Master of Arts in Industrial-Organizational Psychology

The I-O program at Sacramento State was designed with heavy influence from the 2016 Guidelines for Education and Training in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, published by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. While we cover all 24 major competency areas in the SIOP Guidelines to some degree, we give more emphasis to some than we do othersa strategy that is common and fully expected in master's programs according to the narrative of the SIOP Guidelines.
The Master of Arts in Industrial-Organizational Psychology is designed for students who wish to develop marketable career skills that allow them to apply psychological principles and research methods to work-related issues. The I-O program at CSUS was strongly influenced by the 2016 Guidelines for Education and Training in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, published by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. While we cover all 24 major competency areas in the SIOP Guidelines to some degree, we give more emphasis to some than we do othersa strategy that is common and fully expected in master's programs according to the narrative of the SIOP Guidelines. In consideration of the typical jobs held by master's level I-O practitioners in general and especially in the local employment market for our students and alumni, our program gives primary emphasis to topics in human resource planning and development (e.g., job/work analysis, employee recruitment, testing, and selection, employee training, performance management) and general analytical skills (e.g., research methods, measurement, data analysis). These topics are slanted more toward the industrial side of the I-O field. Current literature in organizational psychology topics such as work attitudes and motivation, groups and teams, and occupational health and safety have important implications for the aforementioned human resource planning and development topics, and are covered more briefly in the coursework.

Admission to graduate study in Psychology is selective. The Department equally weighs the candidate's overall grade point average (GPA) and scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). An overall GPA of 3.0 is recommended. When making admissions decisions, the Department takes into consideration the candidate's combined GPA and GRE score, letters of recommendation, previous (research and/or practical) experience, the candidate's interest in a particular faculty member's research agenda, and additional materials as required by each program option (ABA, General MA, and I/O).

Applicants are required to have completed upper division undergraduate psychology courses in statistics and research methods, with at least C grades in those courses, as well as a balanced and academically strong group of upper division courses covering at least five different core academic areas of psychology (e.g., biological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, social). The upper division psychological research methods/statistics requirement is met by PSYC 121 and PSYC 102 taken at Sacramento State, or their equivalents at other universities. Upper division research methods/statistics courses from other four-year universities must be reviewed and approved for equivalency by the Department's Graduate Coordinator.
TOEFL iBT: 80
TOEFL PBT: 550
IELTS: 6.5