Major Theoretical Approaches

1.1 Describe the major theoretical approaches
Psychology is a discipline that asks and answers the fundamental question; “why do we behave the way we do and think the way we think”. The major perspectives are best ways to portray the different approaches used to answer the question of psychology, as it represents fundamental assumptions that underlie the research question and methods. These perspectives define psychology as the discipline interested in studying human behavior and mental process. Occupational psychology is an area of applied psychology and is define in terms of its context of application. Applied psychology interacts with practical problems and opportunities provided by basic psychology. Conversely, it contributes ideas and
Quantitative is based upon statistics, while qualitative reports contain anecdotal, or casual observations. Quantitative data can be used to rank employees and work units and to award raises or promotions. Thus, enables one to justify the termination or discipline of poorly performing workers. Qualitative contains human observations, where some HR professionals spend time silently observing workers and recording information about their behaviors, work habits and the types of obstacles that workers must overcome to perform their jobs effectively. In some instances, qualitative reports may contradict the information contained in quantitative reports. For example, a departmental manager may write a glowing report about an individual, however the statistical reports may portray the same individual as an inefficient worker. A qualitative report would contain explanations of events that cause an individuals’ productivity to drop, for example, broken machinery, staff shortages and other distractions, whereas a quantitative report on the same worker would simply show production
The tests are designed to help fit a candidate’s talents, personality and attributes to a job and not to reveal one’s innermost secrets or uncover confidential information. Psychometric testing provides a dominant way of ensuring the best candidates are selected by assessing their ability and preferred behavioral styles. Poor selection can cause disastrous consequences for both the employee and the organisation. From the organisation perspective, the cost of hiring and training an inappropriate candidate can be high in terms of lost productivity and revenue, reduced efficiency, increased absenteeism, reduced morale, the cost of the selection process itself and the cost of retraining new personnel. From the employee’s perspective, the consequences may include loss of motivation, reduced job satisfaction, increased work stress, failure to progress in their career and may lead depression and anxiety. Numerous studies have shown that modern psychometric assessment can aid employers with selection accuracy and is one of the most valid predictors of future job performance. Some of the key benefits of psychometric testing include: improve the efficiency of recruitment process by reducing time and money spent on unsuitable candidates; the results in more informed recruitment decisions being made by additional objective information about a candidate; proven to work better than interviews,