Deck 17: Psychology at Work

Question 1

Interviewers are disposed to judge job applicants more favorably when informed that the applicants

A) are applying for their very first career position.
B) have been prescreened by other company personnel.
C) are nervous and worried about making a good impression.
D) have a strong desire to work hard if paid well.

Answer 1

have been prescreened by other company personnel.

Question 2

A performance evaluation program revealed that the most effective salespeople in a large company are sincere and energetic in their work. This led the company's psychological consultants to develop a simulation that would assess the extent to which applicants for company sales positions communicate in a forthright and animated manner. This most clearly illustrates the consultants' commitment to

A) structured interviews.
B) human factors psychology.
C) a strengths-based selection system.
D) 360-degree feedback.

Answer 2

a strengths-based selection system.

Question 3

The practice of 360-degree feedback is most clearly designed to improve

A) social leadership.
B) the experience of flow.
C) unstructured interviews.
D) performance appraisal.

Answer 3

performance appraisal.

Question 4

Improving employee morale and business profitability by developing a new chain of command between subdivisions of a large manufacturing company best illustrates the work of a

A) personnel psychologist.
B) human factors psychologist.
C) organizational psychologist.
D) clinical psychologist.

Question 5

Personnel psychologists are most likely to be involved in

A) matching people's strengths with specific job assignments.
B) modifying work environments to improve employee engagement.
C) contributing to the design of user-friendly industrial machines.
D) assessing the effect of supervisors' management styles on business productivity.

Question 6

Which of the following is generally the poorest predictor of future job performance?

A) aptitude tests
B) job knowledge tests
C) simulated job performance tests
D) evaluations from informal interviews

Question 7

An employee's high level of friendliness can lead a supervisor to judge the employee as a more reliable worker than is actually the case. This is said to illustrate

A) 360-degree feedback.
B) a halo error.
C) a voice effect.
D) a curse of knowledge.

Question 8

Structured interviews have more ________ than unstructured interviews.

A) democratic style
B) leniency errors
C) predictive accuracy
D) 360-degree feedback

Question 9

Human factors psychology is one of the three main subfields of

A) clinical psychology.
B) personnel psychology.
C) social psychology.
D) industrial-organizational psychology.

Question 10

Danielle, an applicant for a position in corporate financial accounting, was so animated and enthusiastic in her conversations with company officials that they decided to hire her without carefully checking her resumé and past work accomplishments. The company officials should most clearly be informed about

A) human factors psychology.
B) social leadership.
C) the interviewer illusion.
D) the experience of flow.

Question 11

Dr. Eisenberg develops assessment tools for use by company supervisors to appraise the performance of workers and make decisions about job promotions. His work best illustrates that of a(n) ________ psychologist.

A) clinical
B) personnel
C) organizational
D) human factors

Question 12

Those who view their work as a calling report ________ work satisfaction than those who view their work as a job and ________ work satisfaction than those who view their work as a career.

A) more; less
B) less; more
C) more; more
D) less; less

Question 13

Performance appraisal scales that specify in detail the precise behaviors that are indicative of poor, adequate, good, and excellent worker performance are most likely to inhibit

A) severity errors.
B) the experience of flow.
C) structured interviews.
D) 360-degree feedback.

Question 14

Those who view their work as a fulfilling and socially useful activity are said to view work as a

A) job.
B) calling.
C) career.
D) contract.

Question 15

Matt is a student who becomes so fully absorbed in his course studies that he completely loses awareness of how long he has been working. Matt's experience best illustrates

A) 360-degree feedback.
B) task leadership.
C) human factors psychology.
D) flow.

Question 16

A high level of satisfaction with one's work is most likely to be reported by those who frequently experience

A) flow.
B) implementation intentions.
C) unstructured interviews.
D) 360-degree feedback.

Question 17

Rating scales used to record the dependability and productivity of workers are most clearly designed to facilitate

A) flow.
B) structured interviews.
C) social leadership.
D) performance appraisal.

Question 18

Matching people with existing jobs is to ________ psychology as modifying jobs and supervision is to ________ psychology.

A) human factors; organizational
B) organizational; human factors
C) personnel; organizational
D) organizational; personnel

Question 19

A person who spends far more time sharpening existing skills than correcting existing weaknesses

A) is most likely a satisfied and successful employee.
B) views his or her work as a job.
C) has a directive rather than a democratic leadership style.
D) is motivated more by external rewards than by internal rewards.

Question 20

Which profession is most likely to be concerned with the effect of supervisors' management styles on worker motivation and productivity?

A) developmental psychology
B) social psychology
C) industrial-organizational psychology
D) cognitive psychology

Question 21

Employee engagement is most likely to be facilitated by

A) transformational leadership.
B) unstructured interviews.
C) halo errors.
D) human factors psychology.

Question 22

Unhappy workers who undermine what their colleagues accomplish are

A) actively disengaged.
B) experiencing a state of flow.
C) demonstrating social leadership.
D) illustrating charisma.

Question 23

Encouraging employee productivity through recognition and reward illustrates effective use of

A) flow.
B) implementation intentions.
C) operant conditioning.
D) a strengths-based selection system.

Question 24

Many experiments show that social leadership facilitates

A) worker morale.
B) 360-degree feedback.
C) a directive management style.
D) strength-based selection systems.

Question 25

Employees who enjoy high-quality colleague relationships also engage their work with more vigor. This best illustrates the value of a work environment that satisfies employees'

A) implementation intentions.
B) need to belong.
C) directive style.
D) charisma.

Question 26

A company executive enhances the success of her sales department by sending a congratulatory note to department employees who exceed their monthly sales quotas. The executive is most clearly making effective use of

A) the experience of flow.
B) a strengths-based selection system.
C) 360-degree feedback.
D) operant conditioning.

Question 27

Compared with ineffective managers, those who excel invest a _______ proportion of their time and effort trying to remedy their employees' deficiencies and a _______ proportion of their time and effort trying to enhance their employees' talents.

A) larger; larger
B) smaller; smaller
C) larger; smaller
D) smaller; larger

Question 28

Managers who set standards and keep a group focused on its goals are said to excel in

A) task leadership.
B) 360-degree feedback.
C) a democratic management style.
D) human factors psychology.

Question 29

The same individual may be either considered a great or an inferior coach depending on the strength of the team and its competition. This best illustrates a shortcoming of

A) a strengths-based selection system.
B) 360-degree feedback.
C) structured interviews.
D) the great person theory of leadership.

Question 30

Business units with high levels of employee engagement experience somewhat

A) more organizational productivity and less employee turnover.
B) less organizational productivity and more employee turnover.
C) more organizational productivity and more employee turnover.
D) less organizational productivity and less employee turnover.

Question 31

Antonio, a sixth-grader, has just brought home a 30-word spelling test on which he spelled only 15 words correctly. If Antonio's parents want to effectively encourage higher levels of achievement in their son, they should tell him

A) "What's important is that you do your best always."
B) "Try to raise your next test score 5 points by typing your new spelling words into our computer."
C) "Test performance is often unrelated to how much you actually learned."
D) "If you don't perform better on your next test, you won't be allowed to watch television before bedtime."

Question 32

Managing by objectives is most clearly designed to facilitate the process of

A) choosing a career.
B) setting work goals.
C) assessing job skills.
D) scripting employment interviews.

Question 33

One of the three main ingredients of charisma involves

A) using a directive management style.
B) understanding human factors psychology.
C) having a vision of some goal.
D) viewing one's work as a career.

Question 34

Modifying management practices and work assignments to increase employee engagement best illustrates the professional concerns of

A) human factors psychologists.
B) clinical psychologists.
C) personnel psychologists.
D) organizational psychologists.

Question 35

Through a task's ups and downs, people best sustain their mood and motivation when they focus on

A) a strengths-based selection system.
B) 360-degree feedback.
C) immediate goals.
D) outsourcing.

Question 36

Managers with a social leadership style would be most likely to

A) discourage employees from critically discussing controversial company policies.
B) inform employees of the exact deadlines for the completion of work projects.
C) mediate a personal dispute between two argumentative employees.
D) provide employees with relatively easy work assignments.

Question 37

Chief executives who inspire their colleagues to "transcend their own self-interests for the sake of the collective" demonstrate

A) flow.
B) a directive style.
C) transformational leadership.
D) the great person theory of leadership.

Question 38

Shauna is a company executive who encourages employees to voice their opinions and to participate in developing workplace rules and production goals. Shauna best illustrates

A) the experience of flow.
B) a democratic leadership style.
C) a strengths-based selection system.
D) managing by objectives.

Question 39

In the early 1800s, Robert Owen improved the work environment in a Scotland cotton mill with humanitarian reforms. The commercial success that followed best illustrated the value of

A) structured interviews.
B) employee engagement.
C) leniency errors.
D) a strengths-based selection system.

Question 40

Paul is seldom absent from work. However, an illness the previous week forced him to miss work for a day, and his supervisor evaluated his performance less positively than was warranted. This best illustrates the supervisor's vulnerability to

A) the interviewer illusion.
B) leniency errors.
C) recency errors.
D) the halo effect.

Question 41

Work is most likely to be satisfying for employees if it is associated with

A) task leadership.
B) the experience of flow.
C) 360-degree feedback.
D) unstructured interviews.

Question 42

Assessing the impact of different management styles on the motivation and productivity of employees best illustrates the professional concerns of

A) personnel psychology.
B) clinical psychology.
C) organizational psychology.
D) human factors psychology.

Question 43

People who know how to operate a computer software program often have difficulty imagining what it is like not to know how to operate the program. Their difficulty best illustrates

A) the curse of knowledge.
B) the interviewer illusion.
C) employee disengagement.
D) the leniency error.

Question 44

Who first described the concept of flow?

A) Maslow
B) Csikszentmihalyi
C) Owen
D) Norman

Question 45

Psychologists who help design machines so that they make use of our natural perceptions are called

A) clinical psychologists.
B) personnel psychologists.
C) human factors psychologists.
D) organizational psychologists.

Question 46

Industrial-organizational psychologists include

A) personnel psychologists.
B) organizational psychologists.
C) human factors psychologists.
D) all of these psychologists.

Question 47

Managers who build teamwork and effectively mediate employee conflicts are said to excel in

A) structured interviews.
B) social leadership.
C) performance appraisal.
D) a directive management style.

Question 48

People who view work as a calling see it as

A) an unfulfilling but necessary way to make money.
B) an opportunity to advance to a better position.
C) a fulfilling and socially useful activity.
D) all of these things.

Question 49

By scripting specific job-relevant questions to be asked of all those applying for a particular work position, a personnel psychologist is most clearly developing a framework for

A) the experience of flow.
B) transformational leadership.
C) structured interviews.
D) 360-degree feedback.

Question 50

Designing aircraft instrument displays in such a way as to minimize pilots' misperceptions of flight data would be of most direct interest to

A) personnel psychologists.
B) organizational psychologists.
C) evolutionary psychologists.
D) human factors psychologists.

Question 51

Human factors psychologists would be most likely to aid in the design of

A) employee weight-reduction programs.
B) management training seminars.
C) user-friendly factory machinery.
D) work-skills assessment tests.

Question 52

Personnel psychology is one of the main subfields of

A) organizational psychology.
B) industrial-organizational psychology.
C) human factors psychology.
D) evolutionary psychology.

Question 53

For each performance review, Professor Donnell is evaluated by her students, colleagues, department chair, and research assistants. This best illustrates

A) managing by objectives.
B) the experience of flow.
C) human factors psychology.
D) 360-degree feedback.

Question 54

In many nations, work has shifted from

A) knowledge work to farming.
B) knowledge work to manufacturing.
C) manufacturing to knowledge work.
D) knowledge work to skill work.

Question 55

A completely focused state of consciousness resulting from optimal engagement of one's skills is called

A) charisma.
B) 360-degree feedback.
C) transformational leadership.
D) flow.

Question 56

Evaluations of job applicants based on informal interviews are ________ predictors of future job performance than handwriting analysis and ________ predictors than aptitude tests.

A) better; better
B) worse; worse
C) better; worse
D) worse; better

Question 57

Compared with ineffective managers, those who are effective are more likely to

A) use informal, unstructured interviews when selecting new employees.
B) exercise a directive management style for achieving organizational goals.
C) celebrate employee productivity by providing them with recognition and rewards.
D) do all of these things.

Question 58

Workers who report the highest satisfaction with their work and their lives tend to view their work as

A) a calling.
B) a career.
C) a job.
D) a hobby.

Question 59

Flow is best described as

A) a completely involved, focused state of consciousness on a task.
B) goal-oriented leadership.
C) group-oriented leadership.
D) a state of heightened awareness of self and time.

Question 60

Who would be most involved in designing user-friendly programming controls for HDTVs?

A) organizational psychologists
B) human factors psychologists
C) personnel psychologists
D) social psychologists

Question 61

The sense of mutual obligations between workers and employers is known as

A) flow.
B) task leadership.
C) social leadership.
D) the psychological contract.

Question 62

Julia is a highly skilled professional violinist. She often becomes so focused and energized by her challenging practice sessions that they last hours longer than she had planned. Her experience best illustrates the concept of

A) flow.
B) task leadership.
C) human factors psychology.
D) 360-degree feedback.

Question 63

The first step in establishing workplace effectiveness is

A) identifying people's strengths and matching those to work.
B) hiring a boss who focuses on task leadership.
C) establishing a fair system of worker compensation.
D) hiring a boss who focuses on group leadership.

Question 64

Who is most likely to focus on selecting employees and performance appraisal?

A) personnel psychologist
B) organizational psychologist
C) human factors psychologist
D) engineering psychologist

Question 65

The best predictor of on-the-job performance for all but less-skilled jobs is

A) age.
B) general mental ability.
C) motivation.
D) stated intentions.

Question 66

Because Brent believes that his employees are intrinsically motivated to work for reasons beyond money, Brent would be described as a(n) ________ manager.

A) directive
B) social-oriented
C) task-oriented
D) charismatic

Question 67

Dr. Iverson conducts research focusing on how management styles influence worker motivation. Dr. Iverson would most accurately be described as a(n)

A) motivation psychologist.
B) personnel psychologist.
C) organizational psychologist.
D) human factors psychologist.

Question 68

Jack works for a company that requires employees to periodically rate their own performance and to be rated by their managers, other colleagues, and customers. This type of assessment is called

A) 360-degree feedback.
B) multifactorial evaluation.
C) analytical performance review.
D) human resource management.

Question 69

Who is most likely to focus on maximizing worker satisfaction and productivity?

A) personnel psychologist
B) organizational psychologist
C) human factors psychologist
D) engineering psychologist

Question 70

Andrea views her work as primarily an opportunity to climb up the corporate ladder in pursuit of increasingly better positions. Andrea apparently views her work as a

A) calling.
B) job.
C) contract.
D) career.

Question 71

Who is most likely to focus on the design of optimal work environments?

A) personnel psychologist
B) organizational psychologist
C) human factors psychologist
D) engineering psychologist

Question 72

Thanks to ________, TiVo and DVR have solved the TV recording problem caused by the complexity of VCRs.

A) parapsychologists
B) human factors psychologists
C) psychokineticists
D) Gestalt psychologists

Question 73

For as long as she has been the plant manager, Juanita has welcomed input from employees and has delegated authority. Bill, in managing his department, takes a more authoritarian, iron-fisted approach. Juanita's style is one of ________ leadership, whereas Bill's is one of ________ leadership.

A) task; social
B) social; task
C) directive; democratic
D) democratic; participative

Question 74

To increase employee productivity, industrial-organizational psychologists advise managers to

A) adopt a directive leadership style.
B) adopt a democratic leadership style.
C) instill competitiveness in each employee.
D) deal with employees according to their individual motives.

Question 75

Those who view their work as a necessary but personally unfulfilling way to make money are said to view work as a

A) contract.
B) job.
C) calling.
D) career.

Question 76

Munson is conducting his annual appraisal of employees' performance. Which of the following is NOT a type of appraisal method?

A) graphic rating
B) behavior rating
C) checklist
D) unstructured interview

Question 77

Flow is characterized by a ________ awareness of self and a ________ awareness of the passing of time.

A) heightened; diminished
B) diminished; heightened
C) heightened; heightened
D) diminished; diminished

Question 78

Those who view their work as a career are especially likely to be concerned about opportunities for

A) outsourcing.
B) creating action plans.
C) transformational leadership.
D) increasingly better employment positions.

Question 79

Which of the following was NOT identified as a contributing factor in the interviewer illusion?

A) The fact that interviews reveal applicants' intentions but not necessarily their habitual behaviors.
B) The tendency of interviewers to think that interview behavior only reflects applicants' enduring traits.
C) The tendency of interviewers to more often follow the successful careers of applicants they hired rather than those who were not hired.
D) The tendency of most interviewers to rely on unstructured rather than structured interviews.

Question 80

After studying artists who would spend hour after hour painting or sculpting with enormous concentration, Csikszentmihalyi formulated the concept of

A) transformational leadership.
B) strengths-based selection.
C) 360-degree feedback.
D) flow.