Dr. Patrick McCarthy, top left, an MTSU psychology professor and director of the industrial-organizational master’s degree program in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, and MTSU alumna Risa Witherow are guests on the recent “MTSU On the Record” program on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org that’s available to hear above. They worked with a team of graduate students who surveyed scholarship and fellowship recipients about their views on their future industry.

MTSU students’ views on a professional organization’s attempts to promote industrial/organizational psychology were the topic of discussion on a recent “MTSU On the Record” radio program. 

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Patrick McCarthy, an MTSU psychology professor and director of the Industrial-Organizational Psychology Master’s Degree Program in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, and MTSU alumna Risa Witherow first aired Oct. 26 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

You can listen to their conversation at the SoundCloud link above.

Risa Witherow

Dr. Patrick McCarthy

McCarthy supervised a team who assessed the impact of scholarships and fellowships awarded to graduate students by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Industrial/organizational psychology addresses workplace issues at both the worker and employer level. The field and the SIOP are concerned with occupational health and safety, employee morale, team performance, job satisfaction and related issues.

The 10-week research project, executed by second-year MTSU master’s level graduate students, found that the recipients felt the scholarships and fellowships contributed positively to their lives regarding financial aid, their engagement with SIOP, the validation of their research direction and their relationship with the field of industrial-organizational psychology.

“The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, or SIOP, is the largest professional organization in our field,” McCarthy said, “so the fact that they came to our program and had our graduate students essentially doing the first major assessment of this huge (awards) program of theirs was a tremendous honor.”

Witherow said the report recommends adding social media to SIOP’s promotional efforts, because the student researchers reported a lack of adequate marketing of the awards.

Gina K. Logue

“One of the questions that we asked the awardees was ‘How were you being reached?’” Witherow said, adding that they also were asked “‘How did you hear about the awards?’ ‘In what ways would you have liked to hear about it?’”

Donors to the program also reported high levels of satisfaction in how their contributions have been handled. Ironically, though, several donors requested more communication from SIOP on the impact of the awards on the recipients’ careers.

The full report is available as a PDF to read or download at the SIOP website.

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, visit the searchable “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

For more information about the radio program, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.