MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
The world of industrial and organizational psychology—the study of behavior in work settings—is a newly developing subfield of psychology that offers a variety of exciting career opportunities. Changing conditions in the workplace, including continuing introduction of new technologies, and increasing demands for an equitable, productive, and comfortable work environment, provide opportunities for industrial-organizational psychologists as human resource specialists, even at the level of small businesses.
Brooklyn College’s Psychology Department offers a Master of Arts degree with two distinct concentrations in the subfield:
- Human relations
- Organizational psychology and behavior
Both concentrations share a common core of five courses in industrial and organizational psychology, but the former places additional emphasis on theory and practice at the level of the work group, and the latter at the organizational level—that is, it addresses changes in the workplace and transitions to new and improved management techniques.
Career Options
With an MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, graduates can look forward to careers as management generalists and as human resources specialists, with expertise in such specific areas as job-application evaluation, performance-appraisal techniques, management and leadership training, and training for organizational transition and development teams. Employment opportunities exist in corporate management and in positions staffed out to smaller companies, as well as in consultancy groups and private consulting. The program prepares the student for entry-level executive positions as generalists in the areas of personnel and human resources or for comparable positions in consulting firms that offer their services in these areas.
Program Requirements
The MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology curriculum consists of from 30 to 36 credits, 24 of which must be higher-level courses taken in the Psychology Department. Required courses include Human Relations Training Seminar, Theories of Group Process, and Social Systems Sciences Theory. Students must pass a comprehensive examination after completing 24 credits, and must either submit a thesis or complete an additional six credits of higher-level courses in order to earn their degree.
- For the human relations concentration, the focus is on knowledge of group processes and evaluation techniques. Courses aim to develop human-relations facilitators who can promote behavioral changes and skills acquisition in both public- and private-sector settings.
- For the organizational psychology and behavior concentration, the focus is on organizational processes, and courses aim at training management generalists as well as human-resources specialists, including both career-entry and mid-career professionals.
Public
Located within a major urban area
None
Undergraduate: 13,011
Graduate: 3,592
International: 974
