Our Program
About the Purdue I-O Psychology Program
Photo from our weekly research colloquium.
Purdue University’s Industrial and Organizational (I-O) psychology Ph.D. program is heavily research-oriented. Students are strongly encouraged to participate in faculty research and eventually formulate and direct their own individual research projects. Teaching experience is also provided for most students during their graduate program.
Most students enter the Ph.D. program with a bachelor's degree, although some enter with a master's degree. Graduate students are admitted to work with one of the primary I-O faculty members who serves as their major professor.
Graduate training is based on a science-practice model, where students are trained both as researchers as well as applied scientists equipped to work with organizations on human resource issues.
The current faculty have a wide range of research interests, many of which center around the psychological experiences of people at work. More information about the Ph.D. program can be found on the right.
About Purdue University
Purdue is a Big Ten research university. The campus is vibrant and intellectually diverse. There are nearly 40,000 students enrolled at Purdue University with a large number of international students. The Purdue international student population was recently ranked 2nd in public institutions with over 8,000 international students.
Purdue is located in West Lafayette, Indiana, a safe city with a low cost of living. This is beneficial to graduate students who will be able to save money during graduate school. The campus is within walking distance of the Wabash riverfront area, which joins West Lafayette and Lafayette and is the location of many outside festivals. The Lafayette-West Lafayette area offers a number of restaurants, bars, shopping, and cultural activities, and has a combined population of nearly 100,000 residents. For more on the area, see http://www.homeofpurdue.com/.
West Lafayette is located about one hour from Indianapolis and about two hours from Chicago. The closest international airports are the Indianapolis International Airport and O'Hare International Airport (in Chicago).
UN Global Compact
The Purdue I-O Psychology program is proud to have worked with the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) United Nations Committee to become the first I-O program to become a UN Global Compact participant (and to include our materials in SIOP’s Global Compact Application Toolkit).
We have pledged to give emphasis in our courses and other program activities to topics and issues relevant to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, which center around organizations’ responsibilities relevant to human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.
To learn more about the ways in which we embed socially responsible principles into all aspects of our program, our bi-annual Communications on Engagement is provided on the right.
Read our program's most recent UN Global Compact report here!
Purdue Psychology Awards
Photo of Stuti Thapa and her advisor, Louis Tay, during the graduate student award ceremony, taken Spring 2023.
Students and faculty are often recognized for their excellence in research, teaching, and mentoring through a variety of program and departmental awards. Dr. Willam H. Hendrix, who received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1974, and who is a Professor Emeritus of Management at Clemson University, has generously endowed two annual awards; one to recognize an I-O psychology faculty member for excellence in research and one to recognize an I-O psychology graduate student for excellence in research. These awards are listed below:
Graduate Student Award: Dr. William H. Hendrix Industrial-Organizational Psychology Graduate Student Research Excellence Award
Faculty Award: Dr. William H. Hendrix Industrial-Organizational Psychology Faculty Research Excellence Award
Additionally, students in our program have been recognized with the John and Joyce Schaeuble Award for quantitative approaches to psychological sciences and the Joseph Tiffin Award for creative and contributory research.