Introduction to Performance Psychology

Pertemuan 1

Matakuliah : L0074/Psikologi Industri dan Organisasi 2Tahun : 2008

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY?

• Human beings are born to perform. Many integral parts of our culture, such as education, work, and sport, explicitly value successful performance.

• In contemporary Western society, the urge to perform successfully has been seen as a basic drive.

• The psychology of performance seeks to understand the behaviours initiated by the strivings for competence, or even excellence.

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AIMS OF PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY

• Performance psychology is interested in reaction time speed of response example : completing tests in a set time, or reacting to hazards during driving. (Matthews, Davies, Westerman, & Stammers, 2000)

• The psychology of Human Performance studies how people can do whatever they do better and/or faster. (C.S. Clarke, 1999)

• Performance psychology is the systematic application of psychological principles and techniques to performance, particularly when there is a time element and one must perform on demand. (Brown, 2008)

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DISTINCTION BETWEEN COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE

• Competence refers to the fundamental capacity of the mind to perform some task or set of computations

• Performance refers to what the mind does compute in a given set of circumstances.

• Explaining performance requires both a model of competence and an understanding of how the expression of that competence in observable behaviour varies with factors such as stress and voluntary intentions.

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THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY

• The root of performance psychology start since early 19th century, when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory.

• At the end of 19th century, Ebbinghaus studies of memory and forgetting, and sir Francis Galton’s studies of individual differences in ability to perform.

• During the early 20th century, the momentum for behaviorism taking the view that psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable patterns of stimulus and response.

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• Also during the early 20th century, the development of branches of applied psychology concerned with performance, and the application of scientific principles to the management of industrial workforces, by Fredrick Taylor (1856 – 1915).

• World war II provided the study for human operator by complex new war technologies exceeded human capacities.

• Over the next decades, the disciplines of ergonomics and human factors were established, and the notions of the (hu)man – machine system and human engineering came into being.

The Computational Metaphor for Performance

• The theory of human performance derives primarily from cognitive psychology.

• The brain considered function like a computer, with groups of neurons performing logical operations or computations.

• Modeling is fundamental to cognitive psychology, performance psychologists often build and test such models.

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HUMAN INFORMATION PROCESSING

• Human brain = information processing in CPU.

• Input processing unit output

• Input (stimulus) brain output (response).

• Information senses internal representation response.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE COMPUTER METAPHOR

1. There are a variety of philosophical issues which relate to traditional questions such as the mind-body problem.

2. The metaphor may be broadly correct but unhelpful, because of the diversity of possible computational systems.

3. The computer metaphor may be appropriate to some psychological functions, but not to some of the essential attributes of humanity such as emotion, personality, creativity and intelligence.

4. The computer metaphor suggests undue passivity.

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APPLICATIONS OF PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY

- Clinical psychologist to understand disorders of cognition

- Sports psychologist to advise sports people on optimal training regimes

- Educational psychologist developing valid tests of academic learning.

- Applied most extensively to industrial & organizational psychology :* Ergonomics & human factors* Stress & wellbeing* Individual differences : Selection & assessment.

ERGONOMICS

• Ergonomics studies the interaction of technology and its human users.

• The objective is to promote the safe and efficient utilization of technology

HUMAN FACTORS

Application of human performance can focuses on:

- Fitting the job to the person designing the

technology to fit human capacities

- Fitting the person to the job selecting people for jobs.

DETERMINANTS OF WORK PERFORMANCE (from Blumberg & Pringle, 1982)

Capacity

OpportunityWillingness

Performance

STRESS AND WELLBEING

• Stress is commonplace at work.

• Stress may contribute to accident & wellbeing.

• Stress also affect the “willingness” as well as the “capacity” aspect of work performance promoting resentment, loss of motivation, & absenteeism.

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• We must distinguish between external sources of stress (stressors) and the person’s internal reactions.

• Stressors may have an arousing, energizing effect, or perceived as challenges to overcome.

• Stress may also be a consequence of performance.

• Work activities should match the person’s abilities and interests, without offending their values and principles.

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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

• Individual has many differences, like in speed or accuracy, cognitive aptitudes, personality, mood, and ageing.

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ASSESSMENT

• Organizations assess the performance of individuals to :- recruit able trainees.- track performance change during training.- monitor the contributions of existing personnel.

• The assessment process concerned with both “capacity” and “willingness” factors.

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CRITERIA OF GOOD PERFORMANCE

1. Job-specific task proficiency2. Non-job-specific task proficiency3. Written and oral communication task proficiency4. Demonstrating effort5. Maintaining personal discipline6. Facilitating peer and team performance7. Supervision / leadership8. Management / administration

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