Courses

Below are the program requirements for the Industrial Organizational Psychology program. You can also view recommended course sequences:

• Recommended Course Sequence for Thesis Students
• Recommended Course Sequence for Practicum Students

Program Requirements

Competency I: Industrial/Organizational
(9 credit hours)

PSY 6430 – Personnel Selection and Placement: This course teaches students the legal requirements for personnel selection systems, and how to design and evaluate the adequacy (reliability and validity) of personnel selection and placement instruments.

PSY 6440 – Personnel Training & 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 examines human behavior in organizations from a behavioral psychology perspective. Topics include: the history of industrial/organizational psychology, work motivation, performance analysis, work measurement systems, goal setting, feedback, and management reward systems.

Competency II: Behavior Analysis
(6 credit hours)

PSY 6100 – Experimental Analysis of Behavior: This course surveys the concepts and principles of behavior analysis and respondent conditioning, and behavioral applications and research.

PSY 6510 – Behavioral Systems Analysis: This course trains students to apply behavioral systems analysis concepts to the design of systems which yield objective measures of critical organizational business indices.

Competency III: Research Methods
(6 credit hours)

PSY 6080 – Research Methods in ABA: This course examines research methodology and strategies, emphasizing the areas of measurement, reliability, and single subject research. Students are required to write a research proposal that conforms to the American Psychological Association style.  In addition, several areas of current research in behavior analysis will be studied.

PSY 6340 – Experimental Design & Analysis I: Topics in this course include statistical decision theory, one factor analysis of variance, multiple comparison procedures, factorial designs, randomized block designs, and basic issues in experimental design.

Competency IV: Professional Ethics
(3 credit hours)

PSY 6050 – Prof. & 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.

Competency V: Research and Practice
(6 credit hours)

Thesis option:
PSY 7000 – Master’s Thesis (6 credits): 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.

Practicum option:
PSY 5470 – OBM Practicum: This course trains students to apply the principles of behavior analysis to solve specific organizational problems. Students conduct a performance improvement project in a local organization and empirically evaluate the results.

One of the following:
    PSY 5480 – E-learning Practicum:This course trains students to apply behavioral and learning principles to the design and evaluation of education and training programs delivered via computer or over the web. Students develop and evaluate a training program.

    PSY 6520 – Systems Analysis Practicum: This course trains students to integrate behavior analysis and systems analysis to design, create, and manage human performance systems. Students complete a systems analysis project in a local organization.

Competency VI: Electives
(6 credit hours)

Electives may be taken within the Psychology Department or in other departments. All electives must be approved in advance by the student’s major advisor.