This concentration trains students in the theories and research methods of industrial/organizational psychology and their applications in work settings, such as industry or government. Particular expertise can be developed in a variety of areas, including personnel selection, training, team performance, performance appraisal, motivation, and leadership. Practicum placements use the extensive resources of the local Washington, D.C., area. All hours earned in the master's program may be applied to the industrial/organizational track in the doctoral program for students who apply for and are admitted to that program upon completion of the M.A.
32 hours of graduate credit including the following:
3 hours of core (PSYC 667, 701 or 703)M.A. ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
8 hours of quantitative and research methods: PSYC 611 and 612
12 hours of specialized content: PSYC 636 and 639; select 3 hours from PSYC
557, 592, 631, 638, 733, 736, and 640; and select 3 hours from PSYC 592,
635, 667, 735, 739, and 741
Six hours practicum or thesis, optional (thesis requires permission of chair)
Electives: No more than 6 hours of advisor approved electives from outside the
department.
Admission is competitive. Applicants are expected to have 15 hours of course work in psychology, including a statistics course and an experimental laboratory course in psychology (PSYC 304, 305, or 309). A course in tests and measurements is recommended. The following are also required:
Applications may be obtained from the Admissions Office and should be completed and returned with fee to:
Graduate Admissions OfficeApplicants may also apply online from the Office of Admissions webpage at http://admissions.gmu.edu/grad/.
College of Arts and Sciences (MS 2D2)
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia 22030-4444
(703) 993-2400
The deadline for fall semester is February 1. Late applications will be considered on a space available basis. Applications for the spring term are not accepted. Applicants should plan to take the GRE at least two months prior to this deadline to allow for processing.
Financial assistance is available through various forms of grants, loans, or employment. One fellowship is awarded to a master's student per year. For more information financial aid click here. MA students are also welcome to apply for teaching and research assistantships. Each year, several MA students receive such support. However, PhD students receive priority, and the stipends for MA students are lower than for PhD students. MA students usually do not receive tuition remission for assistantships other than grant-paid GRAs.
The Ph.D. program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at George Mason University is built upon a strong faculty and coupled with the resources of the Washington metropolitan area. The program seeks to develop mature psychologists capable of working in either applied or academic settings. Students participate in research groups with outstanding faculty throughout the program. The faculty have particular expertise in team functioning, leadership, selection and training, and performance appraisal; several other areas of interest also are represented. Paid practica, regional and national networking support, and training in teaching skills are all encouraged within the program. Although most graduate courses are taught by full-time faculty, some courses take advantage of the expertise available in the region by employing part-time faculty.
Features of the program include the following:
74 hours of graduate credit hours are taken from the following:
9 hours of core
Cognitive Core (PSYC 701, 766, or 768)
Social Core, (PSYC 703 or 667)
Historical and Philosophical Issues in Psychology (PSYC 705)8 hours of quantitative and research methods
PSYC 611 Advanced Statistical and Research Methods for Psychology I
PSYC 612 Advanced Statistical and Research Methods for Psychology II9 hours of advanced quantitative and specialized methods:
PSYC 754 Quantitative Methods III: Regression
PSYC 557 Psychometrics
PSYC 756 Quantitative Methods IVSelect 3 additional hours from:
PSYC 541 Survey Research
PSYC 633 Evaluative Research
PSYC 652 Quantitative Methods II: Analysis of Variance
PSYC 654 Naturalistic Methods in Psychology
PSYC 755 Statistical Packages18 hours of specialized content:
PSYC 636 Survey of Industrial Psychology
PSYC 639 Survey of Organizational PsychologySelect 6 additional hours from:
PSYC 631 Industrial and Personnel Testing and Evaluation
PSYC 638 Training
PSYC 640 Techniques in I/0 Psychology
PSYC 733 Issues in Personnel Psychology
PSYC 736 Research in Human Pert, Assessment
PSYC 592/892 Special Topics in PsychologyAnd select 6 additional hours from:
PSYC 667 Experimental Study of Small Group Behavior
PSYC 735 psychological perspectives on Organizational Development
PSYC 592/892 Special Topics in Psychology
PSYC 739 Leadership
PSYC 741 Work Motivation3 hours of special topics in professional issues:
PSYC 89212 hours of dissertation proposal and dissertation:
PSYC 998 and 999, minimum of 3 hours of 998, and 3 hours of 999
Applicants are expected to have 15 hours of course work in psychology, including statistics and a laboratory course in psychology. A course in tests and measurement is recommended.
The following are required:
Applications may be obtained from the Office of Admissions and should be completed and returned along with the application fee to:
Graduate Admissions OfficeApplicants may also apply online from the Office of Admissions webpage at http://admissions.gmu.edu/grad/.
College of Humanities and Social Sciences (MS 2D2)
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia 22030-4444
(703) 993-2400
The application deadline for fall admission is December 15. All materials should be received by December 15 to allow for review of your application, with late applications considered on a space available basis. Applications for the spring term are not accepted. Applicants should plan to take the GRE at least two months prior to this deadline to allow for processing.
We generally offer guaranteed assistantships for three years that include pay of $11,000 to $15,000 annually plus tuition (out-of-state tuition the first year and in-state tuition in the second and third years). The assistantships are described below and students may receive a combination of these awards.
(1) Research Assistantships (RA positions). RA positions are awarded to individual faculty by the university on a competitive basis. The job requirements include helping faculty members with the various tasks associated with the research enterprise including data collection, data coding, and statistical analysis. They are also acquired through the initiative of faculty in finding external research grants. The positions pay approximately $11,000 to $15,000 yearly for a 20 hour position and usually include a full tuition waiver.
(2) Teaching Assistantships (TA positions). The job requirements involve assisting faculty who are teaching large undergraduate courses, statistics courses, or lab courses, by grading exams, teaching statistics, or carrying out laboratory experiments. The positions pay approximately $11,000 per year for a 20 hour position and half that figure for a 10 hour position. Some teaching assistantships are available in the summer for additional pay.
(3) Fellowship Awards. Fellowship awards of $1,000 to $5,000 are available to a limited number of incoming students. These awards have no work requirement.
(4) Presidential Scholar Research Assistantships. These positions are available to some students with exceptionally high grades and GRE scores. These awards come with a stipend of $18,000 and tuition remission for 18 credit hours for the academic year. They require a 20 hour work commitment by the student. Historically, the Psychology Department has received one or more per year. They are renewable for up to two additional years.
(5) Psychology Department Staff Support Positions. These positions involve advising undergraduate students and engaging in other work related to the functions of the Psychology Department. The positions pay approximately $9.00 per hour.
OPEN TO APPLIED
EXPERIMENTAL GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY
(1) Consortium Research
Fellowships Positions. Students in some programs are eligible for an appointment
as an intern at the Army Research Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, the
U.S. Office of Personnel Managment (OPM), or the Defense Manpower Agency.
The compensation level is affected by the amount of training and experience
of the student, but typically ranges from $10-16 an hour (for 20 hours
of work/week). Some level of tuition remission by the department may be
made available to those on this appointment.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
Throughout the year, we receive information on various other external sources
of financial support for doctoral students, such as the American Psychological
Association and private foundations. This information is distributed to
graduate students as we receive it via e-mail. The
University also maintains an emergency tuition assistance fund for graduate students
who
are unable to pay
their tuition due to unforseen
financial problems. For
more information about financial aid click
here.
INDUSTRIAL/ ORGANIZATIONAL AND COGNITIVE FACULTY
Louis Buffardi, Ph.D. (Kansas State University), Associate Professor. Work and family issues, human error, individual differences. After working as a human factors scientist in private industry, Dr. Buffardi began teaching at George Mason University in 1971. He teaches a variety of courses in industrial/ organizational psychology at both the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as the undergraduate course in tests and measurements. His research interests include individual differences in applied settings, work and family issues, and human error in complex tasks. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychologists. Some of his works have appeared in Science, American Psychologist, Human Factors, Professional Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, and the Industrial-Organizational Psychologist.
Jose M. Cortina, Ph.D. (Michigan State University), Associate Professor. Statistical interaction, philosophy of statistics, personality-based predictors of job performance. Prior to his arrival at Mason, he served on the faculty at Tulane University. Dr. Cortina's current research interests include testing, interpretation, and alternative uses of interaction effects, the identification of criteria necessary to draw conclusions based on statistical analysis, and the use of personality measures to predict job performance. His research has appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Psychological Methods, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Applied Psychological Measurement and Personnel Psychology. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Management. Dr. Cortina has served as a human resources consultant for a variety of companies from manufacturing, telecommunications, and real estate sectors.
Reeshad Dalal, Ph.D. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Assistant Professor. Dr. Dalal’s research has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His major programs of research are: (1) employee performance, and its links with mood/emotions, job attitudes and individual differences, and (2) advice-giving and advice-taking from a decision-making perspective.
Seth Kaplan, Ph.D. (Tulane University), Assistant Professor. Dr. Kaplan’s research examines how personality characteristics influence individuals’ appraisals and performance in the workplace. Particular areas of interest include affect and emotion, job attitudes, occupational stress and coping, sexism in organizations, and team performance. He also does work on statistical issues related to personnel selection and performance appraisal.
Eden King, Ph.D. (Rice University), Assistant Professor. Dr. King is pursuing a program of research that seeks to guide the equitable and effective management of diverse organizations. Her research integrates organizational and social psychological theories in conceptualizing social stigma in the context of the contemporary American workplace. Her research interests also include issues related to the work-family interface, emotions, and teams in organizations. Her commitment to psychological research is matched by her dedication to teaching and mentorship.
Lois Tetrick, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology), Program Director. Dr. Tetrick's research has focused primarily on individuals' perceptions of the employment relationship and employees' reactions to these perceptions including issues of occupational health and safety, occupational stress, organizational commitment, and psychological contracts. She is the Editor of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology and also is on the editorial board of the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Dr. Tetrick is co-editor of the Handbook of Occupational Psychology with Jim Quick, and Changing Employment Relations with Julian Barling. She has also edited a book entitled The Employment Relationship: Examining Psychological and Contextual Perspectives, with Jackie Coyle-Shapiro, Susan Taylor, and Lynn Shore.
Stephen Zaccaro, Ph.D. (University of Connecticut), Associate Professor. Team performance, leadership, work attitudes. Dr. Zaccaro's teaching and research interests include social and organization psychology, specifically in the areas of leadership, team problem solving, work attitudes, and occupational stress. His papers have appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Group and Organizational Studies, Human Performance, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He has co-edited a book titled Occupational Stress and Organizational Effectiveness and is currently writing a second book, tentatively titled Models and Theories of Executive Leadership. He has also consulted with the U.S. Army on various issues related to both leadership development and team problem solving.