Business Psychology Doctoral Program
Course Descriptions (Listed in numerical order)
PB 400 Professional Development
This course is designed to provide students with (1) the core professional skills necessary for competing successfully for I/O positions, (2) socialization into the profession of I/O psychology, (3) research skills, and (4) diversity training. Topics covered include networking, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, critical thinking and writing skills, business and systems logic, professional organization and networks, business etiquette, and competencies needed for successful job placement. (3 credits)
PB 439 Life Span II
This course explores developmental issues from early adulthood through advanced age. Emphasis is on human development through the working years (18 – 70). Cultural diversity and individual differences are integral to this course. (3 credits)
PB 447 Cognitive Psychology
This course will cover cognitive processes as they relate to the business world. Specifically, applications of cognitive activities such as learning, perception, decision making, and developing strategy will be discussed. Emphasis will be placed on the processes involved in decision making, and these processes will be examined at different levels of analysis. Additionally, implications for organizational change and outcomes will be explored. (3 credits)
PB 451 Social Psychology
The course focuses on the role of societal and environmental factors in the initiation and maintenance of human behavior patterns. The course will consider the implications of socio-environmental factors for the practicing psychologist. Cultural and individual differences are also considered.
(3 credits)
PB 455 Research Methods
Prerequisite: PB 592/593. This course focuses on the appropriate methodologies for program and intervention outcome analysis, linkage research, and model testing. Specific attention will be paid to organizational measurement and assessment for the purpose of demonstrating the effectiveness of organizational interventions on desired outcomes such as customer retention, return on investment, and organizational effectiveness. Mastery of these methods will be demonstrated by an applied project. (3 credits)
PB 468 Systems Theory
Organizations are living systems. To work and improve organizations, we need to understand them as systems. This course focuses on the investigation and applications of Open Systems Theory. The importance of the input->throughput->output flow will be assessed within the scope of boundaries and the environment as well as feedback and interdependencies. Specific attention will be given to the different functions for internal operations that are necessary for maintenance and equilibrium. Organizations and teams will be the main focus but the obvious connections to any group or family will be addressed. (3 credits)
PB 510 Organizational Behavior
This course explores organizations at the individual and team level examining the relationship between employees and managers and employees and teams. It examines the factors that drive productivity and success in organizations including motivation, diversity, work stress, conflict and negotiation, decision making, personality, and attitudes. (3 credits)
PB 511 Organizational Culture and Design
This course explores organizations at the organizational level, examining the relationship between culture and organization design, structure, and environment. It examines the impact of change in strategy and technology, environmental turbulence and organizational maturity, and reviews organization development as a means to advance the changing nature of organization. Supporting topics include corporate ethics, life cycle and control, organizational climate, and globalization. Students create an organizational change strategy for a company in turmoil. (3 credits)
PB 512 Organizational Consulting Skills
Prerequisites: PB 400 and PB 510. This course provides students with the knowledge and skills to serve as internal and external consultants to business and non-profit organizations. The class reviews individual, group, and organizational assessment strategies. Through case analysis and in–class experiential exercises, students gain skills in project proposal, problem framing, contract development, client relations, and presentation of findings. Legal and ethical issues specific to the consulting role will also be addressed. (3 credits)
PB 521 Statistics and Statistics Lab
The course presents the descriptive and inferential statistical techniques used in decision making. This course also examines problem-solving research methods currently used in organizational and industrial psychology. Students will apply univariate and multivariate statistics using computer programs designed to fulfill the needs of practitioners to address real organizational problems using research methods. Course is taken concurrently with Statistics Lab. (4 credits)
PB 520 Personnel Psychology
Prerequisites: PB 519. This course further develops the students’ conceptual foundation in I/O psychology by providing an in-depth overview of all areas of industrial psychology. These areas include ethical guidelines, case and statutory law, job analysis, selection, training, criterion development, performance appraisal, test development, reliability, validity, cut score, utility analysis, and validity generalization. It features technical knowledge from standard sources as well as recent research and case studies. Students will analyze research and application readings as they continue to develop their critical thinking skills. (3 credits)
PB 522 Performance Appraisal
Prerequisites: PB 512 and PB 520. This course initially focuses on criterion theory as a framework for developing standards to indicate the effectiveness of individuals, groups, and organizations. Students will acquire an understanding of performance appraisal instruments; and rater training, motivation, and cognition. Students will also learn about contextual moderators, individual moderators, legal issues concerning performance appraisal, performance management, and multi-source performance appraisal. (3 credits)
PB 523 Job Analysis and Employee Selection
Prerequisites: PB 512 and PB 520. This course familiarizes students with the requirements for creating a legally defensible selection system. The major domain areas, job analysis, fair employment practices, and selection test construction and validation, are explored with an emphasis on understanding and reducing test bias that could result in disparate impact. The course is supplemented by conducting a selection test project with a client, conducting a job analysis, and analyzing data to assess criterion related validity. (3 credits)
PB 524 Training: Theory, Design, and Evaluation
Prerequisites: PB 512 and PB 520. This course provides an examination of the design and implementation of effective training programs in organizations. It addresses critical areas such as conducting needs analyses of the organization, the job, and the individuals performing the job. Students will learn and apply modern learning theories, principles of adult learning, and cross-cultural issues. They also will develop an ability to evaluate training, especially the transfer of training, to the workplace. (3 credits)
PB 525 Organizational Leadership
Prerequisites: PB 511, PB 512, and PB 520. This course reviews the principal theories of leadership and how leadership is developed. It examines leadership in the context of managing continuous change emphasizing the challenges of multinational corporations working across cultures. It supports self-assessment as students gain knowledge in the key theories and principles of the management/leadership continuum. Finally, it reviews practices that I/O psychologists are using to develop organizational leaders. (3 credits)
PB 528 Advanced Statistics
Prerequisite: PB 519. This course focuses on using statistics for organizational research with an emphasis on those methods used routinely in applying theoretical models to applied problems. Students will learn advanced multivariate methods including specialized techniques in multiple regression, logistic regression, MANOVA and discriminate function analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. Mastery of these techniques will be demonstrated by an applied project. (3 credits)
PB 530 Individual Interviewing and Assessment
Prerequisite: PB 592/593. This course introduces the principles of individual assessment and its role in workplace psychology. It includes frameworks for conceptualizing the assessment process, specific strategies for assessing individual personality style, cognitive ability, and workplace relevant behaviors (such as leadership skills, managerial styles, teamwork and other interpersonal skills, etc). The emphasis is on how to develop an ethical, individually-focused assessment process; choose appropriate, valid, and reliable instruments; incorporate non-test assessment strategies such as interviewing and behavioral analysis; interpret and integrate assessment data; and write useful and informative assessment reports for the consumer. (3 credits)
PB 531 Organizational Attitudes and Survey Development
Prerequisites: PB 512 and PB 592/593. This course reviews and integrates the extensive literature on the determinants and consequences of job satisfaction, involvement, culture, and commitment with a focus on using this research base for organization diagnosis and intervention. Questionnaire use and development, as well as other methods of measurement, will be addressed. This course will also include psychometrics in relation to survey development. (3 credits)
PB 532 Work and Career Development
This course provides an understanding of career development theories and decision-making models; occupational, educational information sources and systems; assessment instruments and techniques relevant to career planning and decision making, career, lifestyle, and leisure counseling; guidance and education; career development program planning; resources; and effectiveness evaluation. (3 credits)
PB 535 Business and Financial Literacy
Prerequisites/Requirements: PB 451. This course prepares students to address the basic factors of business economics, marketing, and finance. The goal is to teach students to understand the vital signs of a business. The first part of the class will look at accounting and finance. Students will learn to look at an income statement and balance sheet to determine the health of an organization through the use of financial ratios. Students will learn the importance of interest rates and valuation in corporate planning. The second part of the course will help students understand micro-economics. Emphasis will be placed on supply and demand, market structures and output decisions. Behavioral economics will also be introduced. A final part will present the rudiments of marketing through the marketing mix, segmentation, and branding. (3 credits)
PB 536 Strategic and Organizational Planning
Prerequisites/Requirements: PB 535. This course will give students the fundamentals to understand business policy formulation and corporate effectiveness planning. The first part of the course will address the concepts and practice of strategic planning. It will expand on the marketing, financial, and economic ideas introduced in PB 535. Environment analysis and value chain will lead to assessing business level strategy, corporate level strategy, and competitive actions. The second part of the class will emphasize the organization factors in determining and implementing business policy. Organizational effectiveness will be discussed as aligning the business with the environment through strategy, design, operations, supply chain, and culture. The options of each will examined but students will learn the critical significance of the managing their interdependence. (3 credits)
PB 537 Change Management
Prerequisites/Requirements: PB 535 and PB 536. This course will prepare students to help organizations institute change initiatives. This course will be a summary course, reexamining the principles of consultation, and reinforcing the practice organizational due diligence. With these foundations students will be learn to apply the process of change and the techniques of change. This will be a dual focus. One will focus on the fundamentals of project change management. The second will emphasize behavioral change management. Upon completion the student will be able to understand the corporate conditions and change options available to consult on transitions ranging from innovation and new technology, merger and acquisition integration, business succession planning, corporate reorganizations, to board governance. (3 credits)
PB 550 Compensation and Benefits Administration
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, and PB 520. This elective will teach students the theories, approaches, and practices of wage and salary administration and provide a basic understanding of employee benefits administration. Specific topics covered include base pay and incentive design, executive compensation, skill-based pay, pay-for-performance, rewarding group performance, benefits administration, and organizational culture in relation to compensation. (3 credits)
PB 551 Legal Issues
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, and BP 520. This elective gives the student a broad introduction to the area of law and covers Fair Employment Practices and principles related to the Equal Opportunity Commission. Specific laws covered are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Affirmative Action, and the Equal Pay Act. Other issues that will be discussed are negligent hiring, defamation, privacy, disparate impact, and disparate treatment. This course will teach students how to read case law while learning legal jargon and definitions. Students will also learn about the federal court system. Special emphasis will be placed on how to design a legally defensible affirmative action plan. (3 credits)
PB 552 Professional Coaching
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, and PB 520. Effective coaching of managers requires the ability to establish rapport, listen effectively, and conduct interviews. Coaches also work with managers to understand the data provided by 360 instruments and other leadership assessment tools, identify strengths and developmental needs, formulate skill-building development plans, and provide non-threatening feedback. This course is designed to introduce students to the roles, responsibilities, and ethical considerations involved in individual coaching. Using role-playing and hands-on exercises, this course enables students to begin to develop the skills needed to establish individual coaching relationships. Students will also work with their own development plans in order to become directly familiar with the challenges and opportunities involved in formulating and implementing those plans. (3 credits)
PB 554 Data Management
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, and PB 520. This course is an intensive, hands-on lab using current and commonly available statistical and database software packages. Students will learn to work with data in each program, as well as between programs. Students will also learn how research for applied questions and drive data collection and management, and how to answer questions using data. Skills developed in this class include building relational databases, manipulating and parsing data, analyzing data, and reporting data. (3 credits)
PB 555 Work Team Dynamics
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, and PB 520. Most organizations use team-based processes to leverage individual strengths and maximize productivity. Often these teams have fairly complex reporting relationships and no formal leadership structure. The most productive teams are facilitated by skilled process managers who understand how to build teams and to keep them productive over their life span, both as informal and formal leaders. Students will learn how to create effective, productive work teams, manage meetings, and get things done while building long term mutually beneficial relationships. This course is designed to give the participant the skills needed to manage team processes in a way that helps the organization reach its objectives. (3 credits)
PB 556 Strategic Human Resource Management
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, PB 511, and PB 520. This course focuses on how HR adds value to the organization’s business strategy. It addresses four human resource agendas: employee champion, administrative expert, change agent, and strategic partner. It reviews the changing nature of HR and builds on the best of contemporary HR practices. Emphasis is placed on strategic alignment, return on investment, and becoming an employer of choice. The course yields a portfolio of key HR practices designed to support an organization’s strategic focus. (3 credits)
PB 557 Managing Organizational Diversity
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, PB 511, and PB 520. In today’s global marketplace, the idea of diversity is a valued commodity—so valued that when Fortune magazine names the top 100 companies for minority workers each year, it impacts the stock value of those organizations. To be competitive, many companies have a diversity officer who is responsible for creating diversity awareness, promoting the idea of a diverse workforce, recruiting women and minorities, and ensuring that the organization operates within all applicable Equal Opportunity Laws. But what is “diversity”? What is the role of the diversity officer? How is this role evolving? Where will it be in the future? What are the “land mines” for a person in such a position? What does it take to do this job well, both from an interpersonal and from an administrative point of view? This course is designed to answer those questions and prepare the participant to fill such a role or to advise those who do. (3 credits)
PB 558 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, PB 511, and PB 520. This course is designed to improve students’ skills in all phases of negotiation and conflict resolution. Students will gain a deeper appreciation for the negotiation process as they will be provided with prescriptive advice regarding negotiation preparation, strategy, and execution. Students will gain a clearer understanding of negotiation theory as it applies to dyadic and multiparty negotiations. They will learn the key differences between a “win-lose” mentality and a “win-win” mentality and how to manage both the integrative and distributive aspects of the negotiation process. The course is based on a series of simulated negotiations in a variety of contexts including one-on-one, multi-party, third-party, and team negotiations.
(3 credits)
PB 559 Talent Management and Succession Planning
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, PB 511, and PB 520. Today’s businesses are undergoing a remarkable and painful revolution brought about by economic pressure, global competition, volatile employment, new technology, a diversifying labor force, and customers who demand better service and higher levels of product quality. This class will explore the ways in which large and small organizations are regrouping to meet these challenges and the related psychology underlying effective leadership. The course will examine such topics as talent management, succession planning, and high performance human resources strategies. Students will distinguish fad from solution, management from leadership, and winner from loser. A central theme in class will focus on aligning internal human resources with business strategy and in turn, strategy with external realities. (3 credits)
PB 560 Training Facilitation and Instructional Design
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, PB 511, and PB 520. This course will discuss and apply skills that are essential to the implementation of effective training models. The course will initially introduce skills specifically related to designing training models that are applicable to different audiences. It will include proven concepts to design learning modules that can be comprehended and applied to diverse audiences. The second half of the course will be dedicated to learning and applying skills that are necessary to effectively facilitate a training program. This includes public speaking, controlling your environment, and using appropriate media. (3 credits)
PB 570 Consumer Psychology/Special Topics
Prerequisites: PB 400, PB 510, PB 511, and PB 520. Students will be introduced to the major theories underlying consumer behavior. Regular student presentations of assigned articles from the domains of psychology and marketing are required. Topics may include positive psychology, regulatory focus, goal conflict, materialism, terror management, variety seeking, product assortment, and risk. Students will choose a single topic of interest to them and present both a literature review and research proposal to the class. (3 credits)
PB 592 Ethics
PB 593 Internship I
Prerequisites: PB/IO 512.
This course is designed to help students involved in their first IO internship to rapidly develop professional skills needed to apply IO knowledge to a real-work engagement. Its emphasis is two-fold: ethical practice and internship support. Using APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct students evaluate ethical case situations and project the principles to their workplace setting. In tandem, they analyze work-related issues and challenges in their practice of IO psychology in sufficient detail to receive effective consultation from their peers and their instructor. (PB/IO 592 – 2 credits, PB/IO 593 – 1 credit; 3 credits total)
PB 598 Career Planning
PB 599 Internship II
Prerequisites: PB/IO 592 & PB/IO 593.
This course explores the intertwining themes of professional development, career management and job search. Class activities support students in acquiring skills and insight that they can apply immediately and in the future to advance their careers. This is a distance learning course designed to offer maximum flexibility to students who seek to perform internships outside the Chicago area and those who prefer an untraditional, relatively accommodating classroom schedule. (PB/IO 598 – 2 credits, PB/IO 599 – 1 credit; 3 credits total)
PB 610 Dissertation Development I
PB 611 Dissertation Development II
PB 612 Dissertation Development III
These three courses provide support and structure to the dissertation process. All courses consist of weekly meetings of their designated small research group. The faculty member, who is the dissertation chair for the research group, leads these meetings. The first course (610) offers students the opportunity to present their dissertation ideas and dissertation proposal by the end of the semester. The second course (611) provides continued support through peers and the dissertation chair as the student continues to work on the dissertation and secure IRB approval. The third course (612) prepares the student for the end-of-the-semester dissertation defense. During these three courses, specific deadlines are set for committee approval, IRB approval, submission of dissertation draft to the committee, and oral defense. (3 credits per semester; 9 credits total)
PB 620 Competency Examination
This course is designed to provide support and structure to the competency exam process. (3 credits)
Updated: October 12, 2007
