What specialty should I be looking into?

[srpj2010]

Hi,

I have a BS in Sociology, a MBA, and work in the investment management/financial planning field. I'm interested in pursuing a PhD in psych in order to study investor and consumer behavior. I am pretty sure that I want to pursue these topics from a psychological standpoint, not from a marketing, economics, or finance perspective. But, I am a bit naive when it comes to the field of psychology. What specialization in psych deals with these topics? Social psych? Also, are there any programs that are particularly strong in investing/consumer behavior?

Thanks!

[gellert]

There's Industrial-organizational psychology (wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_and_organizational_psychology) which is more about the study of employees. Consumer psychology is considered a subfield of I-O, but depending on how you wanted to approach it, it could also be studied from a social psych perspective.

I'd check out this website, which I found through a simple google search. Maybe this will give you some ideas? http://www.myscp.org/default.aspx

[srpj2010]

Thank you for the response gellert.

I've put some more thought into it and realized that there is a better way to ask my question. What specialization deals with decision making? Would cognitive be the best choice?

Thanks!

[Behavioral]

Social Psychology (JDM), Marketing (Consumer Decision Making), Quantitative Marketing (Choice Modeling), or Economics/Micro Theory (Game Theory) are your best bets for "decision making".

[waiting123]

I'd suggest looking at articles that are interesting to you and then looking up their authors. Professors can be based in different departments depending on the school.