From Penn State News
Sy-Miin Chow, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS), has been awarded the Cattell Early Career Research Award.
Presented by the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (SMEP), the award is given annually by SMEP to a young researcher who has made outstanding contributions to multivariate experimental psychology and who shows promise of continued work of a very high quality. Dr. Chow will accept her award at the 2015 meeting of SMEP in Los Angeles, California, next October.
“Dr. Chow is highly respected for the significant contributions she has made to the advancement of dynamic and intensive longitudinal methodology, as well as applying such methodology to substantive questions in multivariate psychology,” according to a statement from the SMEP.
Dr. Chow’s work focuses on the development and adaptation of modeling and analysis tools for studying human dynamics, or how people change over time.
“These days, there are designs and digital tools that allow behavioral scientists to collect intensive repeated measures from individuals as they go about their daily lives; data may be collected at random times of the day to maximize the range of people's responses, whenever a specified event (e.g., a conflict) has just occurred, or at other pre-determined intervals,” Dr. Chow said. “I develop methods that allow researchers to fit differential equation and dynamic models to these kinds of data and extract patterns of regularity from multiple individuals' data over time.”
Unlike the other sciences and disciplines such as engineering, studying real-time human dynamics is challenging due to difficulties in collecting real-time data that reflect people's true underlying states, Dr. Chow said.
“Not that many scholars in our field have worked on dynamic models such as differential equation models because, let's face it, coming up with a differential equation model of human emotions is a pretty abstract endeavor,” Dr. Chow said.
Some factors that trigger changes in people's emotions cannot be measured directly, and people don't always feel inclined to share how they feel when they are the most upset, an issue known as “non-ignorable missingness” in the field.
“Getting this award is a great affirmation that our field does care about these sort of issues and find some of the tools I develop with my colleagues and graduate students helpful,” Dr. Chow said. “In the future, I hope to develop a broader repertoire of dynamic modeling and analytic tools that are helpful and accessible to a broader audience of social and behavioral scientists.”
Douglas Teti, HDFS Department Head and Professor of HDFS, Psychology and Pediatrics, said he is confident the Cattell Award represents only the beginning of what will be Dr. Chow’s “very distinguished” career.
“Her work is exceptional, and it contributes importantly to the ongoing and evolving expertise in quantitative developmental methodology in HDFS,” Dr. Teti said. “I would be remiss if I did not also mention that Sy-Miin is a wonderful colleague, collaborator, and departmental citizen. We are delighted for her, and delighted that she is a member of our department.”