UNIT -1

NATURE, SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The word ‘psychology’ developed from Greek words psyche and logos. Psychology= Psyche
+ logos. Psyche means soul or mind and logos means knowledge if considered etiologically
psychology means knowledge of mind and soul. Some learneds suggested the use of mind
more appropriate in place of soul. If we use mind in place of soul then psychology is the
study of mind. But the word mind has many meanings- soul, consciousness and mental
process and hence it developed contradictions among psychologist. Describing meaning and
definition of psychology Woodworth (1949) says- “First psychology lost its soul. Then its
mind then it lost its consciousness. It still has behaviour of sort.”
Definition of psychology
According to Woodworth (1954), “psychology is the science of the activities of the
individual in relation to its environment.”
According to Munn (1955), “Psychology, today concerns itself with the scientific
investigation of behaviour including, from the standpoint of behaviour much of what earlier
psychologist dealt with as experience.”
According to C.E. Skinner (1956), “psychology deals with responses to any and every kind
of situation that life presents. By responses or behaviour is meant all form of processes,
adjustment, activities and expressions of the organism.”

Psychology as science: Some of the necessary facts of science present psychology are as
follows
Scientific methods: - Most of the methods of modern psychology are scientific. For instance
for the study of psychological problems in modern psychology appropriate amount of
experimental methods, observational methods, statistical, mathematical psychometric
methods are some of the scientific methods used. The study of scientific methods gives
scientific results and because psychological problems are studied by scientific methods
therefore the subject matter of psychology is also scientific thus psychology is a science.
Verifiability:-Any subject should be called a science when its subject matter has the quality
of verifiability i.e. as many times the subject matter is judged or studied. It must give the
same results. Psychology is true at this test of verifiability, because the subject matter of
psychology is verifiable. Generally it is seen when the problems of a subject are studied by
scientific methods they come true to test of verifiability. And because the psychological
problems are studied by scientific method they have the quality of verifiability.
Objectivity:-Whenever a phenomenon is observed in real manner and irrespective of the bias
of its observer then it can be called objective observations and the results thus obtained are
known as objective results. a test of objectivity is that when a number of observer are
observing a phenomena and all reach at similar results it is said that the obtained results lacks
in verifiability it will lack in objectivity too. The observer takes any of the control methods to
keep the situation under control and to get objective results. Therefore, the results obtained in
the study of psychological problem are objective and verifiable.
Power of prediction: - Scientific subject has the quality of prediction too, which means that
if the behaviour of an individual is studied today, on the basis of the result his future
behaviour can also be predicted such prediction can be done when the study is purely
scientific. The psychological problems are studied by scientific.
Universality: - The principles of scientific subject are universal. These principles are alike
for all age and worldwide. If the laws or principles of subject are made by scientific method
and if these laws are objective, verifiable and have the power of prediction then these lows
and principle will definitely be universal. Because this is made clears that most of the
problems of psychology are studied by scientific methods and the subject matter has the
qualities of verifiability objectivity and power of prediction therefore we can say that the
lows and principle established in particular situation will be true in that situation in any time
and place.
OR
CHATACTERISTICS OF SCIENCE

 Consistency- Several scientists can repeat an experiment and the results are the same.
 Observability- The results or subject of an experiment can be observed by using the
five senses or extensions of them.

 Natural- A natural cause must be used to explain why or how the naturally occurring
result or experimental subject happens. Supernatural can’t be used.
  Predictability- Predictions can be made about the subject and can be tested.

 Testability- Subject can be tested using a controlled experiment.

 Tentativeness- Scientific theories are subject to change because of technology.

S-O-R FRAMEWORK: Organism or human beings do not live in vacuum. They live in any
environment (surroundings). They receive excitements (stimulation) from their environment
and these excitements or stimulus get response from time to time from them. Thus we can
say that human beings give their response and treatments according to the environment in
which they live. These responses are towards the stimulations of the environment. This can
be represented in the from of a model as:
S O R
Stimulus Organism Response
Above framework can also be written as:
R= f (S. O.)
Where R= Response, S = Stimulus or excitement, O= Organism and f= Function of. In other
words response is the function of stimulus and organism.
For Example: when door bell rings in a house the door bell works as stimulus for the person
living in it. On hearing the door the bell the person goes towards the door to see who is at the
door. So coming at the door to see on hearing the bell is the response of that person. Thus it
can be said that when a person receives stimulus from the environment then that stimulus
cause a mental function or process which helps him to understand the stimulus and this
mental function or process helps him to decide the response towards the stumulus. This
complete working is called by Stimulus Organism Response or S-O-R.
(Reference: D.N.Shrivastav,)
Scope/field of psychology
Field of psychology can be divided into two broad categories namely pure psychology and
applied psychology. Pure Psychology provides the framework and theory. Its contents deal
with the formulation of psychological principles and theories. It suggests various methods
and techniques for analysis, assessment, modification and improvement of behaviour. In
Applied Psychology, the theory generated or discussed through pure psychology finds its
practical shape. Here we discuss ways and means of the applications of psychological rules,
principles, theories and techniques with reference to the real practical life situations.
Branches of Pure Psychology:
General psychology: It is relatively a large Ares or field of psychology, which deals with the
fundamental rules, principles and theories of psychology in relation to the study of behaviour
of normal adult human beings.
Abnormal Psychology: It is that branch or field of psychology, which describes and
explains the behaviour of abnormal people in relation to their own environment. The causes
symptoms, syndromes, and description of the abnormalities of behaviour form the subject
matter of this branch.
Social Psychology: This branch of psychology deals with the group behaviour and inter-
relationships of people with other people. Group dynamics, likes and dislikes, interests, and
attitudes, social distance and prejudices of the people in their personal and social
relationships form the subject matter of this branch.
Experimental psychology: The branch of psychology describes and explains the ways and
means of carry out psychological experiments following scientific methods in controlled or
laboratory situations for the study of mental processes and behaviour. It picks up animals,
birds and human beings as subjects for these experiments. Experimental psychology is an
important field of psychology. This field of psychology holds the credits of grading
psychology a science. This branch studies various problems but the problems are studied
only by experimental methods.
Physiological psychology: This branch of psychology describes and explains the biological
and physiological basis of behaviour. The study of internal environment and physiological
structure of the body, particularly brain, nervous system, functioning of glands in relation to
conative, cognitive and affective behaviour of the human being form part of the subject
matter of this branch.
Para-psychology: Deals with extra sensory perceptions, cases of re-birth, telepathy and
allied problems.
Development psychology: This branch of psychology describes and explains the processes
and products of the processes of growth and development in relation to the behaviour of an
individual from birth to old age. For convenience, it is further sub-divided into branches or
fields like child psychology, adolescents’ psychology and adult psychology.
Branches of Applied Psychology:
Educational Psychology: It is that branch of applied psychology, which tries to apply the
psychological principles, theories and techniques to human behaviour in educational
situations. The subject matter of this branch covers psychological ways and means of
improving all aspects of the branch covers of the teaching/ learning process including the
learner, learning process, learning material, learning environment and the teacher.
Educational psychology is concerned with the application of psychological theories and
research to help us understand how teachers and learners behave, perform, think, feel and
relate to each other in various educational settings. By shedding light on these processes,
work in this area has the important function of helping us to bring about positive changes in
the educational context, particularly in order to support those individuals who are
experiencing difficulties- whether to do with academic performance, social behaviour and
relationships, or emotional wellbeing.
Clinical Psychology: This branch of applied psychology describes and explains the causes of
mental illness or abnormal behaviour of a patient attending the clinic or hospital and suggests
individual or group therapy for the treatment and effective adjustment of the affected person
in society. Clinical psychologists are closely involved in helping people to recover from
different kinds of problems. They attempt to help people understand the causes of their
difficulties, provide interventions that can help to alleviate specific symptoms associated with
their difficulties and provide support and guidance through the period to recovery. Clinical
psychology informs mental health services in many other ways. it provides a research basis
through which new psychological interventions are developed and evaluated(Barker, Pistrang
and Elliott, 2001) and it has developed principles of psychological treatment that are used
by a range of mental health professionals including psychiatrists, psychotherapists,
counsellors, mental health and community psychiatric nurses, social workers and community
support workers. Clinical psychology is also a theoretical and political driving force behind
attempts in many countries to increase access to psychological therapies for those who need
them (Clark et.al. 2009). Clinical psychology should not be confused with psychiatry. The
latter tends to have similar goals to clinical psychology, but focuses more on medication
based solutions to mental health problems. In contrast, clinical psychologists try to help
people by facilitating their understanding of their thoughts and actions.
Industrial psychology: This branch of applied psychology tries to seek application of the
psychological principles, theories and techniques for the study of human behaviour in
relation to industrial environment. it includes the topics or contents that are useful for
improving the ways and means of knowing the interests of the consumers, advertising and
sales for products, selection training and placing of personnel, solving labour problems,
establishing harmonious relationship between the employee and employer strengthening
morals of workers and increasing production etc.
Legal Psychology: It is that branch of applied psychology which tries to study the behaviour
of the persons like clients, criminals, witness etc. in their respective surrounding with the
help of the application of psychological principles and techniques. Its contain the subject
matter for improving the ways and means of detections of crimes, false witness and other
complex phenomena. the root causes of the crime, offence, dispute or any legal case can be
properly understood through the use of this branch of psychology and subsequently poorer
reformatory and rehabilitation measures may be employed.
Military Psychology: This branch of psychology is concern with the use of psychological
principles and techniques in the world of military science. how to keep the morale of the
soldiers and citizens high during war time, how to fight war of propaganda and intelligence
services, how to secure better recruitment of the personnel for armed forces and how to
improve the fighting capacities and organisational climate and leadership etc. are various
topics that are dealt with in this branch of psychology.
Political Psychology: This branch of psychology relates itself with the use of psychological
principle and techniques in studying the politics and deriving political gains. The knowledge
of the dynamics of the group behaviour judgement of the public opinion, qualities of
leadership, psychology of propaganda and suggestions, the art of diplomacy etc. are some of
the key concepts that find place in the subject matter of the branch political psychology.

Industrial psychology: Industrial psychology is that branch of applied psychology that

is concerned with efficient management of an industrial labour force and especially with
problems encountered by workers in a mechanized environment. The time was gone when
the workers treated as machine and employers always think about the higher production at
any cost or without taking consideration of workers. Now, management better knows if the
workers' feel ease/ comfortable then they give their maximum contribution. There are some
other factors then wages which directly affect the performance of individuals. If employers
provide adequate working conditions, proper distribution of work, attractive compensation,
effective leader etc. then definitely organization achieves its success. In this chapter we
define the industrial psychology, their characteristics, scope and historical development.

CONCEPT AND MEANING: Industrial psychology is concerned with people's work-

related values, attitudes and behaviours, and how these are influenced by the conditions in
which they work. The term 'Industrial Psychology' is a combination of two words 'Industrial'
and 'Psychology'. Industrial is that part of social life whose function is to provide civilized
man with the material goals that his condition of life demand. Psychology is the science of
behaviour in relation to environment. Thus industrial psychology is the systematic study of
the behaviour of the people at work. It studies how the social, industrial, economic, political
and other factors affect the behaviour of the people at work.
According to C.S. Myres, ‘The aim of industrial psychology is primarily not to obtain
greater production or output but to give the worker greater ease at his work’.
According to Thomas W. Harrell, ‘Industrial psychology may be defined as the study of
people as individuals and in groups and of the relationship between individual and group’.

Definition of Industrial Psychology

“Industrial Psychology ‘Industrial psychology is simply the application or extension of
psychology facts and principles to the problem concerning human beings operating within
the context of business and industry’, says Blum and Naylor.
According to Tiffin and McCormick, 'Industrial psychology is concerned with the study of
human behaviour in those aspects of life that are related to production, distribution and use of
goods and services of our civilization’.
‘The scientific study of the relationship between man and the world at work: The study of
adjustment people make to the place they go, the people they meet and the things they do in
the process of making a living’, says Guion.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

● Systematic study—Industrial psychology is the systematic study of human behaviour
concerned with collecting the information regarding human behaviour at work. What are the
different factors which affect the work of an individual either they are personal or related to
working conditions.
● Research—Industrial psychology is not concerned with administration. They are the part
of the research. Whatever information gathered from the work should be implemented and
the personnel administration is the application of such research.
● Functional/Applied—It is concerned with the application of information about human
behaviour to the various problems of industrial human life.
● Human engineering—It studies the varied methods of performing manual operations for
the better utilization and the least waste of effort through human engineering.

SCOPES OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

● Scientific selection of workers’—Industrial psychology offers a whole arrangement of
tests such as systematic depth interviews and psychological tests of intelligence, aptitude,
skills, abilities and interest the personnel characteristic etc. By these tests candidates are
measured and properly selected and placed on the job.
● Proper division of work—One of the scopes of industrial psychology is the work should
be properly divided according to the abilities, skills and aptitude of the workers so they may
feel comfortable and satisfied. It may also lead higher production.
● Minimizing the wastage of human efforts—Industrial psychology tries to minimize the
wastage of human power. It studies psychological factors causing fatigue or accident and
give feasible suggestions to prevent them. The techniques of motivation and morale are used
for this purpose.
● Promoting labour welfare—It promotes the welfare of the labour by introducing adequate
working environment through which job satisfaction, work efficiency increases and also state
the provisions of higher incentives.
● Enhancement of human relations—Human relations are the relation among individuals
in an organization and the group behaviour that emerge from their relations. Most of
problems arise in the industries are connected to human relation. If workers' feel ease with
the surrounding then automatically they get motivated and productivity will be higher.
Industrial psychology has made significant contribution in framing the techniques of
leadership, worker participation, communication etc.
● Developing industrial relations—Industrial psychology studies the attitude of the
employer and employees. Individuals differ from each others in their thoughts, thinking,
behaviour and other parameters. Therefore, different measures may be adopted in solving the
problem relating to each individual like transfers, promotions, grievances etc. This helps in
developing industrial relationship among workers' and management.
● Increase production—It helps in attaining the major objective of the organization that to
get the best output from the existing resources. The production is automatically increased if
proper selection is made, the work will be properly distributed, accident prevention and
safety measures suggested.

This will improve and promote individual as well as industrial relations. American
Psychologist Association(APA), Division of Industrial Psychology, The psychologist
industry, Washington, D.C., 1959 cited seven major areas which comprised the content area
of industrial psychology. These were:
(1) Selection and testing.
(2) Management development.
(3) Counseling.
(4) Employee motivation.
(5) Human engineering.
(6) Marketing research.
(7) Public relations research.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Bryan & Harter (1897) published a first paper describing the study and application of
psychology to work activities (Morse code telegraphic) coined the term “industrial
psychology” by mistake. During the First and Second World War when various industrial
organizations and plants faced a number of problems related to production, efficiency and
individual employees, the help of industrial psychologist are in great demand. At this stage,
industrial psychology received a special status, although it began in America in 1901, and
England soon after. Dr. Walter Dill Scott 1901 start discussion on role of psychology on
advertisement.

The first book, “The Psychology of Industrial Efficiency”, written by Hugo Munsterberg in
1913 was dealing with various problems faced by the industries and analysis of such problem
from the psychological point of view. During the war years, the Fatigue Research Board was
organized in Great Britain to discover the problems connected with working hours, condition
of work, problems associated with fatigue and monotony/boredom, accident and safety
measures and other work related matters. In 1925, social psychology of industry entered into
the arena of industrial psychology therefore, interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships,
theories of motivations, importance of communication and other associated areas were
investigated. In 1917, Journal of applied psychology made its appearance and at the same
time it introduced as a subject of applied psychology.
The classical studies, started in 1927 by the famous Hawthorne group, contributed to
the development of industrial psychology in a major way. Their finding ultimately changed
the trends and approach of industrial psychology from economic to social , from the work-
oriented attitude to a workers-oriented attitude. During the Second World War, the applied
psychology research unit of the Medical Research Council of Great Britain carried out
several researches and investigations to solve many industrial and organizational problems.
American Association of Applied Psychology, 1937 was the first association for industrial
psychology. Major organization after the Second World War divided into two parts. Human
factor society, it was associated with the American group of applied psychology with interest
in human engineering problem. Ergonomics society, it was British counterpart of human
factor. Society occupational psychology and ergonomics are two journals. Considerable
attention was focussed on various human relations and social problems of industry during the
later part of 1940's and in the 1950's. Problems related to supervision, group dynamics,
leadership, employees' interaction with others, employees attitude, morale, job satisfaction,
communication process and others.

In the beginning of the 1960's organizational psychology began to enter the area of industrial
psychology and as such, special emphasis was given to the organizational inputs in the
industrial situation. The psychologists who have made valuable contributions to the
development of industrial psychology are Walter, Dill and Scott. The industrial psychology
division of American Psychological Association was established in 1945 and gave
professional recognition to industrial psychology. Though industrial psychology was a
neglected branch of applied psychology in India. After the Second World War and
particularly after Independence, it got special recognition from Indian psychologists. With
the establishment of various universities, centre and institutes in India, research in industrial
psychology has been accelerated after 1950's. In 1970's, the division of industrial psychology
was renamed as the division of industrial and organizational psychology. An eminent
industrial and organizational psychologist of India Professor Durganand Sinha (1971) has
made a valuable survey of the important topics of research in industrial psychology in India.

Ref.: General Psychology by S. K. Mangal.

Applied Psychology Edited By Graham Davey, Published By BPS Blackwell
Industrial Psychology by M.L BLUM & J.C NAYLOR