Updating History

The SIOP Living History Series has been a fixture at the SIOP Annual Conference since 2013. Created by Paul Levy and David B. Baker and launched under Historian Kevin Mahoney, the goal of the series is to expand SIOP’s institutional and field-related knowledge by capturing insights from prominent I-O psychologists. This year, the committee tried something new.

In early 2024, Dr. Virginia Schein was scheduled to appear in the Living History session of the conference. However, a scheduling issue made this impossible and the session was cancelled. But, at the urging of Milt Hakel, the 2023 interviewee, the session was rescheduled as a virtual event. SIOP History Committee Chair Zhenyu Yuan interviewed Schein, whose impressive career spans more than 4 decades, on August 9, 2024. You can view the event on the SIOP YouTube channel.

Schein spoke about not only what inspired her to pursue I-O psychology but also what ignited her interest in studying and advocating for impoverished working women. A SIOP/Division 14 member since 1970, she discussed the early years of her career and how she stays curious and passionate about the field now.

She also referred to her Schein Descriptive Index, a 92-item questionnaire used to measure stereotypes and define the characteristics of successful managers. The SDI has been used to investigate gender stereotyping and management. Her Think Manager-Think Male article has been cited over 1200 times, by researcher in all parts of the world.

After this successful presentation, it was decided that the advantages of virtual presentation were so numerous that the entire series will now be held virtually. This not only will eliminate any competition from other conference sessions, but it will also open the possibility of more than one session per year. In addition, interviews can be held with international members who may not be able to travel to the US and members who cannot attend a given conference. This flexibility means that many more and varied stories can be told.

Recordings of these interviews are kept as artifacts of the living history of I-O psychology and can be found in the SIOP Living History playlist on YouTube.

To suggest someone for the Living History series, please contact Jen Baker at jbaker@siop.org. Previous interviewees are David P. Campbell, Paul W. Thayer, Frank L. Schmidt, Sheldon Zedeck, Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, Benjamin Schneider, Neal Schmitt, Milton Hakel, and Virginia Schein.