OEHS 6840 - Methods in Occupational Health Psychology

OEHS 6840 will introduce students to research methods used in the field of Occupational Health Psychology (OHP). According to the Society for OHP, the field involves the interdisciplinary partnerships of psychological and occupational health science professionals seeking to improve the quality of working life, and enhance the safety, health and well-being of workers in all occupations. With its interdisciplinary focus, OHP scientist-practitioners employ methods commonly used in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, but also employ measures and methods from allied fields. This course will focus on introducing students to a range of methods used in OHP via textbook, but with some additional topics introduced or illustrated via research articles. Course topics will be divided into four thematic areas: • Research Frameworks • Measures • Designs • Analyses (integrated with Designs) The course will center on an application project where students will design their own research study in an OHP area of interest. The project writing will focus most heavily on methods. The project will take place in stages where students will prepare an outline and then written sections in stages. Each stage will be shared and informally presented in class in order to receive feedback before progressing to the next stage. The course learning experience will involve a weekly student-led process that incorporates elements of "inter-teaching" (Boyce and Hineline, 2002). Students will work in groups of 2-3 to complete written answers to reading study objectives each week, and then share and discuss their answers together in class. Each week a different student group will lead a discussion of the study objectives.