Speaker: Dr. Heungsun Hwang, Professor in Department of Psychology at McGill University
Title: An approach to structural equation modeling with both factors and components
Abstract: As psychology and many other sciences become interdisciplinary, there is an ever-increasing need to accommodate common factors and components in the same model and examine their relationships to understand human behaviour and cognition from more diverse perspectives. For example, researchers have increasingly been interested in the influences of genetic variation and/or altered brain activities on the variation of psychological constructs in cognition, personality, or mental disorders. Such psychological constructs have typically been considered common factors, whereas genetic or imaging constructs, such as genes and brain regions, have been considered components. However, existing methods for structural equation modeling (SEM) are not suitable for estimating models with both factors and components. Thus, my colleagues and I recently proposed a general SEM method, termed integrated generalized structured component analysis (IGSCA), which can also estimate such models. I will discuss IGSCA’s conceptual background and technical underpinnings and demonstrate its potential in real data applications with an investigation of the effects of multiple genes on depression severity. Moreover, I will briefly show how to apply the method using free, user-friendly software–GSCA Pro.
Biography: Dr. Heungsun Hwang is a Professor of Quantitative Psychology at McGill University. He received a Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from McGill University. His research has been generally devoted to the development and application of advanced quantitative analytics for the measurement and analysis of human characteristics, aspects, and processes. He is currently involved in the integration of statistics, psychology, and/or machine learning for incorporating individuals’ multifaceted (psychological, physiological, genetic, etc.) information toward better understanding and prediction of their behavioural and cognitive differences. He serves on the editorial board of numerous journals, including Psychometrika, Psychological Science, Behaviormetrika, and the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology.