Social and Decision Sciences Graduate Program
The Social and Decision Sciences doctoral program emphasizes multi-disciplinary approaches to complex problems.
One hallmark of the program is that it is research-centered. The small size of the program makes it possible for students to work closely with its internationally distinguished faculty on diverse projects and to engage in research at the outset. A second hallmark of the program is its flexibility.
Although there are core requirements for all students, the program is designed to make it easy to combine interests in several academic areas.
SDS offers eight areas of focus for its Ph.D. program:
- Behavioral Decision Research
- Cognitive Decision Science
- Social and Decision Sciences
- Behavioral Marketing and Decision Research (joint with the Tepper School of Business)
- Behavioral Economics (joint with the Tepper School of Business)
- Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research (joint with the Department of Psychology)
- Medical Scientist Training Program MD-PhD (joint with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine)
- Autonomous and Human Decision Making (joint with the Machine Learning Department in the School of Computer Science)
Students may also create an individually tailored program.
Each of the doctoral fields of study
To reach precandidacy, students must:
- Complete a minimum of ten Ph.D. level courses, including four courses in methodology;
- Attend the first two semesters of the Social and Decision Sciences Ph.D. seminar, which is not counted as part of the above twelve courses;
- Complete a research paper by May of the second year (maximum 27 months);
- Qualifying exams due by January of the third year, but more typically by
beginning of August of the second year (maximum 29 months); - Dissertation
proposal due bybeginning of August of the fourth year (maximum 48 months).
Students achieve candidacy for the Ph.D. upon completion of the above requirements. The remaining Ph.D. requirements include writing and defending a doctoral dissertation within a recommended five years after entry into the program.
If you have general questions about the SDS Graduate programs, our application page includes several "frequently asked questions." You may also send your questions via email, to the appropriate contact found on the right.
Ph.D. Alumni Profile
Rich Truncellito
Staff Quantitative User Experience (UX) Researcher | YouTube
What do you love about your current position?
Like anyone who chooses the path of a researcher, I love the intention: pursue a greater understanding of human behavior, especially in my case to improve real people’s lived experiences. I love that real immediate impact my research can have, and I love that the scale and the reach of the products on which I’ve worked allow the pursuit and that impact to be both wide-reaching and (statistically) nuanced.
How do you utilize your SDS training in your current position? In particular, how has the interdisciplinary nature of SDS doctoral training benefitted you in your current job?
Apart from the core quantitative skills in research design and data analysis I literally use daily in my role, the particular perspective I gained via the SDS training in JDM and Behavioral Econ. regularly informs the perspective I take on questions my teammates and I ask about human behavior: I approach unknowns through the SDS lens, considering especially elements or dynamics like channel factors, defaults, norms, mental accounts, and comparison effects as “at play” factors in the decision systems I study; I advise and recommend product and UI designs on the basis of those and other decision science principles; and on occasion I even directly educate peers, cross-functional partners, and executive leaders on how those principles may be shaping downstream aspects of our product’s performance or our users’ behavior in ways crucial to our individual responsibilities or our collective business. It’s been the interdisciplinary background I gained through SDS and my ability to deliver on it in those ways, that has given my work its strong theoretical underpinnings and distinctive voice within the broader UX community at the companies where I’ve worked.
Please share a favorite moment of your time in SDS. It might be an anecdote, an event, a particular course or person who taught you a lot, or a project you started in graduate school.
Most of my favorite moments from my time in SDS are from time spent with my fellow graduate students. Faculty and courses were there as kindling, sure, but the roaring fire of my experience were the “after class” discussions and debates with my fellow doctoral students of the material we were learning and of the new questions we each were hoping and working to answer. We each brought such a different perspective to the table and each found such a different “home” within the full breadth of the field, that it was always a pleasure to exchange ideas and collaboratively construct an understanding of the state of the science as then we knew it.
What advice would you give to current Ph.D. students, or to students considering applying to the SDS Ph.D. program?
To current Ph.D. students I would advise actively considering (e.g., even actively trying, at least for a summer) an applied approach to research. It’s not advice or an experience a doctoral student could really ever get, staying fully within the bounds of academia from matriculation to graduation; but I think it’s an important one, so that students can begin to understand that there are other pathways for dedicated researchers like themselves than professorships and can begin to stretch their theoretical muscles into practical implemented interventions or designs that have real-world impact on others’ lives. For me, that experience clicked with what had inspired me to pursue the Ph.D. in the first place; and so from my perspective it’s worthwhile that students experiment on themselves in this way, to know for themselves whether a role in government, public health, finance, technology, or another applied field may similarly click for them.
To students considering applying to the SDS Ph.D. program, or any Ph.D. program, I’d advise seriously considering the research interests and directions of the faculty for resonance and commonality with their own. Enrolling as a Ph.D. student is effectively signing up to be a junior peer of and collaborator with one or more of these experienced researchers, if not for a lifetime, then for at least as many years as it takes to successfully defend a dissertation. In that way the experience is quite unlike the academic experiences these prospective applicants will have likely had before, wherein ensuring interpersonal + academic fit likely mattered far less to the personal and professional enrichment pursuing a higher education meant. Finding a good match at the doctoral level could mean not only having a great educational experience but also having a lifelong professional partnership on your work.