The Chicago School of Professional Psychology prepares professionals for meaningful careers in the global marketplace through an innovative curriculum. Below are some of the courses within the Master of Arts in I/O Psychology, Consumer Psychology specialization program.

Courses

ECP 701 Consumer Motivation
Consumers today are bombarded by fast-paced, technologically savvy inducements to make spontaneous purchases across media. Making sense of how potential buyers sort through the stimulus overload will help you design point of sale displays, improve visual merchandising, maintain the integrity of your brand image, and attract and retain customers over time. Individually tailored project work will center on the participant’s work challenges.

Learning objectives in this consumer psychology course include:

• Understanding the basic motivations underlying consumer purchasing behavior
• Identifying how consumers perceive and respond to product variety and assortment, as well as how individuals vary in their responses to these choices
• Applying techniques and methods for measuring customer satisfaction, or the degree to which consumers are satisfied or delighted
• Leveraging how customer goals and identities motivate their buying experiences and preferences
• Using this information as advertisers, marketers, buyers, merchandisers, and store managers to increase customer retention and the frequency of unplanned purchases

ECP 702 Reaching the Target Market: Qualitative Research Methods
Reaching your target market and building market share requires identifying the characteristics of the people in that group as well as what they look for in products or services that will make them loyal customers.

Techniques for collecting and analyzing data covered in this course include:

• Understanding qualitative research techniques
• Designing, conducting, and managing in-depth interviews; focus groups (on-site, telephone, web) and online bulletin boards
• Researching ethnographies
• Using hybrid models that combine interviews and focus groups
• Preventing, avoiding, and dealing with products associated with qualitative research
• Effectively reporting research findings

ECP 703 Understanding Customer Perceptions: Quantitative Research Methods
Focusing on your target market, improving customer satisfaction, and building your brand image means keeping your pulse on the public perception of your products and services.  Surveys are a key component of a customer awareness strategy. 

Learning objectives in this consumer psychology course include:

• Understanding when to use survey research
• Designing, conducting, and managing quantitative (survey) research
• Understanding how to ask survey questions that the get the information you need
• Conducting mail, web, and telephone surveys
• Managing, analyzing, and interpreting survey data
• Choosing the right types of analysis
• The impact of sampling techniques and sample size
• Effectively reporting survey findings