Requirements Specific to Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Master of Art Program

University at Albany

The curriculum for the M.A. program in Industrial & Organizational Psychology follows the SIOP guidelines for master's level education. It is a competency-based program, designed to provide students with the knowledge, skills, behavior, and capabilities necessary to function as a master’s level I-O practitioner or to continue with graduate studies at the doctoral level. These competency areas will be covered through a combination of formal course work, supervised research, student-initiated research (optional Master's thesis), and supervised experience (e.g., field research, internships, practica).

Application Requirements for the Industrial and Organizational Psychology M.A. Program

All applicants must submit the following:

Graduate Application
Official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate coursework
General GRE
GRE Psychology Subject Test (not required, but strongly recommended)
Three Letters of Recommendation
Personal Statement

Although an undergraduate degree in psychology is not required, applicants will be required to demonstrate satisfactory completion of 15 credit hours of psychology courses including a statistics and methodology course.

The deadline for the application to the M.A. program is MARCH 1.

Please see our listing on the SIOP webpage ( choose “for students”, and then use search engine to find our program) for information regarding average size of incoming class, GPA, GREs, etc.

Philosophy of the I/O Psychology MA Program. We are committed to providing a personal, high quality, master’s education. We keep class size small to ensure personal attention – on average, we admit only five MA students per year. Furthermore, all graduate students, both in the Ph.D. and M.A. program take the same classes, resulting in a high quality classes with multiple perspectives.

Practicum: Starting in the fall of the second year all I/O psychology graduate students are encouraged to take a practicum with chequed.com, a local consulting company ( The University at Albany has provided scientific services to chequed.com since the beginning of the company. Students gain experience with a wide variety of I/O psychology techniques and practices.

Careers: Our program is relatively new, with the first graduates in 2009. Despite our small size, our alumni currently hold a wide range of position. Some example positions include:

Consultant – AMG Consulting

Client Results Manager – Chequed.com

Personnel Research Psychologist – US Office of Personnel Management

Personnel Psychologist – Department of Veterans’ Affairs

Associate Assessment Specialist – Port Authority of NY & NJ

Class Requirements

36 hours of graduate credit are required, including the following:

6 hours of statistical methods and research methodology:

Psy 510 Statistics and Experimental Methods I or equivalent

Psy 511 Statistics and Experimental Methods II or equivalent

18 hours of specialized content:

Psy 641 Survey of Organizational Psychology

Psy 751 Work Motivation or Psy 668 Group Dynamics

Psy 752 Survey of Personnel Psychology

Psy 753 Psychometric Theory and Research

Psy 754 Training, Evaluation, and Development or Psy 757 Performance Appraisal

Psy 781Ethics, current topics and professional issues in I & O Psychology

6 hours of out of area electives (e.g., Psy 603 Survey of Cognitive Psychology, Psy 605 Social Psychology, Psy 620 Theory of Personality, Psy 644 Human Factors, or other approved course. At least one of the electives must be a psychology class.

6 hours of thesis credits, supervised field research, or advanced coursework

The program is designed to allow students to finish the requirements for the Master’s degree in two years. A typical academic plan for a full-time student might be as follows:

Fall First YearSpring First Year

Statistics Course, part 1Statistics Course, part 2

Psy 752 Survey of Personnel PsychologyPsy 641 Organizational Psychology

Elective or Psy 781 Ethics IssuesPsy 754 Training & Development or Psy 757 Performance Appraisal

Summer

Field research or internship

Fall Second YearSpring Second Year

Elective/thesis/advanced courseThesis/field research/advanced course

Practicum: chequed.comElective/advanced course

Psy 751 Work Motivation or

Psy 668 Group DynamicsPsy 753 Psychometric theory

COURSES IN INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Psy 613 Multivariate Analysis (3)An overview of multivariate statistical methods as they pertain to psychological research. Techniques discussed include: multiple regression; MANOVA/MANCOVA, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, discriminant analysis; logistic regression, survival analysis, and multidimensional scaling

Psy 614 Meta-Analysis (3) Covers such substantive issuesas: rationale for meta-analysis; estimation of study effect size; combining results of experimental studies; combining results of correlational studies; moderator variable analysis.

Psy 641 Survey of Organizational Psychology (3) Advanced survey of theory and research on the behavior of individuals and groups in organizations. Topics include organizational design, group processes and decision-making, organizational theory, and employee attitudes.

Psy 668 Group Dynamics (3) Analysis and evaluation of concepts, hypotheses, techniques, and results of research in group dynamics. The study of the following group processes: communication, decision making, cooperation and competition, cohesion, social facilitation and inhibition, leadership and group roles.

Psy 736 Research Methods in Psychology (3) Introductory, graduate-level treatment of a variety of research-related issues germane to psychology and closely related disciplines. The topics considered include the scientific method, elements of the research process, alternative strategies for operationalizing variables, sampling, psychometrics, experimental research, non-experimental research, research artifacts and non-traditional research.

Psy 751 Work Motivation (3) Provides a knowledge of human motivation ass it affects organizational processes. Emphasis on major theories of human motivation and the relation between motivational process and organizational variables. Other issues include job design, reward systems, and social influences on motivation.

Psy 752 Personnel Psychology (3) Advanced survey of theory, research, and applications in major topical areas of personnel psychology. Topics covered should include: performance appraisal, personnel selection, training and development, uses and development of psychological tests, and human engineering.

Psy 753 Psychometric Theory and Research (3) Major emphasis on classical and modern measurement theories and their applications. Includes psychological construct measurement, scale construction, and recent developments such as Item Response Theory.

Psy 754 Training, Evaluation, and Development in Organizations (3) Psychological principles and methods for planning and analysis of training performance in an organizational development framework. Needs assessment; computer assisted simulation, and behavior modification approaches to training; training and transfer effects; design and experimental evaluation of training techniques.

Psy 756 Practicum in Organizational Research (3-4) Supervised field project in which students work as members of a team on an organizational problem requiring research and/or practical skills.

Psy 757Performance Appraisal (3) This seminar covers traditional areas of performance appraisal andmanagement, such as psychometric issues associated with ratings, ratertraining, and rater cognitive processes, along with some recent advances,such as the importance of rater attitudes and the rating context.

Psy 765 Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes (3) Selected topics involving interpersonal interactions. Topics include group structure, helping, attraction, aggression, social influence, group decision making, and cooperation and competition.

Psy 780 Selected Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (3)

Psy 781/781Q Current Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (1)

INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY

Kevin J. Williams, Ph.D.,

Professor, Dean of Graduate Education, and Vice Provost

University of South Carolina

Work motivation; Self-regulation models of human motivation and task performance; Performance evaluation; worker satisfaction and job attitudes; work and family issues; occupational stress

Sylvia Roch, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Education for Psychology, and Area Head of the Organizational and Industrial Psychology Program

TexasA & MUniversity

Performance appraisal; organizational justice; group decision making

Michael T. Ford, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

George Mason University

Occupational health and stress; Attitudes toward organizations

Jason Randall, Ph.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor

Rice University

Self-regulation of attention; Training and learning; Personnel selection and testing.

Selected Recent Publications of Industrial/Organizational Faculty and Graduate Students

Cho, E., Tay, L., Allen, T. D., & Stark, S. (2013). Identification of a

dispositional tendency to experience work-family spillover. Journal

of Vocational Behavior, 82, 188-198.

Cho, E., & Allen, T. D. (2013). Work-to-family conflict and the family dinner:

What makes a difference? Community, Work and Family, 16, 88-99.

Cho, E., & Allen, T. D. (2012). Relationship between work-to-family conflict

and parent-child activities: Can guilt help? Journal of Vocational

Behavior, 80, 276–287.

Ford, M. T., Heinen, B. A., & Langkamer, K. L. (2007). Work and family

satisfaction and conflict: A meta-analysis of cross-domain relations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 57-80.

Ford, M. T., & Tetrick, L. E. (2008). Safety motivation and human resource

management in North America. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, 1472-1485.

Han, T. Y., & Williams, K. J. (2008). Multilevel investigation of adaptive

performance: Individual and team-level relationships. Group and

Organizational Management, 33, 657-687.

Harms, P. D., & Credé, M. (2010). Emotional intelligence and

transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analysis. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 17, 5-17.

Harms, P. D., & Credé, M. (2010). Remaining issues in emotional

intelligence research: construct overlap, method artifacts, and lack of incremental validity. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 3, 154-158.

Hurtz, G. M., & Williams, K. J. (2009). Attitudinal and motivational

antecedents of participation in voluntary employee development activities. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 94, 635-653.

Lourel, M., Ford, M. T., Gamassou, C. E., Gueguen, N., & Hartmann, A.

(2009). Negative and positive spillover between work and family: Relationship with perceived stress and job satisfaction. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24, 438-449.

McNall, L. A., & Roch, S. G. (2009).A social exchange model of employee

reactions to electronic performance monitoring. Human Performance, 22, 204-224.

Mearns, K., Hope, L., Ford, M. T., & Tetrick, L. E. (2010). Investment in

workforce health: Exploring the implications for workforce safety climate and commitment. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42, 1445-1454.

Nicklin, J. M., & Roch, S. G. (2009). Letters of recommendation:

Controversy and consensus from expert perspectives. International Journal of Selection and Assessment. 17, 76-91.

Nicklin, J. M., & Roch, S. G. (2008). Biases influencing recommendation

letter contents: Physical attractiveness and gender. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 3053-3074.

Nicklin, J. M., &Williams, K. J. (2009). Reactions to others' mistakes: An

empirical test of fairness theory. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 143, 533-558.

Paquin, A. R., Roch, S. G., & Sanchez-Ku, M.L. (2007). An investigation of

cross-cultural differences in the impact of productivity Interventions: The example of ProMES. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43, 427-448.

Randall, J. G., Oswald, F. L., & Beier, M. E. (2014). Mind-wandering, cognition, and performance: A theory-driven meta-analysis of attention regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1411-1431.

Randall, J. G., Villado, A. J., & Zimmer, C. U. (In Press). Is retest bias biased? Examining race and sex differences in retest performance. Journal of Personnel Psychology.

Roch, S. G., & Paquin, A. R. (2009). Do raters agree more on observable

items. Human Performance, 22, 391-409.

Roch, S. G. (2007). Why convene rater teams: Investigation of the benefits of anticipated discussion, consensus, and rater motivation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 104, 14-29.

Tetrick, L. E., & Ford, M. T. (2008). Health protection and promotion in the

workplace: A review and application of value and regulatory focus perspectives. In G. P. Hodkinson & J. K. Ford (Eds.), International Review of Industrial-Organizational Psychology (pp. 239-260). Wiley: Hoboken, NJ.

Tetrick, L. E., & Ford, M. T. (2007). Health, safety, and human resource

management. In S. Werner (Ed.), Managing Human Resources in North America: Current Issues and Perspectives (pp. 85-100). Oxford: Routledge.

Wulfert, E., Franco, C., Williams, K. J., Roland, B., & Hartley, J. H. (2008). The

role of money in the excitement of gambling. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22, 380-390.

Villado, A. J., Randall, J. G., & Zimmer, C. U. (In Press). Examining the effect of predictor method characteristics on GMA retest score gains. Journal of Business and Psychology.