Department of Psychology

 

 

 

 

I/O Program Graduate Program Requirements

Core I/O Psychology courses

All graduate students will be required to take four of the five courses listed below. However, all five courses are recommended as foundational preparation for the comprehensive exam.

PSY 522A: Personnel Testing and Selection
PSY 522B: Performance Evaluation and Appraisal
PSY 523A: Micro Organizational Behavior
PSY 523B: Macro Organizational Behavior
PSY 538: Training and Development in Organizations

Special Topics Seminars

All graduate students will be required to take at least two special-topics seminars offered by members of the I/O area faculty. These courses are often numbered PSY597, but other course numbers are also used. Some such courses that have been offered in the past include: Emotions, Customer Service, Teams, Diversity, International I/O, Decision-making, Creativity, Leadership, Counterproductive behaviors, Individual Differences.

Quantitative Methods

All graduate students will be required to take the following courses, usually in their first year in the program. Additional methodological and statistical courses are optional but encouraged; see the HDFS program.

PSY 507: Data Analysis I
PSY 508: Data Analysis II

I/O Practicum

All graduate students are required to be enrolled in the I/O Practicum course (PSY 534) for six consecutive semesters beginning with the first year in the program. First-year students attend practicum, but have a substantially reduced involvement in and responsibility for practicum projects.

Additional Psychology Courses

All graduate students will be required to take at least two 500-level courses in Psychology that are outside of the area of I/O psychology. Occasionally, there may be courses that are offered by I/O faculty but that are not necessarily parts of I/O per se. You should check with your academic advisor to determine what courses might count as a special topics seminar versus courses outside of I/O. Note that I/O graduate students must also meet the Department of Psychology's breadth requirement. There are 3 options that satisfy the Department's breadth requirement; see the Department's Guidelines for Graduate Students for details. Note that the I-O program strongly encourages you to take 500-level courses to satisfy any of the Department's breadth requirement options, but some 400-level courses may be used if approved by your advisor. Note that courses taken to satisfy the I-O Additional Psychology Courses requirement often can also be used to satisfy the Department breadth requirement, depending on the option you choose and the specific courses you take. See your advisor about this.

Graduate Coursework at Other Institutions

Many students come to Penn State with a Master’s degree or with some graduate course work at other institutions. Others might have an occasion to take graduate courses at other institutions while enrolled at PSU. Courses taken elsewhere can satisfy many of the requirements laid out above. Requests to use courses taken elsewhere to satisfy particular requirements are evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the I/O area faculty.