Mission
The Master of Arts in Industrial Organizational Behavior Management in the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University prepares students for doctoral study work or employment at the M.A. level in personnel training and development, instructional design, productivity and safety improvement, quality enhancement, work process improvement, and organizational systems analysis.
Program details
Credit requirements to degree:
- A minimum of 36 credit hours
- A minimum grade of B is required for all coursework in the program
Undergraduate prerequisites overview
Preferred qualifications:
- An undergraduate major 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: Industrial Organizational Behavior Management Core (15 credit hours)
- 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 6440: Personnel Training and Development. This course emphasizes the principles of behavior analysis as they apply to 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).
Competency II: Foundational Skills (9 credit hours)
- PSY 6050: Professional and Ethical Issues in Psychology. This course addresses 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. Selected legal issues affecting professional practice are also addressed.
- PSY 6080: Research Methods in 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 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.
Competency III: Research and Practice (6 credit hours)
Thesis option:
- PSY 7000: Master’s Thesis (6 credits). Requires the completion of a research thesis of publishable quality. A written proposal must be approved in advance by your three-person committee and an oral defense of the final written thesis is required.
Practicum option:
- PSY 5990: Individualized Practicum. Students complete an individually designed practicum, which must be approved by their advisor in advance.
- 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.
Competency IV: Electives (6 credit hours)
Electives should be approved in advance by a faculty advisor. You may take courses in the Department of Psychology or in other departments.