Psy.D. in Business Psychology, Consulting Track

Program Description

Representing one of the fastest-growing applications of professional psychology, business psychologists work with organizations to leverage the impact that human factors have on overall organizational effectiveness. Students in The Chicago School’s Consulting Track within the Business Psychology doctoral program learn to apply the principles of business psychology in consulting environments, helping to improve individual, group, and organizational functioning in multiple settings. The program prepares students to assume high-level responsibilities in today's global, multicultural business environment.

Courses are offered in executive format, with classes meeting at the Washington, D.C. Campus one weekend per month combined with online interaction and assignments between campus visits. Online courses are also available.

The curriculum integrates industrial and organizational psychology, clinical psychology, and business coursework, providing students with advanced consulting skills. Graduates emerge with the business acumen needed to effectively assess an organization’s environment, including market conditions, competitive position and options, corporate strategies, stakeholders, organization design and operations, and to appropriately advise the organization on major business initiatives—including right-sizings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic repositioning, project management, change consultation, and executive succession planning. The program combines strategic thinking and psychological theory, as well as leadership and best business practices to help graduates be more effective in their roles as leaders, consultants, and researchers.

Department

Concentrations

Licensure

Total Credits

Fieldwork Requirements

Degree

• Master's degree from a regionally accredited institution in psychology, behavioral sciences, or management.

• Students enter the consulting track post-masters. If a student’s master’s degree does not equal 43 credits they will need to complete master level coursework to total 43 credit hours, students can choose from the M.A. in I/O foundational courses.

Coursework

• 12 semester hours of psychology credit with grades earned of C or better including two specific courses;
  • Graduate-level Statistics
  • Research Methods of Experimental Psychology

Additional

• N/A

Admission Requirements

• Business Psychology Requirements

GRE Requirements

Sample Courses

Business and Financial Literacy
Designed to give students the basic terminology, logic, and framework to understand business thinking and decisions. The goal is to teach students to look at the 'vital signs' of a business. The first part of the class looks at what information a business collects and how it uses that information. Students learn to use a financial lens to look at an income statement and balance sheet to determine the health of an organization. Students learn the importance of interest rates as a key to understand corporate planning and valuation. The second part of the course helps students understand how companies make operational decisions. Using the lens of micro-economics, students learn how supply and demand, costs, and prices effect output decisions. Considers the ways this impacts marketing through the marketing mix, segmentation, and branding decisions. Examines behavioral economics to show how the erratic nature of decisions.

Strategic and Organizational Planning
Gives students the fundamentals to understand business strategy and organizational effectiveness. The first part of the course will address the concepts and practice of policy formation. Expands on marketing, financial, and economic ideas. Environment analysis and value chain leads to assessing business level strategy, corporate level strategy, and competitive actions. The second part of the class emphasizes the organization factors in determining and implementing business policy. Discusses organizational planning as aligning the business with the environment through strategy, design, operations, supply chain, and culture. Students learn the critical significance of the managing their interdependence.

Change Management
Helps students advise organizations on to how restructure, reposition, or revitalize itself. Integrates strategy and organizational due diligence with consultation and change strategies. Within the frame of community development, students learn to consider the process of change and the techniques of change to various types of organizations.  Focuses on project change management and emphasizes psychological change management. Prepares student to understand the corporate conditions and change options available to consult on and facilitate transitions ranging from innovation and new technology, merger and acquisition integration, business succession planning, corporate reorganizations, to board governance.

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