Social, Decision and Organizational Science-SDOS | PSYC | Psychology Department

The Social, Decision, and Organizational Sciences (SDOS) Program brings together the subspecialties of Social Psychology, Decision Sciences, and Industrial and Organizational Psychology. The SDOS area studies how individuals perceive and process information about their social environment and themselves, how they make decisions, and also manage their interdependencies with others in dyadic, team, organizational, and societal contexts. We study a broad array of individual, group, and organizational phenomena. Individual phenomena include motivational processes, social judgment, attitudes/attitude change, judgment and decision-making processes, cognitive decision theory, risk assessment, and self-processes. Group phenomena include interpersonal relationships, social conflict and aggression, negotiations, social influence and conformity, small group processes, leadership, group decision making, social networks, technology and groups, diversity, and prejudice and discrimination. Organizational phenomena include organizational culture and climate, national culture, and culture change.

The goal of our graduate training is twofold: (a) to enable students to acquire “multilingual” skills in the scientific approaches, languages and methods of these three sub-disciplines of psychology, and (b) to acquire an in-depth expertise in one (or more) of these areas. Our program is based on the belief that exposure and familiarity with these three, naturally intersecting, domains will augment our graduates’ ability to carry out problem-focused research that crosses area boundaries and that is of increasing relevance in the social and behavioral sciences.

Follow this link to learn more about the SDOS Program