During World War I, American psychologists helped the military develop tests to select and classify recruits.
Correct Answer
True
True. Psychologists created group mental ability tests, the Army Alpha and Army Beta, and selection procedures for the U.S. Army, an early large-scale use of psychology in personnel work.
Category: History of I-O Psychology
Question 2
The Hawthorne studies concluded that physical conditions such as lighting mattered more to productivity than social factors such as supervision.
Correct Answer
False
False. Although the studies began by testing lighting and other physical conditions, the researchers concluded that psychological and social factors, such as attention from supervisors, mattered more. This shift helped launch organizational psychology.
Category: History of I-O Psychology
Question 3
Industrial psychology focuses on describing jobs and on selecting, training, and evaluating employees.
Correct Answer
True
True. Industrial psychology is the branch of I-O psychology concerned with matching people to jobs, including job description, personnel selection, training, and performance evaluation.
Category: Branches of the Field
Question 4
Human factors psychology focuses on changing workers to fit their machines rather than designing machines to fit workers.
Correct Answer
False
False. Human factors psychology designs machines, tools, displays, and workspaces to fit human abilities and limitations, improving safety and productivity.
Category: Human Factors
Question 5
Interview ratings can be influenced by an applicant's nonverbal behavior, such as smiling and making eye contact.
Correct Answer
True
True. Research shows that nonverbal cues such as eye contact, smiling, and nodding affect how interviewers rate candidates, which is one reason structured scoring systems are recommended.
Category: Personnel Selection
Question 6
Integrity tests used in hiring are designed to measure a candidate's physical strength and endurance.
Correct Answer
False
False. Integrity tests assess honesty and trustworthiness, such as attitudes toward theft. Physical strength and endurance are measured by physical ability or fitness tests.
Category: Personnel Selection
Question 7
Race can qualify as a bona fide occupational qualification under federal employment law.
Correct Answer
False
False. Federal law allows a bona fide occupational qualification for traits such as religion, sex, national origin, or age in narrow cases, but never for race.
Category: Employment Law
Question 8
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Americans with Disabilities Act is a separate law passed in 1990. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 contains Title VII, which covers race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Category: Employment Law
Question 9
In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., the Supreme Court held that an educational requirement that screens out one racial group is legal even when it is unrelated to job performance.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Court ruled that requirements that disproportionately exclude a racial group are illegal unless the employer shows they are directly related to performing the job.
Category: Employment Law
Question 10
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces federal laws against workplace discrimination.
Correct Answer
True
True. The EEOC is the U.S. agency that receives discrimination charges, investigates them, and can file lawsuits to enforce laws such as Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA.
Category: Employment Law
Question 11
Transactional leadership relies on rewards and punishments to keep employees working toward organizational goals.
Correct Answer
True
True. Transactional leaders supervise closely and exchange rewards for performance while punishing failures, an approach that tends to maintain the status quo.
Category: Management and Leadership
Question 12
Research generally finds transformational leadership to be less effective than transactional leadership.
Correct Answer
False
False. Transformational leadership, which motivates through inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration, is generally found to be more effective, although most leaders use some elements of both styles.
Category: Management and Leadership
Question 13
Strengths-based management focuses mainly on correcting each employee's weaknesses.
Correct Answer
False
False. Strengths-based management focuses on identifying and building on each person's enduring talents rather than on fixing weaknesses.
Category: Management and Leadership
Question 14
Organizational citizenship refers to voluntary actions by employees that go beyond their required duties and help the organization.
Correct Answer
True
True. Organizational citizenship behaviors, such as helping a coworker or volunteering for a task, are discretionary and are associated with higher job satisfaction.
Category: Work Attitudes and Culture
Question 15
An organization's culture consists only of its written policies, with no role for unspoken assumptions.
Correct Answer
False
False. Organizational culture includes visible artifacts and stated values as well as deep basic assumptions that employees rarely question or put into words.
Category: Work Attitudes and Culture
Question 16
Procedural justice refers to how fair employees believe the processes are that are used to make decisions, such as how raises are decided.
Correct Answer
True
True. Procedural justice is the perceived fairness of decision-making processes, and low procedural justice is linked to problems such as workplace theft and aggression.
Category: Harassment and Fairness
Question 17
A single mild offhand remark is usually enough to establish a hostile work environment under the law.
Correct Answer
False
False. A hostile environment generally requires a pattern of repeated offensive conduct, such as ongoing explicit jokes or images. Isolated minor incidents usually do not meet the legal standard, although a single extremely serious act can.
Category: Harassment and Fairness
Question 18
Teams formed to carry out a well-defined plan, such as SWAT units, are classified as tactical teams.
Correct Answer
True
True. Tactical teams execute a clearly defined plan, in contrast to problem resolution teams, which work out a specific problem, and creative teams, which develop new ideas or designs.
Category: Teams at Work
Question 19
Checklists, such as the ones pilots complete before takeoff, are a human factors tool for reducing errors.
Correct Answer
True
True. Checklists reduce reliance on memory under pressure and are used in aviation, spaceflight, and surgery to prevent costly mistakes.
Category: Human Factors
Question 20
After the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, regulators required more instrumentation and more operator training at nuclear plants.
Correct Answer
True
True. The 1979 accident showed how poorly designed displays and limited training can lead operators to misread a situation, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission responded with new requirements for instruments and training.
Category: Human Factors