This article argues for consideration of occupational socialization as a research focus in industrial psychology: the changes that come about in a person through his or her participation in work. Research on occupational socialization takes a developmental perspective, and is a part of life‐span developmental psychology. Specifically, the framework of occupational socialization calls attention to these research questions: The effects of work on a worker's actions outside of the workplace (e.g. the influence of the nature of work on the development of an active or passive approach to life generally); the effects of work on cognition; the effects on emotions; the effects of the work situation on the values of an employee who has just taken on a new role, etc. The perspective of occupational socialization is tied to the methodology of longitudinal research. 1982 The British Psychological Society