Research Interests

Rick Jacobs studies several topics in industrial psychology. In work in performance analysis, Dr. Jacobs studies individuals longitudinally to understand why, with seniority, some people improve while others remain relatively stable or deteriorate. He also studies the conceptual and practical distinctions between seniority and experience. In work on personnel decision making and applied information processing, Dr. Jacobs studies individuals' use of multiple cues in forming composite judgements (e.g., for decisions on managerial promotions, risk analysis in nuclear power plants, union participation). In work with teachers, Dr. Jacobs uses results from surveys of more than 47,000 teachers to test hypotheses concerning gender differences, the impact of seniority on various job attitudes, and the link between job attitudes and the intention to leave the profession of teaching.