QuantDev is a core of methodologists within the nationally top ranked Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) program, and supported by the Social Science Research Institute, College of Health and Human Development, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Pennsylvania State University. QuantDev methodologists have backgrounds in quantitative psychology, statistics, social/behavioral data science, and computational models of human behaviors/dynamics.
We develop new methods for the study of human behavior – measurement, study design, and analysis techniques – and use them to study behavioral change.
With expertise in areas such as longitudinal data analysis, structural equation modeling, item response modeling, Bayesian data analysis, and statistical/machine learning, QuantDev stimulates, coordinates, supports, and disseminates research and teaching about the use of quantitative methods in the social and behavioral sciences in several ways:
- We lead as well as collaborate with researchers within HDFS and across multiple disciplines. Check out some of our past and ongoing projects.
- We accept and mentor graduate students pursuing a PhD degree in HDFS with a primary track in methodology (and a secondary track in areas such as Prevention & Intervention, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood & Aging, and Family Development).
- We offer methodological trainings through the forms of classes, workshops, and serving as methodology mentors on multiple training grants.
- We consult and collaborate with a broad range of social scientists on research projects that span multiple time-scales and levels of analysis (cells to society, milliseconds to millennia, cradle to grave). Interested in booking a consultation appointment with us? Please fill out the form here.