Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Organizational Behavior Management

Prerequisites Overview

Students without M.A. degrees are strongly encouraged to apply to the M.A. program before entering the Ph.D. program.

Preferred qualifications:

• Related graduate degrees in psychology
• A minimum GPA of 3.0

Other criteria taken into consideration include letters of reference, research activity, work experience, social and professional skills and the extent to which the applicant's interests match the program.

Program requirements

Competency I: Organizational Behavior Management core (30 credits)

• PSY 5400: Psychology of Safety. The purpose of this course is to teach students about current research and trends in the psychology of safety. Students review, critically analyze and discuss current trends in safety research, including behavior-based safety, injury/illness prevention and other relevant topics. Students receive training in the application of behavioral principles to solve specific safety problems in organizations through changing behavior and improving performance.
• PSY 5470: Practicum: Organizational Performance Improvement. Students work with an external client organization to apply their Organizational Behavior Management skills to a performance improvement opportunity chosen by the organization.
• PSY 6440: Personnel Training and Development. The course emphasizes the principles of learning as well as techniques and administrative procedures used in the development of human resources at all levels.
• PSY 6450: Psychology of Work. This course is an advanced course designed to examine human behavior in organizations from a behavioral psychology perspective. Topics covered include: the history of industrial organizational psychology, motivation, performance improvement techniques, compensation, quality, job satisfaction and its relation to productivity, and the ethics of personnel management. Students entering the course are expected to have an understanding of the basic principles of operant and respondent conditioning because these concepts are used to interpret and analyze worker behavior.
• PSY 6510: Behavioral Systems Analysis. The application of systems analysis concepts to the design of systems which yield behavioral measures of complex social situations.
• PSY 6525: Measurement and Assessment for Employees and Organizations. This course is designed to give students an introduction to measurement and assessment in organizations. Students will learn how to design and interpret resulting data from critical organizational and performer measures, metrics, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Students will also learn how to determine appropriate performance goals at different levels of the organization (organization, process, job/performer).
• PSY 6543: Organizational Sustainability. This graduate-level course provides an examination of organizational sustainability through the lens of behavior analysis. The course content will explore theoretical foundations, practical tools, and real-world applications of behavioral science in addressing sustainability challenges across various organizational contexts. Students will develop skills in designing, implementing, and evaluating data-driven sustainability initiatives. Major topics include resource use, corporate standards and certifications, industry-specific challenges, and strategies for creating impactful behavioral change within organizations.
• PSY 6547: Worker Health and Wellbeing. This course focuses on total worker wellbeing and the environmental variables responsible for healthy and unhealthy behavior. It will focus on individual and organizational level assessment and intervention to address health barriers and improve health behavior. Some of the specific topics covered in the course will include stress and burnout, work/life balance, job satisfaction (decreasing aversive work environments, values alignment, positive/negative reinforcers), safety, healthy eating/physical activity, sleep/breaks/work schedules, self-care, among others.
• PSY 6549: Behavior-Based Instructional Design. This course will cover the basic principles and techniques of effective instruction and training as applied to a wide variety of settings, including K-12 education, higher education and personnel training.

Competency II: Foundational Skills (18 credits)

• PSY 6050: Professional and Research Ethics. This course is designed to introduce advanced students of Psychology to many of the standards and contemporary issues affecting professional conduct. The topics to be covered revolve around ethical conduct in practice and research as well as the decision-making foundations for resolving ethical issues. Also addressed will be selected legal issues affecting professional practice.
• PSY 6080: Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis. This advanced course on research methods in behavior analysis addresses research with human and nonhuman subjects, placing an emphasis on applied, human research. Research issues and specific research methods are discussed at philosophical, strategic, and practical levels. Research decisions are placed within the context of the philosophy of science underlying all scientific research endeavors. Topics include: the mission of science; behavioral assessment and measurement; experimental design, with emphasis on single-subject designs; analysis and interpretation of data; dissemination of scientific research; and, ethical issues in research. Students demonstrate their mastery of research issues through the proposal of a research project.
• PSY 6090: Advanced Seminar in Applied Behavior Analysis Research. An advanced course emphasizing: a) research, conceptual and professional issues in applied behavior analysis; b) review, integration and critical analysis or research topics in psychology.
• PSY 6100: Conditioning and Learning. This course examines conditioning and learning from the perspective of the experimental analysis of behavior. Emphasis is placed on basic laboratory research procedures and findings.
• PSY 6110: Current Research in Experimental Analysis. This course examines basic research areas of current interest to behavior analysts. A central component of the course is detailed consideration of articles published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
• PSY 6760: Skinner's Behaviorism. A consideration of About Behaviorism, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and Contingencies of Reinforcement, especially as they consider issues of broad scientific, philosophic, and social significance.

Competency III: Research (18 credits)

• PSY 7000: Master’s Thesis. The student completes a research thesis of publishable quality.  A written proposal must be approved in advance by the student's three-person committee and an oral defense of the final written thesis is required. (Use only if M.A. was completed at WMU.) (6 credits)
• PSY 7350: Graduate Research. The student completes a research thesis of publishable quality.  A written proposal must be approved in advance by the student's three-person committee and an oral defense of the final written thesis is required. (Use only if M.A. was completed at another institution.) (6 credits)
• PSY 7300: Doctoral Dissertation. The student completes a research dissertation of publishable quality. A written proposal must be approved in advance by the student's four-person committee (including an external committee member) and an oral defense of the final written dissertation is required. The student must also successfully pass a research-based competency examination prior to the oral defense of the dissertation. (12 credits)

Competency IV: Electives (12 credits)

Electives should be approved in advance by the student's advisor. Students may take courses in the Department of Psychology or in other departments.

Competency V: Research tools

• Research Methods: PSY 6080 and PSY 6110
• Measures and Evaluation: PSY 6510 and PSY 6525

Competency VI: Professional and scholarly activity

• Completion of a comprehensive examination or alternative scholarly achievement approved by the dissertation committee. Consult the IOBM handbook and your graduate advisor for details.