Teaching Areas
Faculty & School/Dept.
Faculty of Health - Department of Psychology
Degrees
Ph.D - 2021
University of British Columbia
Vancouver
Biography
Our lab's research program consists of three streams: 1) developing new methods for computing point or interval estimates of fit indices in structural equation modelling (SEM); 2) developing new scale formats with better psychometric properties; and 3) improving social science researchers' understanding of statistics by writing a series of tutorial and teaching papers. The first stream is the primary research focus. The second and third streams naturally evolve from the first stream as we discover and address new problems in my research. Our experiences in applied research (e.g., item format projects) give us unique insight into the type of methodological problems that applied researchers encounter, and thus inspire us to conduct methodological research (e.g., SEM fit indices projects) to address these problems. Our methodological research, in turn, makes us realize the misconceptions in the existing literature and thus inspires us to write tutorial and teaching papers to address these misconceptions. Together, with these three research streams, we hope to reach a wide range of audiences and make a substantial impact in both the applied and methodological fields. Our research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) insight grant. Our lab is commited to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We support and engage students from diverse backgrounds, including those with various personal, academic and research experiences.
Selected Publications
Zhang, X., Huang, M., Savalei, V., & Sun, J. (2024). Improving the measurement of the Big Five via alternative formats for the BFI-2. Submitted to Journal of Personality Assessment.
Huang, M., Zhang, X., Soto, C., & Evans, J. (2024). Designing LLM-Agents with Personalities: A Psychometric Approach. Submitted.
Astivia, O.L.O., Kroc, E., Zhang, X., & Zumbo, B.D. (2024). On the uncanny relationship between non-normality and moderated multiple regression. Submitted.
Zhang, X. & Wu, H. (2024). Investigating Structural Model Fit Evaluation. Structural Equation Modelling, 31, 863-881. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2024.2350023
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V (2024). An overview of alternative formats to the Likert format: A comment on Wilson et al. (2022). Psychological Methods, 29, 606-612. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000631
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V (2023). An overview of alternative formats to the Likert format: A comment on Wilson et al. (2022). Psychological Methods, In Print.
Zhang, X. (2023). How to generate missing data for simulation studies. The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 19, 100-122, https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.19.2.p100
Zhang, X., Zhou, L., & Savalei, V. (2023). Comparing the psychometric properties of a scale across three Likert and three alternative formats: An application to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 83, 649-683. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131644221111402
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V. (2023). New computations for RMSEA and CFI following FIML and TS estimation with missing data. Psychological Methods, 28, 263-283. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000445
Zhang, X., Astivia, O.L.O., Kroc, E., & Zumbo, B.D. (2022). How to think clearly about Central Limit Theorem. Psychological Methods, Advanced Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000448
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V. (2019). Examining the effect of missing data on RMSEA and CFI under the normal theory full information maximum likelihood. Structural Equation Modeling, 27, 219-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2019.1642111
Zhang, X., Tse, WW-Y., & Savalei, V. (2019). Improved properties of the Big Five Inventory and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in the Expanded format relative to the Likert Format. Frontiers in Psychology, 10:1286. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01286
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V (2018). Investigating the effect of missing data on the population CFI and RMSEA values. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 53, 147. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2017.1405787
Zhang, X., Noor, R., & Savalei, V. (2016). Examining the effect of reverse worded items on the factor structure of the Need for Cognition Scale. PLOS ONE 11(6): e0157795. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157795
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V. (2016a). Bootstrapping confidence intervals for fit indices in structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling, 23, 392-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2015.1118692
Zhang, X., & Savalei, V. (2016b). Improving the factor structure of psychological scales: The Expanded format as an alternative to the Likert scale format. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 76, 357-386. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164415596421
Awards
Quantitative Methods Research Paper Award of the Canadian Psychological Association - 2020
Supervision
Currently available to supervise graduate students: Yes
Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: Yes
Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: Yes