Faculty and Staff Profile

Fred Switzer III

Educational Background

Ph.D. Industrial-Organizational Psychology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1988

M.S. Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Lamar University 1982

B.A. Psychology
University of Texas at Austin 1975

Courses Taught

Undergraduate
Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Statistics
Business Use of Computers
Research Methods
Industrial Psychology
Organizational Psychology
Leadership
Teams & Teamwork
Directed Studies in Psychology

Graduate
Work Motivation
Personnel Psychology
Organizational Psychology
Job Analysis
Selected Topics in Psychology - Readings in I/O Psychology
Selected Topics in Psychology - Multivariate Data Analysis
Selected Topics in Psychology – Meta-analysis
Selected Topics in Psychology – Teams & Teamwork
Selected Topics in Psychology – Judgment and Decision-Making
Organizational Behavior
Psychometrics (Tests & Measurements)

Profile

Dr. Switzer is currently continuing his work with colleagues in the College of Engineering and Sciences on issues in infrastructure resilience and automotive safety. Dr. Switzer and his colleagues in the Department of Psychology established the Clemson University Driving Simulator Laboratory to provide a tool for examining issues of human judgment and decision-making and risk perception. He also established the Clemson Process Control Simulator laboratory to facilitate studies in the training of industrial operator teams and the interactions of training and supervision (industrial psychology) with interface design and plant operation (computer science and engineering) and with operator judgment and control (human factors psychology). In addition to this area of research, Dr. Switzer is currently conducting studies on cognitive and physiological indicators of team performance in industrial and military teams. Dr. Switzer has been a co-investigator on grants from Honda Research and Development Americas, the Office of Naval Research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Fred has published in journals ranging from Accident Analysis and Prevention to the Journal of Applied Psychology as well as coauthoring multiple chapters in the Handbook of Industrial-Organizational Psychology Research Methods.

Research Interests

Statistical indices of adverse impact in employment actions.
Computation modeling of human behavior and cognition.
Effects of subtle, diffuse, but frequent events on organizational outcomes.
Measurement of team processes, especially back-up behavior and distributed situation awareness.

Research Publications

Switzer III, Fred S., Joseph Ligato, and Kalyan Piratla. "Interdependent Infrastructures as a Multiteam System: Enhancing Resilience." Journal of Infrastructure Systems 28.4 (2022): 04022026.

McCubbin, J.A.Switzer, F.S. LaDue, M.,Ogle, J.H.and Bendigeri, V. (2020) Cardiovascular emotional dampening, threat appraisal and risk behavior: Resting blood pressure predicts risky driving in women. In press, International Journal of Physiology.

McCubbin, J. A., Nathan, A., Hibdon, M. A., Castillo, A. V., Graham, J. G., & Switzer III, F. S. (2018). Blood pressure, emotional dampening, and risk behavior: implications for hypertension development. Psychosomatic medicine, 80(6), 544-550.

Pilcher, J. J., Switzer III, F. S., Munc, A., Donnelly, J., Jellen, J. C., & Lamm, C. (2018). Psychometric properties of the Epworth sleepiness scale: a factor analysis and item-response theory approach. Chronobiology international, 35(4), 533-545.

Switzer III, F. S., Cheung, J. H., Burns, D. K., Sinclair, R. R., Roth, P. L., Tyler, P., & McCubbin, J. (2017). Carrots, Not Sticks: Adverse Impact and Wellness Programs. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 59(3), 250-255.

Subclinical post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms: Relationships with blood pressure, hostility and sleep. (2016) James McCubbin, Heidi Zinzow, Melissa Hibdon, Aaron Nathan, Anastasia Morrison, Gregg Hayden, Caitlyn Lindberg and Fred S. Switzer. Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology, vol. 2016, Article ID 4720941, 9 pages, 2016. doi:10.1155/2016/4720941.

Freeman,P., Neyens, D., Wagner, J., Switzer, F., Alexander, K., & Pidgeon, P. (2015) A Video Based Run-Off-Road Training Program with Practice and Evaluation in a Simulator. Accident Analysis & Prevention. In press.

Switzer. F.S., Roth, P.L., & Rosopa, P.J. (2015) Power and Errors in Adverse Impact Indices. Human Performance.(HHUP-2014-0095.R1) In press.

Morris, D. M., Pilcher, J. J., & Switzer III, F. S. (2015). Lane heading difference: An innovative model for drowsy driving detection using retrospective analysis around curves. Accident Analysis & Prevention. In press.

Freeman, P., Rodriguez, J., Wagner, J., Switzer, F., Alexander, K. & Pidgeon, P. (2014) Validation of a fixed-base automotive simulator for run-off-road safety and recovery training. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering published online September 30, 2014; DOI: 10.1177/0954407014547747; 229(5), 574-589.

Giumetti, G. W., Schroeder, A. N., & Switzer, F. S. III. (2014). Forced distribution rating systems: When does “rank and yank” lead to adverse impact? Journal of Applied Psychology. 100(1), 180-193.
McClelland, L.E., Switzer, F.S., & Pilcher, J.J. (2013) Changes in nurses’ decision making during a 12-hour day shift. Occupational Medicine, 63, 60–65.
Walker, A., Muth, E., Switzer, F., & Rosopa, P.J. (2013) Predicting team performance in a dynamic environment: A team psychophysiological approach to measuring cognitive readiness. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making. 7(1): 69-82.
U. Mandhata, M. Jensen, J. Wagner, F. Switzer, D. Dawson, and J. Summers, (2012) “Evaluation of a Customizable Haptic Feedback System for Ground Vehicle Steer-by-Wire Interfaces”, Proceedings of the 2012 American Controls Conference, Montreal, Canada, (June 2012).
Roth, P., Switzer, F., Van Iddekinge, C., Oh, I. (2011) Toward Better Meta-Analytic Matrices: How Input Values Can Affect Research Conclusions in Human Resource Management Simulations. Personnel Psychology, 64(4), 899-935.
M. Jensen, M. Tolbert, J. Wagner, and F. Switzer,(2011) “A Customizable Automotive Steering System Haptic Feedback Control Strategy for Obstacle Avoidance Notification”, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 60, no. 9, pp. 4208-4216.

Honors and Awards

2016 Dean's Award for Collaborative Research, College of Business and Behavioral Sciences.

Outstanding Contribution to the Literature, Department of Psychology, Clemson University
5-time recipient, 2014-2016

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