BioSketch

Who is Paul E. Spector? A Brief Bio

I was born in New York City in 1949, and moved with my family to Sarasota, Florida in 1958. I attended the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa from 1968 to 1975, receiving a BA in psychology and a MA and Ph.D. in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology. After spending seven years in several academic and nonacademic positions, I returned to the USF Psychology Department in 1982 where today I am a Distinguished University Professor of I/O psychology and director of both the I/O psychology doctoral program and our interdisciplinary occupational health psychology (OHP) program. The OHP program bridges the Psychology Department with the NIOSH-funded USF Sunshine Education and Training Center (ERC), housed in our College of Public Health.

My research interests include both the content and methodology of the field. Content areas concern the impact of jobs on the behavior and well-being of employees, including counterproductive behavior, job satisfaction, job stress, and withdrawal behavior, all of which are aspects of Occupational Health Psychology. Methodological areas are complex statistics and psychological measurement. I've published in many journals of the field, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personnel Psychology, and Psychological Bulletin. I've written books on both methodology (research design and SAS programming) and content, including an I/O psychology textbook (Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Research and Practice). A complete list of my publications is in my curriculum vita. At present I am the Associate Editor for Point/Counterpoint for Journal of Organizational Behavior. My most active interests right now are counterproductive behavior and violence at work and cross-cultural job stress.