With the acquisition of knowledge being my personal life passion, it quickly became obvious to me that statistics was the tool with which I could achieve my goals. Quantitative Psychology is applicable to all facets of psychology and is the backbone of social science research. Considering the complex nature of human behavior, and the questions researchers seek to answer, the field of psychology needs special attention in this field. The future of psychological research hinges mostly on our ability to create adequate measures and utilize advanced statistical techniques; it is a future that I want to be a part of creating and a challenge from which I do not shy away. The desire to spend my career producing efficient and influential research led …show more content…
Interning at Discovery Education Assessment gave me firsthand experience working with national common core student data. I routinely performed data cleaning, item analysis, and summary results such as frequency distributions and percentiles. I worked as part of team with various backgrounds to create state, county, and school level reports. I have experience working with a number of statistical computer packages. I am fluent in writing syntax for a number of programs including, SPSS, SAS, R, and Stata. Additionally, I have experience using item response theory software such as MPLUS and …show more content…
My time here has allowed me to attend numerous meetings and conferences on a wide range of current research topics. I have been able to learn the grant application process from an insider’s perspective, including attending grant proposal review sessions and internal meetings with my supervisors. I am currently working on writing a literature review article with my supervisor and other contributors from the department of education and other NIH branches. The focus of the review is on the link between education and health and well-being outcomes. Working with demographers, sociologists, neuroscientists, physicians, and economists, I have developed a deep appreciation for the value of interdisciplinary collaboration.
I aim to cultivate a career in developing and utilizing advanced statistical techniques necessary for analyzing complex data and overcoming issues such as non-normal and missing data. My specific applied quantitative interests include improving measurement of latent constructs with item response theory and exploring differential item functioning. I am also interested in using longitudinal, multi-level, and structural equation models to better understand academic, health, and wellbeing outcomes across gender, race, and socioeconomic