Human Factors Psychology (PhD)

What is A Human Factors Psychology (PhD) Degree?

Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processing–the mind.  So, it’s a field that people really enjoy studying because what’s not to like about basically learning about you?!  The field has a very broad application, even though many people think it’s mainly about counseling people and helping them with their problems.  One of these applications is called Human Factors Psychology (sometimes called Human Engineering) and is all about designing, re-working, and improving the stuff we use in living our lives—cars, phones, health clubs, chairs, tables, water bottles, classrooms, offices, and everything else.  The goal is to make the product or environment better for human beings by matching their characteristics with human traits.  By designing products while considering how humans behave and think (there’s the psychology part!), you’ll be making products that are safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient.

This applied field of psychology is huge, so there are opportunities for people with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in psychology and other technical fields to get entry-level positions with a narrow scope.  But, to work as a Human Factors Psychologist, a doctoral level degree, the PhD in Human Factors, is needed. These programs are usually multi-disciplinary, meaning that you’ll study Psychology in great depth but also Engineering and Graphic Design. If you want to specialize further, which most practitioners do, you’ll need to prepare in that particular area, too.  Specific applications might be cockpit design, office layout, processes for manufacturing, design of new computers, etc.  Emphasis will be on the in-depth research that may be needed to figure out the specific factors that have to be accommodated for in various situations.

The videos below discuss “typical” programs, so they should help regardless of which school you are considering.