Assessing Scientist and Practitioner Orientations in Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Abstract

This research develops and provides initial evidence of internal validity for a measure of scientist and practitioner orientations in industrial/organizational psychology (the SPI-IO). The application of this measure has various potential benefits, including the ability to measure students' needs, guide their development, and understand the influence of training on their career interests over time. We used the O*Net database to draw information regarding what critical work tasks are performed by industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists-these work tasks were used to build items for the practitioner scale of the SPI-IO. Leong and Zachar developed a scientist scale for an earlier version of the SPI used to assess career orientations in counseling and clinical psychology. The scientist scale is composed of items that are also relevant for I/O psychology. Together, Leong and Zachar's scientist scale and our newly developed practitioner scale comprise the SPI-IO. In Study 1, we used the SPI-IO to measure career orientations in undergraduates and found support for the measure's construct validity. In Study 2, we assessed career orientations in I/O psychology graduate students. With the graduate sample, we sought to again support the SPI-IO's validity and also to determine whether the SPI-IO could account for more variance in career specialty choice (i.e., science vs. practice) than more general measures of career interests (i.e., RIASEC). In all cases, the validity and unique predictive utility of the SPI-IO was confirmed. In addition to reviewing these results in detail, we provide a copy of the SPI-IO and discuss its implications for use.

A review of a decade’s scholarly publications (2004–2013) in the <i>South African Journal of Industrial Psychology</i>

“…Scholars generally act as scientists who embrace the advancement of knowledge and evidence-based solutions through rigorous research across the various practice domains associated with the field of I-O psychology (Leong et al, 2013;. They may or may not be professionally trained and registered I-O psychologists.…”

“…Practitioners in the field who officially operate in industry are generally professionally trained and registered psychologists who typically apply their knowledge to solve practical problems in the real world. They may or may not engage in research (Leong et al, 2013). Research in I-O psychology ideally facilitates evidencebased techniques and solutions that can be applied by I-O practitioners who act as advisors and catalysts for business, industry and labour as well as public, academic and health organisations (Augustyn & Cillié, 2008;Landy & Conte, 2004).…”

“…Research in I-O psychology ideally facilitates evidencebased techniques and solutions that can be applied by I-O practitioners who act as advisors and catalysts for business, industry and labour as well as public, academic and health organisations (Augustyn & Cillié, 2008;Landy & Conte, 2004). Research by Leong et al (2013) also suggests a positive link between the scientist (scholar) and practitioner (applied) orientations of I-O psychologists, with both recognising the importance of using research in facilitating evidence-based practice in the work setting.…”

“…Publishing methodologically sound, empirically based studies are essential in order to advance knowledge and evidence-based practice in the field of industrial and organisational (I-O) or work psychology (Leong, Pearce & Huang, 2013). As an applied field of study, I-O psychology uses the psychological principles underpinning the field and the new knowledge and evidencebased solutions generated by research to address the critical challenges and issues that stem from the particular socio-economic contexts in which organisations are located (Arnold & Randall, 2010;.…”

Career interests of students in psychology specialties degrees: psychometric evidence and correlations with the RIASEC dimensions

“…The former show more interest in social issues, entrepreneurship, and management, and less interest in social and technical issues (scientific). The latter are more interested in foreign languages and cultural themes (Leong, Pearce, & Huang, 2013). Wicherts and Vorst (2010) showed that students in I-O psychology and social psychology are generally more extroverted than students in other specializations, namely, students in psychological methods and psychonomics, who tend to be relatively more open to experiments and students in clinical psychology, who have higher average scores on the neuroticism scale.…”