PhD Candidate in Psychological Methods (# of pos: 2)

Updated: almost 2 years ago
Job Type: Temporary
Deadline: 24 Jul 2022

Are you interested in developing and using statistical and mathematical methods to study psychological phenomena? The Psychological Methods group is seeking two PhD candidates, one for each of the following projects:

Project 1: "Bridging the gap between latent variable models from deep learning and psychometrics". In this project, the PhD candidate will focus on the development of methods for various psychometric applications in which neural nets from deep learning are combined with measurement models from psychometrics. The project is coordinated by Dylan Molenaar and Raoul Grasman.

Project 2: "Cognitive Modeling meets Educational Data Science". In this project, the PhD candidate will apply cognitive models to large data sets from educational data science. The main aim is to develop more nuanced performance indicators for online education that are based on models of cognitive processes. The project is coordinated by Julia Haaf and Abe Hofman.

Both positions are for 5.5 years and involve 28% teaching within the educational programme of the Psychological Methods group.

The Psychological Methods group of the University of Amsterdam is one of the largest and most successful research and education centers in the field of psychological methods. Its main areas of research are network analysis, Bayesian statistics, mathematical psychology, and psychometrics. Next to developing novel research methodologies, we also actively develop psychological theories on a variety of topics, including intelligence, psychopathology, and decision making.

In addition, the group has a general focus on supporting open science and has made important methodological contributions to facilitate transparent research practices in the past decade. Our educational program consists of first-year and second-year courses in methodology, statistics, and philosophy of science, a premaster and a master in Behavioral data science, and a series of courses in the research master of the psychology department.

What are you going to do

You will

  • conduct PhD research in the field of psychological methods;
  • present research results regularly at (international) workshops and conferences, and publish them in international journals;
  • complete academic work resulting in a PhD thesis that will be defended at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam with the goal of obtaining a PhD degree;
  • contribute to the educational track of the Psychological Methods group by teaching courses and supervising individual student projects.


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