Richard Gonzalez
Center Director, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
Co-Director, BioSocial Methods Collaborative
Amos N Tversky Collegiate Professor, Psychology and Statistics, LSA
Professor of Integrative Systems and Design, College of Engineering
| E-mail: | Email Richard Gonzalez |
| Address: | Research Center for Group Dynamics Institute for Social Research University of Michigan 426 Thompson Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 |
| Phone: | 734-647-6785 |
About Me
I received my PhD in 1990 from Stanford University in Psychology. I worked with Phoebe Ellsworth studying psychology and law and with Amos Tversky studying mathematical modeling and judgment and decision making. I spent seven years at the University of Washington’s Psychology department, a sabbatical year at Princeton University, and have been at the University of Michigan’s Psychology department since 1997. More about me >>
Research
My research interests focus on judgment and decision making (JDM). Given that so many topics in psychology are related to JDM it makes it look as though I work on many different topics. Actually, I see a simple theme across all my research. I am interested in how people make judgments and what influences their decisions and choices. More about Research >>
People
I’ve been fortunate to work with amazing colleagues, coauthors, collaborators, and students throughout my career. Read about People >>
Teaching
- Theories of Social Psychology
- General Linear Modeling Course
- Multivariate Statistics
- Generalized Linear Modeling Course
- Structural Equations Modeling Course
- Statistics Animation Page
- Design Science PhD Program
Recent Posts
Learning how to use R
I’ll be teaching a course on R through Statistical Horizons in Philadelphia Oct 2-3, 2015. For more information…
A piece on interval scaling from the point of view of classic psychometrics
Not many researchers use the classic psychometric scaling work such as successive intervals any more. The work goes back to the early days of psychometrics (e.g., Fechner, Thurstone) and even some early mathematical psychology (e.g., Coombs). There still is use for these classic models in understanding the meaning of rating scales.
Is it biased if the police show a witness a single suspect and ask “is that him”? You may be surprised by the answer.
At the time we did this research there weren’t any studies comparing the showup, where the police present one suspect to the witness and ask “is that him”, to the lineup, where the police present multiple individuals with one being the suspect and ask the witness “which one”. The findings were not completely what the field had expected.
The correlation of a difference score with another variable is difficult to interpret
It is difficult to interpret a correlation when one variable is a difference score. We show in this paper how the same correlation can arise from many different patterns, with each pattern implying a different interpretation. We give examples that arise in research on dyads (e.g., studying the relation between husband and wife salary on marial satisfaction). We provide recommendations for how to test research questions involving differences and discrepancies.
