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Best Online Master’s Degrees in: Quantitative Psychology

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Explore a Master's Degree in Quantitative Psychology

Quantitative psychology emphasizes measurement, methodology, and research design and analyses. Quantitative psychology combines work in measurement theory, statistics, and modeling with substantive research areas of psychology like couples analysis, longitudinal and diary data, health outcomes, and psychopathology. Graduates may find work in the business-industrial sector. Psychologists require communication, observational, and analytical skill to analyze data and draw conclusions, and communicate those conclusions to clients and peers. Most master's-level quantitative psychology programs take two to three years to complete, though this number could change depending on how many graduate-level credits a student transfers in as well as whether he or she attends part or full time.

Class Curriculum

Graduate course work in quantitative psychology covers traditional measurement, item response theory, latent variable modeling, multivariate analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling. Courses may also include studies of statistical analysis of fMRI data, intervention design and analysis, and factor analysis.

  • Quantitative Methods in Cognitive Psychology. Quantitative methods in cognitive psychology covers nonstatistical methods in psychology. Students learn Markov chains, queuing theory, information theory, and frequency analysis.
  • Psychological Statistics and Research Methods. Psychological statistics covers statistical procedures in research and practices of psychology. A research methods class covers critical analysis in psychology, including statistical design, and experimental and nonexperimental research methods. Further course work may include research methods in developmental psychopathology, health psychology, or another specific field of psychology.
  • Multivariate and Factor Analysis. Analysis course work may include multivariate analysis, which covers data with multiple dependent variables. Topics discussed include continuous multivariate distributions, multiple regressions, multivariate analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, and principal component analysis. Factor analysis includes rotations, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group analysis.

A graduate degree usually requires thesis work throughout graduate studies related to the discipline. Quantitative psychology students may expect problem set assignments corresponding to statistical analysis and research methods learned in lectures, and readings in related and current psychological studies for theory and methods. Students may also participate in departmental research. Quantitative psychology students may be required to gain internship experience during their graduate education for professional development.

Building a Career

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the median pay for psychologists was $68,640 per year, and that employment for psychologists is expected to increase by 22% between 2010 and 2020. However, keep in mind that these are not the wages you may encounter, as salary and employment opportunities are affected by factors like employer, area, experience, and position. With that being said, industrial organizational psychologists had a median annual wage of $87,330, according to the BLS.

Practicing under the title of "psychologists" in most states require licensure. To gain licensure, graduates of a psychology program must pass the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. Licensure may also require a doctorate in psychology, internship experience, and one to two years of professional experience. Professional experience may include predoctoral or postdoctoral supervised experience, or a residency program.