Flaherty lab

Applied Psychometrics and Models in Behavioral Research

(APMBR isn’t a nice, neat acronym, so I’ve reverted to Flaherty lab.)

“Understanding what you’re doing and being certain of the underlying justification for whatever conclusions you reach, no matter how trivial, is the whole story.” (Sentilles, Bridge to Advanced Mathematics)

“We do not fear being called meticulous, inclining as we do to the view that only the exhaustive can be truly interesting.” (Thomas Mann, Foreword, The Magic Mountain)

In our lab, we focus on developing new models and approaches to answer behavioral research questions, as well as examining how existing approaches perform in varied behavioral research situations. A few examples of research topics we are currently examining include:

  • How does the choice of latent variable operationalization affect the results and scientific conclusions? Currently examining this in data on substance use, disability, frailty, and stigma, as well as simulation research.
  • Pros and cons of different approaches to conceptualizing and modeling stigma and intersectional stigma.
  • psychometric reliability assessment in latent class and mixture models
  • parameter restrictions in latent class models
  • exploratory data analysis techniques
  • analysis of data from discrete choice experiments, as well as novel applications of this design

There are many opportunities for interested graduate and undergraduate students, as well as postdoctoral scholars in this lab!

People currently affiliated:

  • Nancy Gomez, graduate student (Quantitative Psychology), latent class and mixture models, HIV, social frailty
  • Sarena Sabine, graduate student (Quantitative Psychology), measurement and scale design, nature and well-being
  • Jessica Yu, graduate student (Quantitative Psychology), latent class and mixture model estimation, activities of daily living and alcohol
  • Jessie Melina Garcia Gutiérrez, graduate student (Health Systems and Population Health), measurement of latent constructs and scale design; structural factors and mental health

People who have moved on:

  • Tessa Concepcion, Ph.D.
  • Esther Choo, Ph.D.
  • Trevor Peckham, Ph.D.
  • Yusuke Shono, Ph.D.
  • Sarah T. Roberts, Ph.D.
  • Ramona Beltran, Ph.D.

I also work with many graduate students across departments on their own research.