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Industrial and Organizational Psychology Minor

College of Community Studies and Public Affairs / Psychology
Undergraduate minor

About The Program

The industrial and organizational psychology minor is designed for students who are interested in the application of psychology in an organizational setting.

The minor involves that application of the methods, facts and principles of psychology to people at work. This minor may be of particular interest to students in human resource management or human services administration and to students who are working or aspire to work in public or private organizational settings.

To complete the industrial and organizational psychology minor, students are required to take a minimum of 20 credits, at least 12 of these credits must be taken at Metropolitan State and at least 12 credits must be upper division.

How to enroll

Current students: Declare this program

Once you’re admitted as an undergraduate student and have met any further admission requirements your chosen program may have, you may declare a major or declare an optional minor.

Future students: Apply now

Apply to Metropolitan State: Start the journey toward your Industrial and Organizational Psychology Minor now. Learn about the steps to enroll or, if you have questions about what Metropolitan State can offer you, request information, visit campus or chat with an admissions counselor.

Get started on your Industrial and Organizational Psychology Minor

Program eligibility requirements

Courses and Requirements

SKIP TO COURSE REQUIREMENTS

To complete the industrial and organizational psychology minor, students are required to take a minimum of 20 credits. Of these credits, 12 must be taken at Metropolitan State and 12 credits must be upper division. More specific course requirements are below.

I/O Psychology Minor Requirements (20 credits)

+ Required Courses

This course focuses on principles and techniques of personnel and industrial psychology and applications of scientific psychology to business and industrial settings. Topics include: psychology as a science and professional practice issues; employee selection, psychological testing, performance appraisal, and training and development; leadership in organizations; motivation, job satisfaction and job involvement; organizational structure; work conditions, engineering psychology, employee safety and health, and work stress; and consumer psychology. This course is appropriate for general management, business administration and psychology students in addition to human resource management professionals. Overlap: HRM 330 Personnel and Industrial Psychology.

Full course description for Industrial-Organizational Psychology

+ Guided electives

Choose at least one (additional choices can be used to meet requirements)

This course investigates current and past work in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Definitions of intelligence are considered and mechanisms and performance of AI application systems are studied ¿ has artificial intelligence matched or exceeded human intelligence? Comparisons are made to human intelligence as the class evaluates achievements in the AI application areas of problem solving, expert systems, neural networks, natural language processing, speech recognition, computer vision, machine learning and robotics. Course explores the philosophy of consciousness and the future social and economic changes that AI and particularly Large Language Models (e.g., ChatGPT) may cause.

Full course description for Artificial Intelligence

Students learn the basic procedures used in the collection and analysis of data in the behavioral sciences. Statistical software is used to conduct descriptive and inferential analyses of both small and large data sets. Students learn to write conceptual conclusions supported by statistical analyses. Prerequisite: Completion of math general education requirements.

Full course description for Data/Statistical Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences

Human factors psychology (ergonomics) is the study of human capacities and limitations affecting people's interaction with machines. Topics include perception, cognition, memory, psychomotor learning, display and control design, vehicular and roadway design, the human-computer interface, airplane crashes, and product liability. The course includes psychology laboratory experiments and research reports, exercises in human factors design, and a field trip in which students fly a flight simulator. Experimental methodology underlies the content of this course.

Full course description for Human Factors

This course provides an understanding of the basic concepts and techniques involved in selecting, administering, scoring and interpreting psychological tests. Validity, reliability, standardization, norms and ethical issues are covered in the measurement of intellect, aptitude, achievement, interest and personality. Learning strategies include test demonstrations. Students take, score (where possible) and interpret several different tests.

Full course description for Psychological Testing

This course covers the basic principles and methods of statistics. It emphasizes techniques and applications in real-world problem solving and decision making. Topics include frequency distributions, measures of location and variation, probability, sampling, design of experiments, sampling distributions, interval estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression.

Full course description for Statistics I

+ Electives

Additional courses that can be used to meet Minor requirements

Students learn the theory and practice of group membership skills, including group development, roles, norms and leadership responsibilities. Students also learn situational leadership styles and roles, interpersonal communication styles, conflict management, problem solving, feedback skills, and group activity planning, presentation and processing. Overlap: COMM 351 Communication in Work Groups and COMM 351T Communication in Work Groups Theory Seminar.

Full course description for Group Dynamics and Facilitation

The impact of technology on human and organizational behavior is examined within the context of psychological theory. Topics include challenges that technologies have created for individuals, social relations, and businesses; the effects of emerging technologies on self and others; and technology's effect on mental health and well-being. Students will explore psychological theories that address how and why we engage with technology and its products as well as the social and practical impacts of technology on the world today.

Full course description for The Impact of Technology on Human and Organizational Behavior

In this course students explore questions related to psychology's response to diversity and ethical principles, including: How has psychology dealt with issues of culture, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation and ableism? How has this influenced basic theories in psychology? How does this affect specific groups or individuals in areas of research, assessment and therapeutic practice? What are the ethical standards that guide, and the ethical dilemmas that currently face, the field of psychology? How do issues of diversity and ethical principles influence and intersect with each other? Further, this course is designed to develop and expand students' critical knowledge of the central role of race, racism, and anti-racism in multiple contexts of society and aspects of everyday life. Students are asked to think critically about the societal and individual effects inherent in the information covered in this course.

Full course description for Introduction to Diversity and Ethics in Psychology

This course is designed to help students plan their careers and develop lifelong learning strategies. Participants assess their interests, skills and aspirations in relation to the world of work. Topics include needs assessment, methods of achievement and analysis, goal planning, occupational field research, skills identification and strategy development. Students develop career plans balancing their personal aspirations with reality.

Full course description for Career Planning and Development

Forums are on topics of current importance in the field of psychology and are offered in collaboration with the Minnesota Psychological Association. Students are asked to write papers summarizing the content and discussing the relevance of principles and practices presented to their own activities or within a specified hypothetical context. Specific topics are listed in the Class Schedule or announced in the Catalyst. Note: At least 12 credits in psychology, human services, or social work prior to registration.

Full course description for Friday Forum Topics