Understand People. Strengthen Organizations.
More than strategy and operations, organizations say their greatest asset is their people. How people think, make decisions, respond to change, and work together to determine a business' success. Yet, those factors are difficult to measure, which is the problem business psychologists work on.
The M.A. Business Psychology is a 33-credit master's degree that combines psychological principles with essential business concepts so you can better understand the human factors behind organizational challenges and devise strategies to solve them. By graduation, you will be able to:
- Diagnose and analyze workforce issues, such as employee turnover, performance, and engagement issues
- Design evidence-based systems for hiring, performance appraisal, and training
- Apply behavioral science to create incentives, choices, and change to strengthen performance and satisfaction
- Lead and manage organizational change by providing findings and recommendations to decision-makers
Choose Your Business Psychology Specialization
Not sure which specialization to choose? Consider the Generalist Pathway, which allows you to select courses from all specialization areas.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology Specialization
Employees thrive in some workplaces and struggle in others, and turnover has measurable causes. The Industrial and Organizational Psychology Specialization applies psychological science, research, assessment, and measurement to those situations.
I/O Psychology examines how individual, job, leadership, and organizational factors influence employee behavior and workplace outcomes.
Instead of relying on assumptions about what is happening inside an organization, you’ll learn to identify relevant workplace factors, evaluate how they can be measured, and use evidence to better understand organizational challenges.
What You’ll Study in the Industrial and Organizational Psychology Specialization
Your coursework will explore areas such as employee selection, performance appraisal, training, and organizational assessment. Through this work, you can build skills for examining organizational needs and using data and behavioral insight to inform decisions about people and performance.
Specialized courses include:
- Performance Appraisal
- Job Analysis and Employee Selection
- Training: Theory, Design, and Evaluation
I/O Psychology Career Paths
The I/O Psychology Specialization graduates are prepared to work in areas such as organizational assessment, talent management, organizational development, change management, leadership development, workforce research, and consulting.
Behavioral Economics Specialization
Behavioral economics is the study of judgment and choice, and this specialization applies it to business, workforce, and consumer settings.
People don’t always make decisions based purely on logic. Choices can be influenced by how information is presented, the incentives available, existing biases, and the environment in which a decision is made.
The Behavioral Economics Specialization explores these psychological and environmental factors that shape human decision-making.
By combining psychology with the study of decision-making, you can develop a deeper understanding of why people behave the way they do, and how behavioral insight can inform better decisions.
What You’ll Study in the Behavioral Economics Specialization
You’ll study how factors such as incentives, biases, and the way choices are presented can influence decisions across business, workforce, and consumer settings. Your coursework also examines concepts such as choice architecture, social decision-making, consumer behavior, and neuromarketing.
Specialized courses include:
- Fundamentals of Behavioral Economics and Social Decision Making
- Neuromarketing and Consumer Behavior
- Choice Architecture
Behavioral Economics Career Paths
The Behavioral Economics Specialization graduates are prepared for work involving behavioral research, human decision-making, consumer or client analysis, organizational decision-making, and other roles where understanding why people make certain choices is valuable.
Organizational Leadership Specialization
Leadership shapes how people communicate, build trust, respond to change, and contribute to the culture and performance of an organization.
The Organizational Leadership Specialization examines why some leaders are successful while others stall within the larger context of organizational systems.
What You’ll Study in the Organizational Leadership Specialization
You’ll examine how leadership practices influence communication, culture, strategy, trust, and organizational change, and how those dynamics can affect individuals, teams, and organizational outcomes.
Your coursework will explore leadership from both a human and organizational perspective, with a focus on areas such as organizational change, emotional intelligence, and leadership effectiveness.
Specialized courses include:
- Organizational Leadership
- Change Management for Leaders
- Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
Organizational Leadership Career Paths
The Organizational Leadership Specialization graduates are prepared for work in areas such as leadership development, organizational change, organizational communication, workplace culture, team leadership, project management, consulting, and organizational effectiveness.
Human Resource Development Specialization
Compensation, benefits, career opportunities, workforce policies, and other organizational systems all play a role in the employee experience. The Human Resource Development Specialization examines the workforce practices and relationships organizations use to manage and support employees.
This specialization connects Business Psychology with human resources by focusing on how people-centered workforce systems can influence employee and organizational outcomes.
What You’ll Study in the Human Resource Development Specialization
You’ll learn to consider both the business purpose of workforce practices and how humans are affected by them. Your coursework will explore workforce strategy, the management of HR-related projects, and the human factors that influence employee behavior within organizations.
Specialized courses include:
- Strategic Human Resource Management
- Project Management for HR Professionals
- Human Behavior in the Organization
Human Resource Development Career Paths
The Human Resource Development Specialization graduates are prepared for work in human resources, workforce management, employee relations, talent-related functions, compensation and benefits, career development, and other people-focused organizational functions.
Generalist Pathway
The Generalist Pathway allows you to build a broad understanding of how psychology and business intersect across organizational behavior, leadership, workforce systems, and human decision-making.
Rather than concentrating on one professional area, you can select coursework across the available specializations to create an education that reflects your interests and goals.
What You’ll Study in the Generalist Pathway
The Generalist Pathway can help you examine organizational challenges from more than one perspective. You’ll choose three courses from any of the program’s four specialization areas, giving you flexibility to explore multiple areas of Business Psychology.
Generalist Pathway Career Paths
This pathway may be right for you if your interests span several areas or if you want a broader Business Psychology foundation rather than deeper specialization in one area.
Graduate With a Body of Work
Your capstone project can become the foundation of your professional resume. The M.A. Business Psychology offers three capstone pathways: a 150-hour supervised internship, a business research project, or a thesis.
Choose the pathway that best matches your career goals so you can gain relevant experience before graduation.
- Internship: Complete 150 hours of supervised internship across three capstone courses. The internship is a good option for career changers and early-career professionals.
- Business Research Project: Analyze a real organizational challenge with faculty guidance, including a challenge in your own organization or with one of our partnership organizations. The Business Research Project is ideal for those already working in an organization or who want to further develop consulting skills.
- Thesis: Identify a gap in research and conduct a rigorous study. Current educators and those who wish to continue their education are best served by the thesis path.
Find the Capstone Experience section below for more information.
Business Psychology vs. MBA
Both a Business Psychology degree and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) can prepare you to address organizational challenges, but they approach those challenges differently.
An MBA focuses more on how a business operates. Business Psychology programs focus more on how people affect the way a business operates and performs, helping you understand the human factors behind workplace decisions, leadership, culture, and organizational effectiveness.
If your interests center on people and organizations, Business Psychology offers a way to develop business knowledge through a behavioral and psychological lens.
Kristijan Civljak, Ph.D.
Admission Requirements
Open to any person who has earned a bachelor’s degree from an institutionally accredited institution and who meets other entrance requirements. Applicants will be judged on their overall ability to do graduate work. Factors and materials to be considered for admission will include:
- Completed application and $50 application fee
- Generally, an undergraduate GPA 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
- Official Transcripts
- Students must submit official transcripts from all schools where a degree was earned.
- It is recommended that transcripts are submitted from all schools where credit was received to enhance their applications.
Applicants with a cumulative GPA below 3.0 are required to submit additional documentation.
- Resume/CV or work history
- Personal statement (between 250 and 500 words for each question)
- Please describe a challenge that you navigated successfully and how you will use what you have learned from that experience to be successful in your program.
- How will the successful completion of this program support your professional career goals?
Capstone Experience
Your culminating experience should reflect where you are in your career and where you want to go next. Instead of requiring every student to complete the same capstone, the M.A. Business Psychology program offers three pathways: an internship, business research project, or thesis. Each option allows you to connect your capstone to your specialization and professional or academic goals.
Internship
Gain professional experience applying what you've learned in a workplace setting. The internship pathway may be especially valuable if you are early in your career, changing fields, or looking to build experience in your area of specialization.
Across three capstone courses, you'll complete a supervised internship aligned with your studies and apply Business Psychology concepts in a professional environment.
Business Research Project
Address a real organizational challenge through an applied project developed with faculty guidance. This pathway may be a strong fit if you are already working professionally and want to connect your graduate work directly to an issue within your organization or field.
You might analyze an organizational problem, explore possible solutions, or investigate an issue related to your specialization. Faculty will help you define the scope of your project, develop your approach, and connect your work to program and specialization outcomes.
Thesis
Build deeper research experience by developing a research-focused project related to your interests. The thesis pathway is designed for students interested in research, academic work, or potentially continuing into doctoral study.
You'll identify a gap in existing research and develop the conceptual and methodological framework for an academically rigorous study, strengthening skills that can support future research or doctoral-level education.
Program Learning Outcomes
The M.A. Business Psychology program is designed to help you develop knowledge and skills across professional practice, collaboration, ethical behavior, critical thinking, and research.
Professional Practice
- Content Knowledge: Apply relevant business psychology theories to organizational issues and their appreciation for scientific knowledge as it applies to organizational problems.
- Client Communication: Develop assessment, intervention, and evaluation strategies and convey these principles in language appropriate for the audience that is grammatically correct, logical, succinct, and of publishable quality.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Form effective professional relationships based on attitudes and communication skills that foster respect, trust, open dialogue, and collaboration, regardless of differences in background, education, points of view or position in the organization.
Diversity
- Diversity: Identify the role of individual differences in the workplace and the ability to establish and benefit from collaborative professional relationships with others, regardless of differences in background, work roles, and points of view.
Professional Behavior
- Interpersonal Skills: Develop self-awareness, self-management, and professional and psychological maturity as exhibited by the ability to accept feedback, engage in reflective practice, and the willingness to change behavior as needed to manage relationships with others to enhance quality of work products.
- Ethics: Students will demonstrate personal integrity and ethical behavior in their professional practice, as guided by the APA code of ethics, through the ability to identify ethical dilemmas and issues in organizational settings and propose possible solutions for them.
Scholarship
- Critical Thinking: Critically review the work of others, including probing for more information, searching for logic flaws, information literacy, and the creation of alternative solutions to problems.
- Research Utilization: Interpret and summarize results and information presented in research articles and apply the results to organizational problems.
Financing Your Education
The Chicago School is dedicated to keeping our M.A. Business Psychology program accessible to anyone regardless of financial status. In addition to the scholarships that may be available, our Financial Aid Department will provide you with information to determine what financial arrangements are right for you.
Career Outcomes
Business psychology graduates work in human resources, talent development, organizational consulting, research, and leadership roles. The figures below come from the closest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupations to each specialization.
Industrial-organizational psychologists earned a median annual wage of $193,950 in May 2025, and BLS projections show employment growing 6% from 2025 to 2035. It is a small, specialized occupation, and most graduates enter broader roles.
Human resources specialists earned a median of $75,940 in May 2025 across about 939,700 jobs, and training and development specialists earned $69,280, with 11% growth projected from 2025 to 2035.
Training and development managers earned $133,000, human resources managers $149,280, and management analysts $101,860.
Market research analysts earned $78,760 across about 1 million jobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Business Psychology?
Business Psychology examines the human side of business, applying psychological principles and behavioral science to the challenges organizations face. You will explore how people think, make decisions, work together, respond to change, and influence organizational performance.
What can you do with a master’s in Business Psychology?
A master’s in Business Psychology can support careers across consulting, human resources, organizational development, research, leadership development, project management, and other people-focused business functions. Career opportunities will vary based on your specialization and professional goals.
What’s the difference between Business Psychology and an MBA?
Business psychology focuses more closely on the people behind organizational performance and applies psychology, behavioral science, research, and business concepts to workplace and organizational challenges. This approach can help you better understand what drives people and use those insights to strengthen organizations. An MBA is more tailored to business operations, such as accounting, finance, and management.
What specializations are available in Business Psychology?
The M.A. Business Psychology program offers four specializations: Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Behavioral Economics, Organizational Leadership, and Human Resource Development. A Generalist pathway is also available for students who want to select courses across multiple specialization areas.
What is the typical time to completion?
Most full time students complete the 33-credit program in approximately 21 months, although plans of study can be adjusted based on student needs and goals.
Do you need a psychology or business background for a master’s in Business Psychology?
No specific undergraduate major in psychology or business is required for admission to the M.A. Business Psychology program. Applicants must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an institutionally accredited institution and meet the program’s other admissions requirements.
What does a typical week look like?
Students complete readings, recorded lectures, and learning activities independently throughout the week. Courses may include discussions, quizzes, exams, assignments, case-based activities, presentations, or projects. Most weekly work is due by Sunday, with some discussion activities having earlier deadlines.
Can students work while completing the program?
Yes. Many Business Psychology students work while enrolled. Students working full-time may benefit from a reduced course load depending on their other responsibilities.
Does the program lead to licensure or certification?
No. The M.A. Business Psychology is an academic graduate degree and does not independently lead to professional licensure.
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