The seeds that blossomed into Renegade Psychology were sown in the dying embers of a scorching cry for help.
To provide some background, there are several “major” branches of Psychology. Clinical (or Abnormal) Psychology is the most popular branch of psychology study, and the one the APA focuses on the most. Most of the other branches – Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Personality Psychology, Social Psychology, Biopsychology, and Educational Psychology – tend to focus more on academia, research papers, and theory than they do on the practical application of psychology in the day-to-day lives of the everyman.
Aside from Forensic Psychology, there is only one branch of psychology that society calls upon to directly utilize in real-life decision-making on an everyday basis in a manner affecting millions of people – perhaps even billions – every single day of their lives. That branch is Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
In fact, Industrial-Organizational Psychology (or I-O Psychology for short) used to be lumped into the same category as Forensic Psychology and several other sub-divisions of the Psychology field. These fields combined to form Applied Psychology. As the (former) name suggests, I-O Psychology is psychology applied to organizations. The concepts of I-O Psychology are practically manifested in selection, retention, employee development, and workforce planning. I-O Psychologists with Master’s Degrees and Ph.D’s are the expert witnesses in every employment discrimination lawsuit. They are the people who develop and analyze the tests so many companies use to hire people. Almost every Fortune 500 company has at least a few I-O psychologists on staff; others hire consultants to serve the same purpose. Many United States government agencies – including the ones tasked with defending the country against both national and international threats – enlist the services of I-O psychologists in their efforts. Federal laws codify the need for large employers to ensure their hiring practices offer an equal opportunity to all qualified applicants; the specifics of these laws essentially mandate the involvement of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists to ensure the laws are followed.
In other words, Industrial-Organizational Psychology is so tightly woven into the fabric of the developed world that it is at times indistinguishable from everything else in the workplace. Everyone coming into contact with a Human Resources function or HR professional has probably confronted I-O Psychology-related issues.
But you are forgiven if you didn’t know any of this before you visited Renegade Psychology. Sadly, the branch of psychology arguably burdened with the greatest responsibility to convert its theories from research into practice hasn’t done the best job of promoting itself.
For instance, if you look at SHRM’s website, there is a plethora of practical information presented in a manner that is accessible to both HR specialists and non-HR specialists. Maybe it’s because nobody can get a Ph.D in Human Resources: whatever the reason, the Society for Human Resource Management – and by extension, its website – focuses on Human Resources as a profession. SHRM attempts to promote rigorous real-world HR standards, hires full-time staff and interns, offers HR certification courses, and generally acts as an ambassador for their industry. The organization doesn’t seem to give a crap if you studied HR or just fell into it: they work on behalf of all HR professionals.
The professional organization of record for I-O psychologists has a section targeted towards professionals (along with an internal job site, and conferences). The organization has provided an invaluable resource in different ways to both academic and professional I-O Psychologists for decades, enriching the education and careers of its members. However, in stark contrast to SHRM’s approach, the useful information for practitioners on the group’s public website is not particularly accessible to the average reader. The neophyte or non-academic-type would likely be overwhelmed and stymied by both the academic writing approach and the visual presentation of the valuable information housed in the practitioner area.
In fact, the organization seems to revel in its academic slant. To join, you have to also be a member of the APA – an organization focused mostly on Abnormal Psychology and academia. To codify the group’s apparent academic bias, only Ph.Ds in I-O Psychology may join with "Member" status. Those with Master’s Degrees are relegated to joining with “Associate” status. This distinction is written into the organization’s bylaws; beyond reviewing transcripts from degree-conferring universities, there is no merit-oriented certification process to justify this distinction. The tacit assumption seems to be that having a Ph.D automatically confers a deserved higher status in the organization – and that nobody with a terminal Master’s Degree, regardless of their career accomplishments, should ever reach Member status.
These artificial – and, frankly, elitist – divisions hurt the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology more than they help it. MAs and MSs are often the front-line practitioners in the I-O sector. Because they lack the option of retreating to academia for a faculty position in most cases, they are the primary ambassadors for their field to the corporate and government sectors. Yet their own professional organization’s bylaws seem to confer second-class citizen status to them -- and seem content to dedicate a few conference seminars and a job board to prepare these practitioners to enter the workforce. New MA and MS grads entering the field often find themselves shocked by the often-significant disconnect between what they learned in the classroom and what they find in real workplaces...assuming they can find a job in the first place.
In our humble opinion, this doesn’t seem like the best growth strategy. After all, it used to be called Applied Psychology for a reason.
But Master’s-level practitioners aren’t the only ones experiencing constant practitioner pain. Many Ph.Ds find themselves in companies where they are the only I-O Psychologist on staff. They work in Human Resources, or in Operations. They constantly swim upstream, struggling to hold their employer to the legal standards that govern the practice of Industrial-Organizational Psychology in the real world. They toil with little appreciation for or acknowledgment of the unique challenges they face. Their employers view these lone I-Os as a ‘necessary evil’.
Finally, there are the beleaguered HR-linked professionals (either by design or by circumstance) who didn’t study I-O Psychology, but get pressed into the application of I-O concepts without any user-friendly resources readily available to them.
If you feel fenced in by one of the scenarios described in the preceding paragraph, you are not alone. There are others like you: trapped, struggling, and wondering why more managers and executives don’t really give a damn about what you say until the company lawyers force them to.
Renegade Psychology exists as a voice for the voiceless. It exists to shine the harsh light of reality into the dark crevasses of presumption, apathy, and pretty words that confine not only Industrial-Organizational Psychology, but all of the social sciences. Our goal is to provide a coarse, humorous, emotional, and realistic take on issues that we believe everyone should care about.
Renegade Psychology adheres to RoboCop’s three Prime Directives:
1. Uphold the law (OFCCP and Uniform Guidelines); 2. Serve the public trust (by pushing for the adoption of social science best practices benefiting both organizations and society at large); and 3. Protect the innocent (by caring about adverse impact, fairness, and social justice).
Unlike RoboCop, Renegade Psychology wasn’t programmed to keep a sinister fourth directive classified, so here it is: whenever possible, we recommend that organizations consult internal or external professionals to manage the issues discussed on this site.
You will find coarse language. You will find humor. You will find passion. And hopefully, you will find help.