I recently posted an entry referring to my experience in Dr. Sam Hunter’s Leadership and Innovation Lab. This lab is categorized under a larger field known as Industrial/Organizational Psychology. I/O psychology is the study of human behavior in the workplace. In addition to an experiment relating to leader errors, I also participated in a research project in which all of the lab members worked to code books for leader errors. We searched through over one hundred biographies on political leaders for errors. Some of the leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Lenin, and Mussolini. While it is no surprise to most people that political leaders make mistakes, it was interesting to discover how leaders make an error and ultimately react to that error. Viewing leader errors through two different channels has shown me the value of studying this occurrence.
In addition to the projects that we work on in the lab, the graduate students have also been especially encouraging in preparing us for graduate school and teaching us about the world of research. The graduate students read and revise personal statements and CVs of lab members several times each semester. For me personally, I was unsure of how to write a personal statement before entering the lab but with the help of a few graduate students, I now have a more professional personal statement. Furthermore, graduate lab coordinator, Lily Cushenbery, hosts a graduate school night every year for all psychology undergraduates to help prepare for the transition to graduate school. A PowerPoint of the presentation can be downloaded here. Also, two of the graduate students have been assisting me in starting my honors thesis project on identifying ways to make teams more creative.
Although I have only been in the lab for one semester, I feel that I have learned an extraordinary amount about I/O psychology and the importance of the field in a short period of time. My experience in the lab has fostered my interest even more and I look forward to working on more projects and an exciting future in I/O psychology beyond the lab. Although leadership and innovation still excite me as a much as the next person, I doubt that I will ever be able to view them in the same manner again. While all of us can enjoy the luxuries of a great leader or a groundbreaking innovation, there is much more to be discovered than meets the eye. Working in the Leadership and Innovation Lab has given me a fresh perspective on two prevalent concepts and has shown me the value of digging a little deeper for knowledge.