Engineering Psychology History and
Scope
• The area of job and equipment design for the people is referred to as
engineering psychology .
• The term ergonomic is used most often to refer human factor field
• The concern of field is the design of the job in person machine
system.
• Howell describes the human factor as a concept as adaptation of both
human and physical perspective when designing things for people to
use, whether they be simple hand tools all computer hardware and
software sophisticated weapon systems or entire office complex and
space stations
• Engineering psychologists are interested in understanding the
capabilities and limitations of human behavior and developing and
adjusting systems to maximize these abilities and prevent errors. They
often help design products, workspaces, and human-machine
interactions to make them more user-friendly
• Sander and Mc Cornick 1993 list two major objectives for human
factor field
• To increase effectiveness and efficiency in work and work related
activities
• To increased value that workers find desirable such as increased safety
less stress more comfort in use of equipment increase job satisfaction
and improved quality of life
History of Engineering Psychology
• At end of the nineteenth century that the first systematic investigations
were conducted on man’s capacity to work as it is influenced by his
job and his tools.
• Frederick W. Taylor (1898) made empirical studies of the best design
of shovels and of the optimum weight of material per shovelful for
handling different products, such as sand, slag, rice coal, and iron ore.
He focused primarily in rates of doing work and in the effects of
incentives and worker motivation on rates of working
• Frank B. Gilbreth to set a firm foundation for this field with his classic
study of bricklaying (1909). Gilbreth invented scaffolding which could
be quickly adjusted so that the bricklayer could work at the most
convenient level at all times.
• Gilbreth was able to increase the number of bricks laid from 120 to
350 per man per hour. This innovative work of Taylor and Gilbreth was
the beginning of that branch of industrial engineering now known as
time and motion study.
• The primary emphasis in time and motion engineering has been on
man as a worker, as a source of mechanical power.
• During the two world wars there appeared a new class of machines —
machines that made demands upon the operator not in terms of his
muscular power but rather in terms of his sensory, perceptual,
judgmental, and decision-making abilities.
• For example, the job of a SONAR Operator requires virtually no
muscular energy, but it makes severe demands on his sensory
capacity, his attentiveness, and his decision-making ability
• During World War I a group of psychologists under Robert M. Yerkes
organized as the Psychology Committee of the National Research
Council. Largely the psychologists in World War I were concerned
about the selection, classification, and training of recruits, and with
morale, military discipline, recreation, and problems of emotional
stability in soldiers and sailors.
• During World War II Psychologist were more concern about Radar,
sonar, high altitude and high speed aircraft, naval combat information
centers, and air traffic control centers placed demands upon their
human operators that were often far beyond the capabilities of
human senses, brains, and muscles
• Operators sometimes had to look for targets which were all but
invisible, recognize speech against backgrounds of deafening noise,
track targets simultaneously in the three dimensions of space with
both hands, and absorb large amounts of information to reach life-
and-death decisions within seconds
Scope of Engineering Psychology
• Engineering Psychology is also called as Ergonomics (UK and Europe),
Human factor Psychology or Human factor engineering (in USA) or
psycho technology or applied experimental psychology.
• The discipline study how people interact with machines and
technology. They use psychological science to guide the design of
products, systems and devices we use daily. They often focus on
performance and safety.
• Human factors and engineering psychologists strive to make Man &
Machine interactions easier, more comfortable, less frustrating and,
safer. Engineering psychology is a branch of applied psychology.
Engineering psychology specifically concerned with the innovation
and application of information about human behavior to the
machines, tools, and jobs so that their design may best match the
capabilities and boundaries of their human users. Engineering
psychology is a part of industrial psychology. It includes additional
topics as personnel procurement, selection, training, classification,
and promotion; labor relations; morale and human relations;
organizational management; and consumer behavior.