Statistics for IO Psychology - Essay Example

Statistics for IO psychology Objective The objective of this research is to study the effect of music on three groups of people working under constant, unpredictable, and no music. Research Questions This research will cover the following research questions: Is there a positive correlation between music and work performance at work place? Does the quality of work decrease as the noise of music increase? Does music have a negative effect on people who are required to perform complex tasks? Hypotheses H0: Music has a significant effect on the performance of the group working under constant music. H1: Music has no significant effect on the performance of the group working under constant music. H2: Music has a significant effect on the performance of the group working under unpredictable music. H3: Music has no significant effect on the performance of the group working under unpredictable music. H4: Music has a significant effect on the performance of the group working under no music. H5: Music has no significant effect on the performance of the group working under no music. Annotated Bibliography 1. Brief, A. P. & Weiss, H. M. (2002). Organizational behavior: affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology. 53, 279-307. Arthur P. Brief and Howard M. Weiss are both Professors at reputed Universities. The research conducted by Brief and Weiss studies the organizational behavior and effects in the workplace. This study is relevant to the current research because the current research tries to find out whether music has any effect in the workplace. 2. Chaudhury, H., Mahmood, A., & Valente, M. (2009). The effect of environmental design on reducing nursing errors and increasing efficiency in acute care settings: A review and analysis of the literature. Environment and Behavior. 41, 6755-6786. Habib CHaudhury, Atiya Mahmood, and Maria Valente are all Professors at reputed Universities. This research studies the effect of environmental design on reducing nursing errors and increasing efficiency in acute care settings. They concluded in their study that variables such as, noise levels, ergonomics, lighting, and design can increase errors at work place. This study is relevant to the current research as the current research also focuses on the efficiency of employees at a hospital and the effect of variable i.e. music, on their productivity. 3. Furnham, A. & Strbac, L. (2002). Music is as distracting as noise: The differential distraction of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts. Ergonomics. 45, 203-217. Furnham and Strbac are Professors at the Department of Psychology, University College London. They conducted the research to study the effects of background noise on the performance of individuals who were both introverts and extraverts and found that the noise has a negative impact on their performance and concluded that music has different impact on people with different personalities. This study is similar to the current research as it also studies the impact of music on the performance of employees at a hospital. 4. Gilmore, T. (1999). The efficacy of the Tomatis Method for children with learning and communication disorders: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Listening, 13, 12-23. Dr. Tim Gilmor is an organizational psychologist who specializes in assessment and development of management teams. He conducted the meta-analysis of data which was conducted from five different research studies evaluating the efficacy of Tomatis Method. He concluded that affect sizes that favoured the children being studied were in compliance with the clinician’s report. This study is relevant to the present research because of its evaluation of effect of auditory sensation on learning of children with learning and communication disorders. 5. Hallam S, Price J. & Katsaru, G. (2002). The effects of background music on primary school pupils’ task performance. Educational Studies. 28, 111-122. Hallam, Price, and Katsaru conducted this research to study the effects of background music on the task performance of Primary School children and concluded that relaxing music had a positive effect on the performance of these children on both arithmetic and memory tasks. The also found that music did not effect the cognition directly but through arousal and mood of children. This study is relevant to the present research because both the research study the effect of music on performance. 6. Lesiuk, T. (2005). The effect of music listening on work performance. Psychology of Music. 33, 173-191. Teresa Lesiuk of University of Windsor conducted a research in which he studied the effect of music on quality and time of work of software designers. She concluded that music can be used to positively change the mood of workers and to increase workplace interactions. This study can be used to prove the hypotheses of the present research right or wrong. 7. Newman, R. I., Jr, Hunt, D. L. & Rhodes, F. (1966). Effects of music on employee attitude and productivity in a skateboard factory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 50. 493-496. This research was conducted to study the effects of four different types of music, dance, show, folk, and popular, on quantitative and qualitative performance of workers involved in performing routine tasks. They found that while the workers appreciated music being played at workplace and thought that it improved their productivity, no change was measured in their productivity. This study is similar to the present research as it also focuses on the effects of music on the productivity of workers. 8. Oldham, G. R., Cummings, A., Mischel, L. J., Schmidtke, J. M., & Zhou, J. (1996). Can personal stereos improve productivity? H R Magazine. 41, 95-99. This research was conducted to find out whether personal stereos improved productivity of workers or not. The researchers concluded that personal stereos can in fact be used to increase the productivity of employees who are required to perform simple routine tasks. It was also concluded that this strategy was cheaper and had advantage over other strategies because it did not force individuals to listen to music who did not want to. This study is somewhat relevant to the present research but it does not provide any definite number of productivity or workers. 9. Sollier, P. (2005). Listening for Wellness, an introduction to the Tomatis method. U.S.A.: The Mozart Center Press. Sollier has discussed in detail about the works of Dr. Alfred Tomatis related to listening. This book is relevant to the present research because it includes many different concepts of listening and its effects. The book explains how listening improves productivity and solves problems and also reveals other advantages of effective listening. 10. Tomatis, A. A. (1991). The Conscious Ear, Paris: Station Hill Press. Dr. Alfred Tomatis, the inventor of Tomatis Method, was a world renowned otolaryngologist. Dr. Alfred in his book explains all the benefits of listening and how it can be used to prevent problems and modify behavior. He discusses how listening can have a positive impact on the human nervous system. The relevance of this book to the present research is immense as it explains how listening to different sounds can effect behavior. The book also explains other listening concepts which can be used to explain how music can affect performance at workplace. Read More