Join us on Zoom for a Joint Quantitative Psychology Brownbag with Dr. Teague Henry (Department of Psychology and School of Data Science, University of Virginia)
This event is online only. Please join us using this meeting link.
Title: "How can constructs be real if our eyes aren't real?": A modest proposal for psychological construct theory.
Abstract: Since Cronbach & Meehl's seminal 1955 paper, psychologists, psychometricians and philosophers have been arguing incessantly about the nature of psychological constructs. In this talk, I will add yet another argument to the pile: that constructs are real, just not in the way that realists want, that constructs and measurements are not useful to separate, and that the validity of a construct depends entirely on its use case. To lay this argument out I will use recent work on construct theory in addition to more classical work on the philosophy of psychological science. Finally, I will illustrate the differences between the realist and proposed instrumentalist stance by discussing the construct theory behind two modern psychological theories, the p-factor theory and the theory of constructed emotion.
About Teague Henry: Teague Henry holds a dual appointment in the School of Data Science and in the Department of Psychology. His research focuses on developing new statistical techniques for modeling network and dynamical systems data, with applications to personalized medicine, neuroimaging and predictive modeling. Prior to his work in higher education, Teague worked as a Statistician for the 3-C Institute for Social Development, where he analyzed data and consulted for the company. After earning his PH.D. in Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology, Henry worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, followed by a position as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to his main focus on statistical methods for network data, he is also interested in better understanding the neural correlates of neurodevelopmental disorders and how to design personalized interventions for psychological disorders.
Joint Quantitative Psychology Brownbags are organized by psychology programs at universities around the nation, including: The Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, University of Maryland, College Park, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University and University of South Carolina. Participating programs also include those from York University, McGill University, University of Missouri and University of British Columbia.