GRADUATE WORK

I completed my graduate work at the University of Southern California (USC). USC’s Master of Applied Psychology Program blends content in consumer psychology and organizational psychology to create a universally relevant academic experience. All coursework is detailed below:

• Proseminar in Human Behavior: Foundations

  This course provides the foundation for approaching the business world through the lens of applied psychology. This course will ask: How can psychology illuminate real-world problems faced in consumer marketing, employee management and organizational dynamics? Students will examine issues facing companies/organizations and then review contemporary psychology theory and research, seeking intersections between theory and practice. We will broadly review psychological concepts such as social, social-cognitive, personality and motivation, neurobehavioral, cross-cultural and developmental perspectives.

• Proseminar in Human Behavior: Applications

  This course provides students with practical skills and tools grounded in psychological theory that can be directly applied in the business world while actively involving each student in personal professional development. A different workshop or professional development activity will be conducted each week. Workshops will be facilitated by a content specialist with experience teaching in business environments. By their nature, workshops depend on learning by doing as the primary method of instruction. Workshops in this course include Mediation Skills, Strategic Communication, Creativity Workshop, Multimedia Brand Development and Storytelling, and Emotional Intelligence.

• Consumer Psychology

  Consumer Psychology will explore the factors that influence consumer behavior in the marketplace. Emphasis will be placed on individual (or internal) factors and group (or external) factors that help explain how and why buyers behave as they do. Understanding of consumer psychology will be tied to the development of effective marketing strategies. This course provides a transition from prior psychology coursework to the pragmatic practices of business.

• Organizational Psychology

  Organizational Psychology examines people’s thoughts, feelings and behavior in organizational contexts. This class explores scientifically-based psychological principles and research methods to study topics important to understanding human behavior in many different types of organizations. As such, this course is relevant to virtually all work settings (and many non-work settings). The goal is to provide you with an overview of the main theories, concepts and research in this field.

• Research Methods in Applied Psychology

  Research Methods in Applied Psychology will introduce students to mixed methods research, which is used in a number of applied settings and academia. This course will examine quantitative and qualitative methods and their application in real-world research projects. To simulate professional situations, this course will provide opportunities to present work in front of other classmates. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to utilize some of the research methods most commonly used in business settings.

• Workshop in Quantitative Methods

  The course will introduce you to advanced techniques in data analysis, study design and survey research as they are applied to business problems. The application of these techniques will primarily be focused on marketing and market research, though they are equally applicable to organizational behavior. Applications for both quantitative and qualitative data will be covered, as both are important to making business decisions.

• User Experience (UX) Research

  User experience (UX) research is an applied discipline that employs a wide variety of methods from psychology and other social sciences to better understand the individuals who engage, or may engage, with a product or service. This understanding is often used to support the end-to-end design process, from early, strategic investigation of context, wants, and needs, to later, tactical testing of usability and examination of competitive sets. Increasingly UX research is interacting with other applied disciplines such as organizational psychology and market research and stretching beyond the design process, impacting decision making in human resources, facilities management, customer support, and even the C-suite. This course will provide a broad introduction to the social science methods UX researchers most commonly use, including qualitative approaches, such in-depth interviews, usability tests, heuristic reviews, ethnographic in-context interviews and observation, and quantitative approaches, such as surveys, benchmarking, card sorting, and tree testing, with an emphasis on experiential learning. Additionally, students will learn about current debates and emerging questions in the field, with diverse perspectives provided by guest presenters from industry and academia.