PhD in Social Psychology or Marketing ?

[shai]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and I hope I am posting in the right place.

Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone could give me good advice concerning where to apply. My main interest is Judgement and Decision Making and I don't know if I should apply to Social Psychology programs or Marketing Programs. I was led to believe that both departments research decision making. Any ideas ? anyone having/had the same thoughts ? What are considered the top programs for the fields ? I know there's a ranking for the social psych graduate programs. Is there a ranking for marketing as well ?

Thanks,

Shai (israel)

[WOMANOVA]

I have heard varying opinions on this so take this with a grain of salt...but I have heard that it is easier to go into a marketing career with a social psychology ph.d. than it is to get into a social psychology career (in academia) with a marketing ph.d. I think that which programs you apply to will heavily depend upon your long-term goals.

[one eyed rex]

Shai, I'm also considering both social psych and marketing PhD programs (though not necessarily specifically JDM, though that's one area of interest). I have found it difficult to get good information on the marketing PhD process, perhaps because there are just so few who go that route compared to the psych PhD. The best forum I know of is the Testmagic PhD Business forum. I have been lurking there for a while and have found it valuable, though occasionally paranoia-inducing. You might get some insight from others if you asked about marketing programs there.

Many people seem to use the UT-Dallas rankings by publication site as a way of ranking business PhD programs (at least as a first approximation).

I agree with womanova on the asymmetry of placement possibilities post-PhD. I assume you are a psych major...? Have you taken any marketing courses yourself, like a consumer behavior course, or have familiarity with business schools? It is sort of a big decision to decide whether you can see yourself teaching business undergrads and MBA students vs. psych students, even if you can do the same research in both places. It's something I haven't been able to quite decide for myself yet. Of course, it's generally acknowledged that the "market" for marketing PhDs is very favorable, and it's unknown to me how much preference is put on a marketing PhD vs. a psych PhD for filling an asst professor of marketing position.

It also appears to me that there is a great emphasis on quant ability/background in the marketing PhD application process (and to a certain extent, in the program itself). Not sure how strong you are in quant but it is my understanding (maybe inaccurate) that what's considered good for psych is not good for business, even in the less obviously math-heavy disciplines. Many marketing programs report median GRE Q scores of 800, and very many of them recommend being in the top 90th percentile in Q to be a competitive applicant, which looks more like econ than psych to me. I've been surprised (almost shocked) by the number of MS Engineering types who are successfully applying for marketing slots in consumer behavior, not just quant marketing. I don't want to make you freaked out about it (though I sort of am at times, heh) but it's something to consider and to look into yourself if you are not blessed with the near-perfect quant score and associated math background.

I hope others can chime in on this subject that is near and dear to my own heart.

(PS Can't help but be amused by the meta quality of discussions of decision-making about Judgment and Decision-Making.)

[shai]

Thanks for the feedback. I feel like i have a pretty strong mathematical side (I'm majoring in Psychology & Cognitive science) but i kind of hate math. anyhow, if i will choose to apply to marketing programs, they will surely be behavioural marketing. I saw that the program at yale for behavioral marketing does not include any quantative courses and am currently looking for more programs of the sort (any one out there know of good ones)? also, why is the transition from a marketing PhD to psychology departments rare ? what is so different in teaching business students ?

and now for something completely different.... i've written two seminar papers for which i conducted a short research. anyone think it is worth translating them (they're in hebrew) and sending them with my applications (once i start applying) ?

cheers, shai

[cogneuroforfun]

I'm not sure exactly what sort of JDM stuff you're interested in, but I am doing neuroeconomics and thus applied to some more behavioral JDM programs too. I highly recommend Carnegie Mellon's Social and Decision Science department. They have a joint degree in behavioral decision research and psychology which looks fantastic for more cognitive/behavioral (less neuro) JDM. As for psych programs with some good JDM faculty, a couple of the big ones I liked were Princeton and UPenn. Craig Fox at UCLA also seems like he would be a good advisor and is doing cool work.

I definitely would not confine yourself to social psych; I found plenty of JDM faculty in cognitive areas, and I think cognitive psychology areas are a little less competitive than social psych area. I think social gets way more applicants for about the same number of slots.

[shai]

Hi cogneuroforfun

Thanks for the advice ! as for the difference between social psych and cognitive psych - i majored in cognitive science and kind of decided that i'm not interested in the EEG/fMRI/reaction time studies. How can i know if the program i'm applying to conducts studies of that sort or not ?

-shai

[cogneuroforfun]

Hi cogneuroforfun

Thanks for the advice ! as for the difference between social psych and cognitive psych - i majored in cognitive science and kind of decided that i'm not interested in the EEG/fMRI/reaction time studies. How can i know if the program i'm applying to conducts studies of that sort or not ?

-shai

Instead of thinking about the program doing something, you should look at individual faculty members to see what they do. Start off looking at some school you would like to go to and wouldn't mind living in its city/town. Look through the psychology department, business, marketing, etc., and find any professors who mention cool stuff on their departmental page. Then do a search on pubmed or google scholar and see what kind of stuff they do.

Alternatively, look at any of the JDM articles you've read that are doing the research you want to do: where are those authors?

[shai]

Cool ! hre's another question (if you don't mind) : is it legit to apply in the same school for both a psych program and a marketing one ? because they're not run through the same school i would imagine there is a differentation there....

[cogneuroforfun]

Cool ! hre's another question (if you don't mind) : is it legit to apply in the same school for both a psych program and a marketing one ? because they're not run through the same school i would imagine there is a differentation there....

I'm fairly certain most schools are perfectly happy with that. You will almost certainly have to pay two application fees though, unfortunately. Although I did not do it, I know some cognitive neuroscience applicants who applied to psych and neuro programs at the same school. For two of the schools where I applied to the neuro program, they shared the applications with psychology by default.

Within the psychology department, I saw some schools that made you apply to one area and you could not apply to, say, "social" and "cognitive" areas, only one. But I didn't see any that said you could only apply to one department. It wouldn't hurt to email a school and ask to make sure, but unless they explicitly say you can't apply to multiple departments, then you're probably good! Just make sure you're honest and consistent in your personal statements and interests to each: you don't want to get your app dumped in the trash because you told two different stories and the departments decided to coordinate on which would admit you

[drpsych]

I applied to both social psych and organizational behavior/management types of programs. I didn't apply to both in the same school, though I have heard of people doing that as well. I think they are really related so I don't think people look down on you applying to both types of programs (and if it applies, you could want to look into I/O psychology programs, although that might be more related to my situation than yours?). Here's what I can think of that compares the two types:

* The research is very similar at both, but there is a difference between who you teach: undergrads/graduate students v. MBA types of students (and maybe also sometimes undergrad business students?).

* Funding is a lot better generally at the business schools, and when you come out of the program, you're likely to become a business school prof (and therefore make more money), and it's true that sometimes psych phds go and work at business schools, but I don't think I have ever heard of business phds working in psych departments (though maybe there's no reason to for them because the money is better where they are).

* Classes - you will obviously be taking more business classes at a business program, though it is likely you'll be taking a lot of psych as well (but how much depends on the program I think). You could take business classes in a psych program if the school has one, but that would be more on your own accord.

Hope that helps (sorry if I repeated a bunch of what's already been said!)

[shai]

Hey Dr Psych !

Still one thing not clear to me. everybody seems to be telling me that undergrad/grad students are different from business undergrads / mba students. yet i don't what accounts to that difference. i'm guessing it's an american thing - but maybe you could enlighten me on that ?

thx,

-shai

[cogneuroforfun]

Hey Dr Psych !

Still one thing not clear to me. everybody seems to be telling me that undergrad/grad students are different from business undergrads / mba students. yet i don't what accounts to that difference. i'm guessing it's an american thing - but maybe you could enlighten me on that ?

thx,

-shai

Its a difference in character, perspective, and goals, I think. Psychology undergrads/grads are going to be primarily concerned with doing well in school, doing some research, possibly doing some volunteer work, and most likely applying to grad school (social work, clinical, etc). Business students are going to be worried about internships, getting a job, and making money.

Obviously they're all college students, so they have to do some amount of scholarly work to get by (and everyone eventually wants to make some decent money). But many psychology students will be continuing on into academia/research careers, whereas business students are planning on getting out into the work force and finding a good job. Its not like one is necessarily better, but if you want to have students excited about basic research or academia or something, psychology students might be better. On the other hand, if you are all about applying psychological research directly into the workplace, and you care more about the applied side than the research side, you might prefer business students.

That's a very rough outline of how I think about it, but it will at least give you some idea of the kinds of differences, I think.

[drpsych]

I agree on what's been said already about the difference in teaching/students, but it's also the content. One is straight up psych and basic science stuff, whereas marketing (or in my case, management/organizational behavior) would be based on social psych, but is also geared towards applied business stuff. So again, depends on what you want?

[Carolyn_D]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and I hope I am posting in the right place.

Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone could give me good advice concerning where to apply. My main interest is Judgement and Decision Making and I don't know if I should apply to Social Psychology programs or Marketing Programs. I was led to believe that both departments research decision making. Any ideas ? anyone having/had the same thoughts ? What are considered the top programs for the fields ? I know there's a ranking for the social psych graduate programs. Is there a ranking for marketing as well ?

Thanks,

Shai (israel)

It's crazy because this is my exact same dilemma! Please let me know what you ended up doing! Advice?

Thanks!