History of Industrial and Organizational Psychology in Europe and the United Kingdom

This entry is about the history of work and organizational (W-O) psychology, as it is called in Europe, also known as industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology in the United States. In order to correctly interpret this historical account of IWO psychology in Europe, it should be taken into account that our discipline had and has different names, depending on the authors and countries. For example, the following names were used as synonyms: industrial psychology, occupational psychology, personnel psychology, work psychology, organizational psychology, psychotechnics, employment psychology, ergology, and even applied psychology. This entry offers a chronological summary of the European milestones in the creation and consolidation of IWO psychology as a scientific discipline. In this sense, I arbitrarily divide the history into three periods: 1900–1945, 1946–1980, ...