The Ph.D. program in Industrial and Organizational (I/O) Psychology is based on four principles: (1) both students and faculty learn best in an atmosphere characterized by diversity of interests, mutual respect, informality, and hard work; (2) students are responsible for formulating, within broad guidelines, the flavor of their own individual programs; (3) both breadth and depth of training in psychology is general, and I/O psychology in particular, is necessary to understanding the complexity of the developed and established theories and research in I/O Psychology; and (4) research that is both problem-oriented ("practical") and theoretically meaningful is a major goal of our program.

We make the first principle happen by (1) meeting as a total program (faculty and students) each week during the year, (2) having students involved in all faculty research activities including consulting and (3) promoting a spirit of give and take amongst all members of the program. We have established a student-faculty ratio of no more than 4:1, thereby facilitating close working relationships between students and faculty.

Our second principle results in students usually working with a number of faculty while in the program, thereby being exposed to the broad range of issues and topics necessary for the definition of a personal style. In addition, students choose the topics of their comprehensive examination as well as their MA thesis and Ph. D. dissertation, providing vehicles for personal definition of interests and competencies. In fact, the major training approach of our program is designed around the individual differences of our students.

The third principle -- breadth and depth of training -- requires students to receive intensive training in the content of I/O Psychology, research methodologies, quantitative methods, computer applications, and foundations of general psychology. The core program in I/O is a series of four seminars, one per semester after completing the Survey of I/O Psychology and Research Methods seminars. In addition, the core program of the Department of Psychology is designed to provide students with a general psychology framework. These general courses, in conjunction with the content courses and research seminars in I/O Psychology, are designed to help the student learn how to formulate questions, conceptualize issues, and research the wide variety of basic behavioral issues of interest that exist in the complex work organizations of today's society. In addition, we emphasize the multiple levels of theory and analysis - individuals, groups, organizations, societies, and countries - that are relevant for I/O theory and research.

Because we strive to do research that is both problem-oriented and theoretically meaningful, a great deal of our research and theory building is done vis a vis functioning organizations - from financial services to manufacturing and from state troopers to real estate agencies. In addition, some research is conducted in more controllable, laboratory settings - on gender issues in leadership, on bargaining and negotiation, and on teams. We emphasize that there are many ways to do research, varying from quantitative techniques to qualitative methodologies, and we view these various methodologies as complementary, realizing that the nature of the practical and conceptual issues being tackled should determine the methodologies used.