Scope of Industrial-Organizational Psychology: References in the Annual Review, 1950–1978

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to study the nature and development of the scope of industrial psychology as indicated in the contributions to the Annual Review from the time of its inception in 1950 until 1978. All the contributions in the 1950's were called Industrial Psychology. From 1961 on, Industrial Psychology was never again used as a main caption. In the 1970's there were more contributions than in previous decades: new captions, new themes, and new topics. There were three contributions, for example, on Personnel Attitudes and Motivation, two on Organizational Development; there were also contributions on Personnel and Human Resources, and for the first time contributions on Training and Development and Career Planning as well as continuing Consumer and Engineering Psychology which first appeared in the 1960's. There were substantial decreases in the use of the two major reference sources. Instead there were substantial gains in such sources as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, the Training Development Journal, and the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. In the 1970's there is also a publication explosion. Not only has the field expanded, but it is still expanding and growing away from what in the 1950's was industrial to organizational behavior and development. The nature and extent of the changes are considered in all dimensions of organizational behavior contributions. Topics still not systematically considered are industrial-labor management relations and power and leadership.