New psychological sciences degree will help graduates improve workplaces
HOUSTON – (Feb. 1, 2021) – With the average adult spending about half of their waking hours at work, employees and companies alike are recognizing the importance of investing in more productive, diverse and satisfying workplaces.
That has created high demand for industrial psychologists, who are trained to apply the science of human behavior to a variety of issues in the workplace. Rice University's Department of Psychological Sciences has developed a new two-year professional master's degree in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, offering its students graduate-level training in the field.
This exclusive program, which will begin recruiting this summer and officially launch in the fall, will admit only 4-5 new students a year. Students will gain scientific and practical knowledge about psychological factors related to issues in the workplace, including recruiting, selection, leadership teams, diversity and inclusion, and the effects of technology and AI.
"A safe, diverse and effective work environment is absolutely essential in our modern world," said Eduardo Salas, chair of Rice's Department of Psychological Sciences and author of the recent book "Teams That Work." "In fact, in many fields of work such as health care and the military, lives literally depend on healthy work environments that value overall employee well-being. Students who graduate from Rice’s master’s degree in I-O psychology will improve the lives of employees and the effectiveness of organizations."
The program's faculty will include Margaret Beier, Mikki Hebl, Danielle King, Eden King, Fred Oswald and Salas, all of whom are renowned researchers, editors and leaders in the field of I-O psychology. They believe Houston is a perfect place to launch this new master’s program, which complements Rice's existing Ph.D. program in I-O psychology.
"The city has a large number of industries that have been demanding I-O psychology expertise, such as health, energy and aerospace," Salas said. "Students will benefit greatly from valuable real-world experiences during their studies, leading to a wide range of potential job opportunities after they graduate."
Alumni of Rice’s Department of Psychological Sciences work in many industries, at organizations such as NASA, AT&T, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Bloomberg, Halliburton, General Motors, Dell, Fidelity Investments and more. More information on the department and the new I-O psychology master's program can be found at http://psychology.rice.edu.
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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.