The History of Industrial Psychology

Industrial psychology is the psychology of individuals in the workplace. It covers areas of workplace behavior and attitudes such as job satisfaction, leadership and the selection and evaluation of employees. An understanding of industrial psychology can help an individual to better understand and communicate with co-workers and deal with conflict. People have studied psychology and the human mind for centuries, but the specialty of industrial psychology did not appear until the early 1900s.

Prior to World War I

• According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, the father of industrial psychology is considered to be Hugo Munsterberg. Munsterberg published a book called "Psychology and Industrial Efficiency" in 1913 and addressed workplace issues such as selecting personnel and equipment and the work satisfaction of employees. Frederick W. Taylor was also considering similar ideas during this time period. He published "The Principles of Scientific Management" in 1911 that discussed how to increase productivity using training and motivation such as rest periods.

World War I to 1940

• During World War I, according to "A Brief History of Industrial Psychology in the U.S. Air Force," Robert Yerkes developed a testing and screening process for U.S. soldiers. Meanwhile, Walter Scott was developing a system to assign recruits into certain jobs and then evaluating the performance of the soldiers. In 1917, near the end of World War I, Journal of Applied Psychology was first published. According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, after the war, in 1924, the Hawthorn studies were conducted. These studies were conducted by psychologists from Harvard University at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company. The study was looking at how lighting affects worker efficiency. They found that efficiency increased with both increased and decreased lighting. After a period of time, and the researchers left, the efficiency level dropped off again. This is referred to as the Hawthorne Effect.

World War II

• According to "A Brief History of Industrial Psychology in the US Air Force," during World War II further research was conducted on equipment design, the selection and training for various positions and job classification. These studies were published in the Army Air Force Aviation Psychology Program Research Reports. Then, in 1946, American Psychological Association forms Division 14 with a group of Industrial/Organizational Psychologists. This Division later became the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

1950s to 1970s

• According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, the human motivation theories presented by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow helped to further the movement and development of industrial psychology. In 1964, the workplace changed again when the Civil Rights Act made it unlawful to discriminate in the workplace based on things such as race, sex or religion. Then, in 1971, B.F. Skinner presented his motivational theories and how to use this understanding to modify workplace behavior in the book "Beyond Freedom and Dignity."

1980s and 1990s

• According to "A Brief History of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology," the first meeting of the National Conference of Graduate Students in Industrial-Organizational Psychology was held in 1980. The first of 11 volumes of Frontiers of Industrial and Organizational Psychology was published in 1986. The 1990s brought a lot of changes and new areas of research in the field. According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, several US Supreme Court rulings on sexual harassment in the early 1990s brought attention psychology and law in the workplace. In the late 1990s, industrial psychology place further attention on violence in the workplace.