Is APA Acreditation Needed for I-O psychology?

APA accreditation (for MA and PhD) is paramount when it comes to counseling or clinical psychology and for state licensing.

What about I-O psychology? Is APA accreditation needed for a PhD program in I-O Psychology if one intends to pursue a tenured faculty position teaching at a psych department or a business department?

 

Industrial/Organizational Psychology is used as the classic example of a sub-field of psychology where APA might not be necessary.

 

I could be wrong but I believe that the APA only accredits programs in Clinical, counseling and school psychology. I sprinted through their site and didn't see anything regarding i-o.

 

Kizmet,

You are correct.

 

If not APA then which accreditation is good?

If the professional accreditation 'APA' is not an issue here, which accreditation should I look for, regional, national?

 

I would recommend that you look for schools w/ regional accreditation. With that said, I'm not sure if there is a DETC school that offers an MA/MS in I/O Psych. Does this animal exist?

The Society for Industrial & Organizational Society, Inc., offers a nice search engine for I/O Psych programs (including DL options). http://www.siop.org/gtp/GtpLookup.asp Just select "search by specific criteria" and then select Distance Program = Yes.

Good luck,

 

APA accredtation

I/O psych is a terminal degree at masters level. Greater opportunities exist for those with a doctorate, though. However, if you want to be officially called an "industrial psychologist" in your state and advertise yourself as such, you might have to have an APA doctorate. You should check with your psychology state licensing board to find out more. It could be that you just need any kind of doctorate. Check out Colorado State University's program, they have one of the best. I think it's www.learn.colostate.edu/degrees, or University of Phoenix has a combo masters/doctorate program (www.phoenix.edu), or University of Kansas...another option also is University of the Rockies masters in business psychology, which is the exact same thing as i/O. I am enrolled in their psych program. They are at www.rockies.edu

 

I don't think an I/O psychologist needs a state license to practice, cant say I'm a 100% sure though