Workplace psychology refers to the practice of applying psychological principles and practices to a work environment. The goal is to identify and solve problems, increase employee satisfaction, and improve workplace dynamics Faculty Click to expand each of the below faculty members' research focus, program affiliation, and lab information in the Workplace Psychology research area. Dorothy Carter Dorothy Carter researches the individual, social, and contextual factors that enable leaders, teams, and larger collectives to tackle complex challenges across a variety of contexts including the military, medicine, corporations, scientific collaboration, and long-duration space exploration. Her research on leadership and teamwork often leverages advanced statistical approaches such as social network analysis, multilevel modeling, and agent-based computational modeling. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Leadership, Innovation, Networks, and Collaboration (LINC) Laboratory Nathan T. Carter Nathan T. Carter is interested in the role of personality in explaining the behavior of individuals at work, and their general success and well-being in life. Toward this end, he utilizes and studies psychometric theory and analytic techniques to clarify these complex relationships, such as item response theory and psychometric network theory. Additionally, Dr. Carter is interested in the history of applied psychology, and the role of human judgment and decision making in applicant attraction and employee selection. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Applied Psychometric Lab Malissa Clark Malissa Clark researches under the broad topic of employee well-being. Her study topics include workaholism, work-family conflict, women at work, and the effects of mood/emotions on individual and workplace outcomes. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Work and Family Experience Research Lab Lillian Eby Lillian Eby is interested in employee health and well-being, with a particular emphasis on relationships inside and outside of work. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Enhancing Connections & Health in Organizations Lab Brian Hoffman Brian Hoffman is interested in the changing nature of work including changes in the workforce and changes in work itself. In addition, his research focuses on the individual differences associated with and measurement of effective performance and leaderships. Gary Lautenschlager Gary Lautenschlager is interested in personnel selection, fairness in measurement of abilities, attitudes, interests, biodata and personality as well as applicant reactions to selection methods, processes and their impact on subsequent outcomes. Dr. Lautenschlager is also interested in the influence of contextual factors and technology on measurement properties in social science research and practice and improving methods for analyzing psychological data. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Neal Outland Neal Outland answers questions concerning the necessary qualities of individual team members and the optimal patterns of interaction for teams to follow for superior performance. He has two main research streams: one in which he explores how teams dynamically interact and perform in complex and dynamic environments such as sports; and another where he uses computer simulated teams as analogies to real human teams in a variety of contexts. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Kristen Shockley Kristen Shockley focuses on understanding the intersection of employees’ work and family lives. Specifically, she has conducted research aimed at understanding organizational initiatives to help employees managing competing life demands (i.e., flexible work arrangements); research that explores the relationship between work-family conflict and health outcomes, including eating behaviors and physiological indicators of health; research that addresses the theoretical foundations of work-family interactions; and research targeted at understanding how dual-earner couples balance work and family roles. Dr. Shockley’s secondary area of interest is in career development, with a specific focus on workplace and academic mentoring, people’s idiosyncratic definitions of career success, and the consequences of career compromise. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Integrating Work Into Life Lab (iWill) Michelle vanDellen Michelle vanDellen studies self-regulation, the processes by which people choose, pursue, and disengage from goals. Her work is driven by two core assumptions: 1) goal pursuits are inherently interpersonal and 2) cognition and motivation interact to drive self-regulatory processes. Her work carries implications for teams, mentor/mentee relationships, and motivational processes in the workplace. Program affiliation: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Laboratory: Motivation and Behavior Laboratory
