Need advice on Master's Program in Psychology

[paruchan]

Hi, I'm currently deciding which MA of Psychology to take.

I'm interested in Psychology courses that specializes in human behavior in group settings (such as Organizations) and also take personalities into account (such as DISC and Myer-Briggs test type).

I have researched and found 3 psych courses that may be related to what I want.

1. I/O Psychology

2. Social Psychology

3. Personality Psychology

Which course should be best suited to the direction I want to go?

I found that:

option 1 - seems to be lacking human behavior and personality aspects,

option 2 & 3 - seems to be lacking the Organizational application aspect.

I guess I'm looking for a course that's I/O Psych with emphasis on personality psychology, but does that kind of course exist?

Is there a University that's recommended for this course?

I have a BS in Psych with a 3.3 GPA.

My future career goal is to work for a consulting firm that deals with organizations.

Please advise!

Thanks.

paruchan

[LaurenA]

Hi, I'm currently deciding which MA of Psychology to take.

I'm interested in Psychology courses that specializes in human behavior in group settings (such as Organizations) and also take personalities into account (such as DISC and Myer-Briggs test type).

I have researched and found 3 psych courses that may be related to what I want.

1. I/O Psychology

2. Social Psychology

3. Personality Psychology

Are you looking for MA programs or just a course to take?

[hellopsy]

If your end goal is to go into consulting rather than research, you might want to look at Organizational Behavior programs in Business Schools rather than go into social or personality psychology programs which have less of an applied focus.

Also think that one of the major theories in I/O is PE-fit (Person-Environment fit), which looks at how personality traits match with environmental demands like job scope and organizational culture to influence things like job performance and satisfaction. So I wouldn't really say that I/O lacks aspects in human behavior and personality --to me, it seems like a very large part of it. Do note that I'm recalling this off-hand and not very well versed in this area, so I/O folks -- feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

[peterrr]

i heard the teacher's college of columbia university has a social-organizational program with an applied focus, so you may want to check that out. and yes, if you plan on going to consulting rather than academia, you may want to check out MBA Programs (with a focus on OB), or a master's degree in I/O, Human Resources, Organizational Development, or Industrial Relations.

Edited February 1, 2010 by peterrr

[alexis]

I'm currently getting my master's in human resource development, and I would recommend this route as a possible option (if you can find one with a good organizational behavior focus)...I'm currently a lab supervisor in our OB lab, and I've found it to be fantastic prep to do a PhD in the area. Quite a few of our classes have a psychology focus (and are actually housed in the psych department), so you get both the organizational and psych aspect in our curriculum. Personality isn't a huge part of the courses, though we do cover that in our organizational psychology class. If students were interested in that kind of research though, we have faculty who would be happy to advise them; there are a lot of opportunities to do independent research, and one professor who has done work with personality tests used as a basis for selection in hiring. (Okay, now I'm sounding like an advertisement for my program, and I do highly recommend it if you're interested, they also offer funded positions, but I guess my point was that HR programs can offer more than you might expect. )

Edited February 1, 2010 by alexis

[paruchan]

Hi Lauren,

I'm looking for an MA course.

[paruchan]

Hi Peterrr,

Thank you for your input.

Although I think Columbia University could be way out of my league, I'll keep that in mind. By the way, what is 'OB'?

[alexis]

By the way, what is 'OB'?

OB is organizational behavior (or organizational psychology, they are basically the same thing).

[paruchan]

Hi yusername,

Thanks for your input!

You have a good point... I'll look into the Organizational Behavior Programs in Business Schools (I did not know about them!).

So do you mean MBA schools may have those courses that focuses in Organizational Behavior?

If you have any school you can recommend, please let me know.

Also, with your scope of I/O, I'll still consider going that route too.

Thanks!

[paruchan]

Oh, duhh!

I'm a bit slow with Acronyms...

[paruchan]

Hi Alexis,

Thank you for your input.

Interesting...! I never thought of going to the Human Resource route although that makes really good sense!

To be honest with you, I was a bit hesitant of going to HR route since I'm not a new graduate, and I've been working in a totally different field for the past 8 yrs. (doing coordinator, logistics, and sales)

Since I have no experience in HR, I didn't even think of that option...but let me re-think about it.

Funny huh? But after working for all these different fields, I finally realized I want to go back to where I started, and study more about the Psychology aspect of organizations. (back when I first graduated, I only knew the route of becoming a counselor with my degree)

Thanks for giving me a new light of direction.