¶ … psychology's contribution to the war effort during WWI. 2)Describe the results of the original Hawthorne Study regarding the relationship between lighting and efficiency. What was significant about this study? Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology

Psychology was just emerging as a field of scientific study and application in the years just before World War I. American psychologists were intrigued with Alfred Binet's work with mental measurement, as well as the scientific management movement to increase worker productivity (Historical pg). However, when World War I began, "the problem of assimilating millions of U.S. civilians into the armed services... brought the tools of psychologists to the military environment" (Historical pg).

At the start of the war, the president of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Robert M. Yerkes, headed a meeting of psychologists to discuss how they could assist the war effort (Historical pg). Yerkes was most responsible...

Committees of psychologists were also established to investigate soldier motivation, morale, discipline, and psychological problems of physical incapacity, such as 'shell shock' (McCarthy pg). Other issues included measurement of troop morale and assimilation into the military, as well as the "development of special trade tests to assess skills such as combat leadership and flying aptitude" (McCarthy pg). "The successful program of mental testing of recruits...resulted in the appropriate placement of new soldiers into military jobs and officer training" (Historical pg).
The greatest influence on the field of I/O psychology from this era was the Hawthorne studies. In 1924, researchers from Harvard University, none of whom were psychologists, began a series of experiments at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric…