Overview of Program

    The Psychology Department at Middle Tennessee State University offers a Master of Arts degree in Psychology with an I/O emphasis for those interested in applying psychological principles in business, industry, or government. The program offers a wide range of courses designed to prepare individuals for positions in human resource departments, consulting, or for entry into an I/O doctoral program.

    We take great pride in our reputation as an upper-echelon Master's program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. The main emphasis of our program is to produce professionals who are capable of applying their I/O psychology knowledge base to real-world organizations.

    We believe in developing a knowledge base well-grounded in scientific theory and research. Lack of such a foundation risks leading people to simply follow the latest fad without the sophisticated understanding needed for success.

    Just as importantly, we believe it takes real-world experience to learn how to translate that knowledge into action. Thus, to more adequately prepare individuals to face the practical challenges that arise in organizations, we put a strong emphasis on involving every student in multiple applied projects. The track record of applied experiences our students gain develop both their skills and help build resumes aiding their employability upon graduation. In fact, when the American Psychological Association's APA Monitor wanted to spotlight the role of applied experience in Master's programs, they found ours to be recommended as particularly distinguished in this regard.

 Our students get multiple applied experiences with various clients.  Several classes include applied consulting projects with client organizations.  Every student also completes a practicum job experience.  Students can also get hired onto consulting projects conducted by our faculty.  We even has a separate consulting firm specifically dedicated to developing these applied opportunities for our students, called the Center for Organizational and Human Resource Effectiveness (COHRE).

   This is not an easy program. The requirements are rigorous, but our graduates keep telling us how rising to that challenge has been key to their impressive record of career successes. We are committed to upholding our reputation as a nationally elite I/O Master's program, and we continually endeavor to improve.

    There are many reasons for our success. One is the quality and diversity of the students we attract. Another is the extent of expertise dedicated to the program: we have seven full-time I/O faculty, well above the 2-3 typical of most non-Ph.D. graduate programs. That means we are well-suited to offer a wide range of I/O courses, and to provide individualized support to our students both in and out of the classroom.  We take pride in the supportive, student-friendly culture of our program.  In fact, our students consistently rank that as one of the best things about us.

    In a recent local television show, Dr. Patrick McCarthy of the I/O program discusses how the I/O program is set up to help promote both timely progress and support among the students. Click here to see a video clip of this discussion. In the same show, Dr. McCarthy also discusses what brought him to MTSU and what makes our program stand out from other programs. Click here to see a video clip of this discussion. You will need QuickTime in order to watch the video clips. If you don't have a recent version of QuickTime, a free version can be downloaded at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qt/.

    Middle Tennessee State University is located 30 miles southeast of Nashville, the state capitol and the center of strong economic growth in middle Tennessee. MTSU enrolls over 23,000 students with a thriving Psychology Department of about 45 full-time faculty and seven graduate programs. A wide range of educational, cultural, and recreational opportunities are available to students on campus, and throughout Murfreesboro and its surrounding communities.