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Dr Stephen Woods

Stephen Woods

Lecturer

Work & Organisational Psychology Group

Education

  • PhD Psychology (Surrey; 2004)
  • MSc Occupational Psychology (Nottingham; 2001)
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology (Wolverhampton; 2000)

Background

Steve joined the Work and Organisational Psychology Group in 2007 as Lecturer and Course Director for MSc Courses in Work/Organisational Psychology and Business,and Organisational Behaviour. Prior to joining the group, Steve was a Lecturer in Occupational Psychology at the Institute of Work, Health and Organisations at the University of Nottingham. He is Visiting Lecturer in Occupational Psychology at the University of Nottingham (Malaysia Campus) and at City University. Steve is well known in the UK and Internationally for his work on personality trait assessment and structure, publishing hos work in peer-reviewed journals, books, and at conferences. Since 2001, Steve has also worked as an assessment consultant with private and public centre clients on selection and development projects, most recently in South East Asia.

Professional Membership

  • Chartered Occupational Psychologist (British Psychological Society; BPS)
  • Verified Assessor (BPS Level A and B Qualifications in Occupational Testing)

Editorial Membership

  • Consulting Editor (Work & Stress)
  • Reviewer (Personality and Individual Differences, Journal of Personality, Journal of Research in Personality)

Journal Articles

  • Zibbaras, L., Port, R. and Woods, S. A. (in press) Innovation and the 'Dark Side' of Personality: Dysfunctional Traits and their Relationship to Innovation Potential. Journal of Creative Behaviour.
  • Van Oudenhoven, J. P., de Raad, B., Askevis-Leherpeux, F., Boski, P., Brunborg, G. S., Carmona, C., Barelds, D., Hill, C. T., Mlacic, B., Motti, F., Rammsetdt, B., and Woods, S. (2008) Terms of abuse as expression and reinforcement of cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 32; 174-185.
  • Singh, M. and Woods, S. A. (2008) The Joint Predictive Effects of Emotional Intelligence and Three Broad Personality Traits on General Well-Being. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38; 635-646.
  • Kouvonen, A., Vaananen, A., Woods, S. A., Heponiemi, T., Koskinen, A., Toppin-Tanner, S. (208) Sense of coherence and diabetes: A prospective occupational cohort study. BMC Public Health, 8, 46.
  • Dancer, L. and Woods, S. A. (2006) Intercorrections and Higher Order Factor Structures of the 16PF5 and FIRO-B. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 14, 385-391.
  • Woods, S. A. (2006) Cognitive Ability Tests and Unfairness against Minority Ethnic Groups: Two Practical Ways to Check for Unfairness in Selection. Selection and Development Review, 22(3), pp. 2-7.
  • Daviri, S. and Woods, S. A. (2006) Uncertified Absence from Work and the Big Five: An Examination of Absence Records and Future Absense Intentions. Personality and Individual Differences, 41(2), pp. 359-369.
  • Woods, S. A. and Hampson, S. E. (2005) Measuring the Big Five with single items using a bipolar response scale. European Journal of Personality, 5, pp. 373-390.
  • Woods, S. A. (2003) Five reasons to be optimistic about the future of personality assessment as a selection tool. Selection and Development Review, 19(4), pp. 12-15.

Book Chapters

  • Woods, S. A., West, M. A. & Martin, R. (forthcoming) The Psychology of Work and Organizations. London; CENGAGE
  • Woods, S. A. (2008) Performance Measures: The Elusive Relationship Between Job Performance and Job Satisfaction. In S. Cartwright & C. L. Cooper (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Personnel Psychology. Oxford; OUP

Conference Papers

  • Woods, S. A. (2009) The structures and comparative validities of six personality inventories. Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, 2009
  • Woods, S. A. (2009) The convergence and construct validities of five commercial personality inventories. Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, 2009
  • Woods, S. A. (2008) Predicting adult occupations from childhood personality traits. A 40-year longitudinal study.  Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology, 2008
  • Woods, S. A. (2007) The social desirability of 200 personality traits: Implications for organizational assessments of personality. Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference 2007 & Proceedings of the European Congress of Psychology 2007
  • Woods, S. A. (2006) Improving the predictive validity of personality assessments using metaperceptions. Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, 2006
  • Woods, S. A. (2006) Cognitive ability tests and adverse impact against minority ethnic groups: A proposal for standard evaluative procedures.  Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, 2006
  • Woods, S. A. (2006) Improving the prediction of job-performance from the Big Five using metaperceptions. Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Personality, Athens, Greece
  • Woods, S. A. & Hampson, S. E. (2004) Adding context to personality measurements at work. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Personality, Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Woods, S. A. & Hampson, S. E. (2004) Single-item measures for the Big Five personality factors: Validation data from an organisational sample. Proceedings of the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, 2004
  • Woods, S. A. & Hampson, S. E. (2002) The use of meta-perceptions in personality measurement.  Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Personality, July 2002, Jena, Germany

Research

Personality Assessment and Structure

This research programme is concerned with assessment methodology, personality structure, and the prediction of work outcomes from personality traits. Recent foci of this research have been the comparative validities of different commercially available personality measures, the social desirability of personality traits, and the prediction of adult occupations from childhood personality traits. Some of this research is carried out collaboratively with scientists at the Oregon Research Institute, Oregon, USA.

Adverse Impact in Cognitive Ability Testing

This research is examining the problem of adverse impact (i.e., indirect discrimination) in the use of cognitive ability testing for selection. The most recent aspect of this research is a funded meta-analysis examining group differences in cognitive ability test performance over time in the EU and US.

Grants

  • British Academy Small Research Grants 2007. Achronological meta-analysis of ethnic group differences in cognitive ability and aptitude test scores in the UK, EU and US.
  • University of Nottingham Research Committee 2005. The underlying structure of occupational assessments of personality.

Teaching

  • BHM306: Assessment, Development, and Reward
  • BHM310: Counselling and Personal Development
  • BH2239/3328: Psychology and Work
  • PY3342: Psychology at Work