Sub – field of industrial psychology

The other sub – field of industrial psychology closely related to personnel psychology, but not part of it, is organizational psychology. It deals with the total functioning of an organization. It is particularly concerned with such topics as leadership, employee motivation, work group dynamics, communication patterns and organization design and its effectiveness. It is a relatively, new filed which has come up as a result of significant changes that have taken place in industry since the end of Second World War. One such significant change is the emergence of very large industrial organizations, which have newer implications for psychology because, the perceptions, attitudes, motivation and interpersonal relations among the employees working under them are affected by the organizational structure and processes. It is aimed at the study of these organizations as organizational processes.

Engineering psychology

Engineering or human engineering psychology, actually a branch of a larger field variously known as human factors engineering or erogonomics, is mainly concerned with the design of equipment an the work methods of the individuals who operate the equipment; and the measurement of human performance. Though an interdisciplinary field, with its main objective to design machines, gadgets, etc., with due consideration to human abilities and limitations, substantial contribution to it comes from psychologists. This is one reason why it is called engineering psychology.

Consumer psychology, on the other hand, studies the numerous facts of relationship between an organization that provides goods or services and the individuals who are the recipients thereof the consumer.

Mutual interest

The mutual interest is represented by the statement “organization need people and people need organizations” The interests of the organization and the interests of the individual employee are interwined in such a way that the interests of one suffer if the interests of the other are affected.

Personnel psychology

Within the parent body of industrial psychology, a number of sub – fields have developed in recent years. They are Personnel psychology, Managerial psychology, Consumer psychology, Engineering psychology. Organizational psychology and Consumer psychology. In addition, areas like accounting and finance dealing with such matters as production of credit risks and the extension of accounting practice to include human assets are recently attracting good deal of attention of psychologists in industry.

Personnel psychology as a sub – field of industrial psychology, concerns the application of psychology to the selection, training and supervision of people in business and industrial settings. It is also concerned with improving communications, counseling employees and attempting to solve industrial strife. Managerial psychology is mainly concerned with the problems of management of industry.

Organisation as a social system :

The members of the organization are the members of the society at large. They bring along with them the external social values. The existence of the social systems in the organizations implies that organizational  environment is a dynamic one. All parts of the system are interdependent and subject to influence  by the ideas prevailing  in the external social system. It also implies that the organizational  values and culture will be consistent  with the values and culture of society  in which the organization  thrives.

Applied psychology

Industrial psychology maybe called applied psychology, in the sense that it is mainly concerned with the applications of the facts and principles of psychology to the behaviour of man working in industry. Yet it has its own discipline, in the sense, it recognizes that all its facts should be gathered by scientific procedures and all its conclusions must be verifiable. Obviously, an industrial psychologist is a person trained in the scientific method of data collection, scientific reasoning and also in the principles of psychology.

Developmental psychology

Developmental psychology studies how various forms of behaviour develop and grow in time as man grows in his age. Social psychology, studies the influences of other people and groups on an individual’s behaviour.

Clinical and counseling psychology study the facts about abnormal behaviour and their treatment.

Psychometries is concerned mainly with the accurate description and measurement of psychological characteristics of human beings.

Personality psychology, attempts to build up a comprehensive picture of human personality. Of course, we have Industrial psychology which applies the principles of psychology to understand the problems of the working man in business and industry. Needless to say, there is a good deal of overlapping within the various areas of psychology and an understanding of other areas enriches the understanding of industrial psychology as well.

Clinical psychology

A branch of psychology known as clinical psychology and to some extent another branch known as counselling psychology are more concerned with the abnormal aspects of behaviour. Thus, when we use the term psychology, we are referring more specially to the study of principles, rules, laws that govern human behaviour in all its aspects.

Psychology is a highly complex field with many specialities and interests, which have developed as branches or sub – fields of psychology.

Educational psychology, makes special studies of behaviours related to the process of learning and education.

Psychology and Industrial Psychology

What is the relationship between psychology and industrial psychology? This question needs to be answered adequately because there is no other discipline which is as misunderstood as psychology. Psychology is defined as “the study of man and his behavior with the aid of scientific methodology”. Psychology uses many scientific methods to collect facts about human behaviour an in its attempt at understanding utilizes man methods like experimentation, observation method, case study method and so on. The most characteristic feature of all these methods is that the information obtained by one of these methods is variable and can be duplicated by others who want to check its authenticity. Basically these methods are similar in principle to those used in other sciences, but they are adapted to the study of man and his behaviour which is the subject matter of psychology. Psychology is thus “science of human (and also animal) behaviour because it collects facts about behaviour by utilizing the methods of science”.