Graduate Studies in SDS: Program Outline

Ph.D. Program Overview

The primary goals of the program are to provide students with a strong substantive understanding of an academic field in the social and decision sciences, to ensure that students develop the methodological and analytical skills required to do rigorous research in their area of interest, and to train students to think critically and creatively. In order to achieve these goals, the department’s graduate program is organized around a set of four fields. They are: Behavioral Decision Research (BDR), Organization Science, Technological Change and Industrial Evolution, and Political Psychology and Economy. A fifth program option, Research/Mentoring, is available for interested students with qualified backgrounds.  Additionally, SDS has collaborated with the Psychology Department in offering a new program leading to a PhD in Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research. 

The Graduate Education Committee

The Ph.D. Program operates under the supervision of the Graduate Education Committee (GEC). The GEC monitors student progress and makes recommendations concerning the program to the Department Head and the full faculty. The GEC chair is empowered to rule on relevant day-to-day issues. The GEC consists of four faculty members, one representing each field of study in the department, and one graduate student, selected by the other graduate students. The Department Head is also a member ex officio.

Contacts

• Dr. Paul Fischbeck — (412) 268-3240; pf12@andrew.cmu.edu – SDS Department Head.
• Dr. George Loewenstein — (412) 268-8787; gl20@andrew.cmu.edu – Chair of the GEC
• Dr. John Lehoczky — (412) 268-2830; jl16@andrew.cmu.edu – Dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences.
• Connie Angermeier — (412) 268-3251; cla2@andrew.cmu.edu –Coordinator of Student Programs. Connie maintains the graduate students’ academic audits and manages the department’s course scheduling and registration. Please direct all registration questions to her.
• Amy Patterson — (412) 268-3664; amysp@andrew.cmu.edu – Departmental Business Manager. All questions on general information should be directed to her as well as any questions concerning stipend, tuition, departmental procedures, etc..

General Requirements

Each of the doctoral fields of study have the same general requirements and milestones. The first stage of requirements is known as precandidacy for the Ph.D. The precandidacy requirements and milestones include:

• Completing at least twelve Ph.D. level courses, including at least four courses in methodology;
• Attending the SDS Ph.D. seminar (first two semesters; not counted as part of the twelve courses);
• Completing a Research Paper (by January 10 of second year);
• Passing the Doctoral Qualifying Examinations (by December 10 of third year);
• Dissertation Proposal Acceptance (by June 1 of third year).

Upon completion of the above requirements, students will have achieved candidacy for the Ph.D. The remaining requirements for the Ph.D. include:

• Writing and defending a Ph.D. Dissertation (within a recommended four years after entry into the program).

n.b.: The timing of these requirements may be different for students in the Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) program.  The requirements for the joint PhD in Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research will vary slightly from those listed above for students entering through SDS.

Students may take more than the required twelve courses (including those taken after the second year) in order to gain added breadth and/or depth to their studies.

Students who enter SDS to earn the Ph.D. may receive an M.S. degree upon satisfactory completion of the coursework and research paper requirements. Continuing into Ph.D. candidacy does not require changing faculty advisors or changing committee membership.

Committees

Students need to form committees for three requirements: the research paper, the qualifying examinations, and the dissertation. These committees are created to provide the student with guidance and to evaluate the student’s performance. Each committee must consist of at least three members, and the chair of the committee must be an SDS faculty member (the others may be from outside SDS or outside CMU). The committee chair is normally the student’s principal advisor. Students must arrange the formation of their committee by asking faculty for their participation and submitting a membership proposal to the GEC for approval. Any subsequent changes to committee membership must also be approved by the GEC by petition.

Academic Standards

All students must maintain a "B+" grade point average (3.33) in all graduate coursework in order to be considered in "good standing." Failure to do so will place a student on academic probation. Students on probation have one semester to raise their grade average, and failure to do so is grounds for dismissal from the program.

Any grade of "incomplete"(letter grade "I") for a course must be finished by the end of the semester following the one in which the course was taken. Failure to finish the course in this time frame will result in a final default grade based on the work completed.

FIELDS OF STUDY

The four basic fields of study for graduate training in SDS are: Behavioral Decision Research (BDR), Organization Science, Technological Change and Industrial Evolution, and Political Psychology and Economy. A fifth program option, Research/Mentoring, is available for interested students with qualified backgrounds.  Additionally, SDS has collaborated with the Psychology Department in offering a new program leading to a PhD in Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research.

Behavioral Decision Research (BDR) is an interdisciplinary field that draws on insights from psychology and economics to provide a descriptively realistic picture of human decision making. BDR shares with economics the idea that human behavior can be understood as a purposeful attempt to achieve well-being, or "utility." It shares with psychology the recognition that social, cognitive and emotional factors have great influence on decisions. For example, people have limited information-processing capacity, and limited opportunities to acquire some of the specific skills needed for effective decision making. The combination of these perspectives leads BDR to focus on ways that real-world decision making deviates from the stylized assumptions of economics–and on ways in which performance might be improved. Graduates from this program are prepared for academic (e.g. psychology departments or business schools) or industry positions.

Suggested courses:

• two SDS courses in BDR (from 88-702, 88-703, and 88-715);
• Game Theory (88-706);
• one graduate-level course in microeconomics (90-908 or 47-800);
• four field-specific methodology courses;
• elective courses in psychology;
• two Ph.D. seminars (88-900 and 88-901).

To learn more about BDR, contact SDS faculty members Dr. Robyn Dawes (rd1b@andrew.cmu.edu, 268-2055, PH 219C) or Dr. George Loewenstein (gl20@andrew.cmu.edu, 268-8787, PH 319D).

Technological Change and Industrial Evolution relates to the growth of global competition that has deepened appreciation of the fundamental role for technological change. Such change has influenced the market structures of firms, industries and regions, and the conditioning of economic performance. This field of study focuses on the evolution of firm and industry structure, and its interplay with technological change. The determinants of the generation, commercialization and diffusion of new technologies are explored. Public policy concerning the funding of basic and applied research, antitrust, regulation, and regional economic development is considered, as is the private management of technological change.

Suggested courses:

• one graduate-level course in microeconomics (90-908 or 47-800);
• Economics of Technological Change (88-743);
• Organizational Theory (88-752);
• Rise of Industrial Research and Development (79-821);The Economics of Entrepreneurship in High Technology Industries (88-743);
• four field-specific methodology courses;
• elective courses;
• two Ph.D. seminars (88-900 and 88-901).

To learn more about this track, contact SDS faculty member Dr. Steven Klepper (sk3f@andrew.cmu.edu, 268-3235, PH 219F).

Political Economy trains students for employment in political science departments, schools of public policy, and other related programs. Political science has been deeply influenced by economics and psychology, and SDS is well prepared to assure that its graduate students have a sound basic training in both of these disciplines along with the understanding of theories of political institutions and policy analysis. SDS seeks to equip scholars with the best insights of these disciplines for the study of political behavior, political institutions, and public policymaking.

Suggested courses:

• two SDS courses in BDR (from 88-702, 88-703, and 88-715);
• Game Theory (88-706);
• one graduate-level course in microeconomics (90-908 or 47-800);
• Public Economics (two mini courses, 47-877, 878);
• four field-specific methodology courses;
• Concepts and Theories of Political Science (Political Science 2010 at Univ. Pittsburgh);
• two Ph.D. seminars (88-900 and 88-901).

To learn more about this track, contact SDS faculty member Dr. Bill Keech (keech@andrew.cmu.edu, 268-8364, PH 219A).

Research/Mentoring Program. This is an alternative to the four fields of study. This program is designed for students who fall into any of the following categories: 1) the mature student with specific career goals, a multidisciplinary interest and a strong fit with one or more specific faculty members, 2) the student accepted to a special joint degree program or secondary degree program (e.g. an M.S. in statistics), or 3) the student accepted into the CASOS program (see below). The Research/Mentoring Program is an innovative program that emphasizes multi-disciplinary training, active and wide-ranging participation in research, and coursework tailored to the student's needs, background, and career goals.

Students in Research/Mentoring are expected to meet the standard SDS milestones (i.e., research paper, qualifying exam, and dissertation proposal). However, the content of the qualifier, and the possible timing of the milestones may be adjusted based on the student's background or the program requirements (in the case of a joint degree or CASOS). Such adjustments must be discussed with the GEC. The student's main advisor will be in SDS. The students are expected to meet the graduate program’s methods and field requirements. The specific field and the courses that can be used to meet these requirements are jointly determined by the student and the faculty advisor. The courses can vary widely depending on the student's background, career goals, and program.

CASOS is the program of study in Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems. This program provides students with multi-disciplinary training and research experience in both computer science/engineering and social/organizational science.

Additional details on the center and affiliated Ph.D. program can be found at:www.ices.cmu.edu/casos.

Suggested courses:

• Organizational Theory (88-743)
• Social Network Methodology (90-919)
• Multi-Agent Systems (TBD)
• Computational Modeling (88-750)
• Research Practicum
• Two computer science or mathematics methodology courses
• Three social science specific electives
• A general elective

Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research. The Doctoral Program in Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research draws on this tradition, by building on insights from psychology and economics to provide a descriptively realistic picture of human judgment and decision making.  Although there are core requirements for all students,the program is designed to make it easy to combine interests in several academic areas.

Required courses:

• two SDS courses in BDR (88-702 and 88-703);
• one graduate-level course in microeconomics (90-908 or 47-800);
• four field-specific methodology courses;
• elective courses;
• one Psychology Core (in concentration area);
• Psychology Immigration Course;
• one Ph.D. seminar in SDS (88-900).

For program information, please contact any of the core faculty members:

• Professor Brooke Feeney (bfeeney@andrew.cmu.edu)
• Professor Robyn Dawes (rd1b@andrew.cmu.edu)
• Professor Baruch Fischhoff (baruch@cmu.edu)
• Professor Jennifer Lerner (jlerner@andrew.cmu.edu)
• Professor George Loewenstein (gl20@andrew.cmu.edu)
• Professor Lynne Reder (reder@cmu.edu)  

Program requirements in methodology. As stated above, each field of study requires four graduate-level courses in a methodological area to be completed by the end of their second year. This must include at least two graduate courses in statistics. We assume that a knowledge of research methods equivalent to what we demand of our undergraduate majors is a basic floor of methodological sophistication for our graduate students. Accordingly, new students will be asked to take an exam based on 88-241 (Empirical Research Methods II) as a diagnostic tool soon after they arrive. The results of this test can be used in deciding what courses to take.