Welcome

Thank you for visiting my web site. I am an Assistant Professor in the Quantitative Psychology Program of the L.L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am also an alumnus of UNC, having completed my graduate training in Developmental Psychology here, as well as a post-doctoral fellowship in applied statistics at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science. Additionally, before returning to UNC, I spent two years as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University. On my web site, I keep copies of many of my publications and conference presentations, as well as related supplementary material like computer code and technical appendices. I also teach a number of undergraduate- and graduate-level classes and related course materials are maintained on Blackboard.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the development, evaluation and application of quantitative methods suited to the study of developmental phenomena, especially social development in the domains of aggression, antisocial behavior, and substance use.  These methods include multilevel linear and nonlinear models, structural equation models, cluster analysis and finite mixture models, and models that integrate various aspects of these analytic techniques (e.g., growth mixture models).  I am primarily interested in the application of these models for the analysis of change over time.  Developmental theory suggests that change may be nonlinear in form, may occur simultaneously over multiple timeframes (e.g., long-term trends in a phenomenon that also exhibits seasonal fluctuations), and may differ qualitatively between subgroups of the population under study.  My quantitative research stems from a desire to model change in a manner that optimally reflects the proposed theoretical model.  As such, I have concentrated my research on identifying both the opportunities and limitations associated with current and newly emerging analytic models, as well as investigating new ways to overcome these limitations so that the models can be usefully applied to make accurate inferences about developmental theory.