PhD position on capturing relations among psychological constructs and comparing

11 May 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

KU Leuven

Research Field

Psychological sciences » Psychology

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Belgium

Application Deadline

3 Jun 2024 - 00:00 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

38 hours/week

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

H2020 / ERC

Reference Number

BAP-2024-265

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Many important research questions in psychology seek to uncover relations among psychological constructs that are not directly observable or ‘latent’ – that is, they can only be measured indirectly via questionnaires. For example, does social pressure to be happy increase or decrease wellbeing? And how does experiencing negative affect relate to satisfaction with life? Structural equation modeling (SEM) is the state-of-the-art to model these relations. When comparing such ‘latent relations’ across many groups (e.g., countries in a cross-national study), they likely differ among the groups (e.g., they may be culturally dependent) and/or within the groups (e.g., they may differ across subsets of a nation’s inhabitants determined by a combination of demographics that are unknown or unmeasured). This PhD-project aims to develop novel mixture SEM methods for finding clusters of subjects within groups that have the same latent relations. In this way, one can study how the groups differ in terms of these relations and how they differ within the group. For instance, it may be that, in one country, all inhabitants are homogenous in terms of what determines life satisfaction, whereas, in another country, the inhabitants strongly differ in this respect. For finding such clusters, differences in how the psychological constructs are measured by questionnaire items – for example, differences in item interpretation or translation – should be unraveled from the differences in the psychological relations of interest. An important challenge is that these ‘measurement differences’ may exist between the groups even when the differences of interest exist within the groups. This project focuses on mixture SEM methods that tackle such challenges by optimizing the comparability of the psychological constructs’ relations both within and between groups while, at the same time, capturing clusters of subjects within the groups with equivalent relations. These novel methods will give psychologists the tools to answer their important research questions, even when comparability is difficult. The project includes substantive applications of the novel methods and the development of user-friendly, open-source software.

Requirements

Research Field

Psychological sciences

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Additional Information
Benefits

• a fully funded PhD position for four years, starting on October 1st, 2024.
• an initial contract of one year that can be extended to four years.
• an enthusiastic and supportive supervision team.
• excellent research facilities, conference/travel budget, and a competitive salary with various additional benefits (in terms of holidays, health insurance, transport costs).

Eligibility criteria

• You have a master's degree, preferably in (quantitative) psychology, or another master’s degree that implies a profound knowledge of statistics, data analysis and programming.
• You have a good knowledge of statistics, data analysis and programming.
• You have affinity with psychology.
• You are precise, creative, highly motivated and enthusiastic about performing meticulous research.
• You have excellent English reporting skills (both oral and written).
• You can work on your own, but also enjoy working in an interdisciplinary and interuniversity team.
• Familiarity with structural equation modeling and/or mixture modeling is an asset.

Selection process

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Kim De Roover, mail: [email protected] .

Applications should consist of a motivation letter (including contact information of 2 referees) and a CV (including copies of diploma certificates and transcripts at university level).

 

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at [email protected] .

You can apply for this job no later than 03/06/2024 via the online application tool

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

KU Leuven

Country

Belgium

State/Province

Vlaams Brabant

City

Leuven

Postal Code

3000

Street

Leuven

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://easyapply.jobs/r/vkihpfv21TdSpv4bZk0w

Contact

State/Province

Leuven

City

Vlaams Brabant

Street

Leuven

Postal Code

3000

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED