constructs such as leadership, group cohesion, motivation – all things related to an organization that affect employee well being, job satisfaction, and ultimately, performance. Industrial psych was grouped under this umbrella since it relates to organizations – however, this realm deals with selection, employee assessment, and recruiting, using tools like realistic job previews, cognitive ability tests and interviews. All of it is to determine the best person for the job – which in turn affects job satisfaction and performance.
I/O is likely the best overall program, since personnel psychology is a branch of the Industrial side, and the field in general was born out of social psychology.