Niall Bolger

Multilevel models are becoming increasingly common in psychological research. Also known as general mixed models and hierarchical linear models, the common feature of these models is their ability to take account of nested data, that is, data where the sampling units have a hierarchical organization, such as the case of groups and group members, families and family members, persons and repeated measurements on those persons. Among traditional statistical methods, repeated-measures ANOVA is the most similar to multilevel models, and can be thought of as a special case. Multilevel models are much more flexible that repeated-measures ANOVA, however, and their development in the 1970s and 80s was a major advance in applied statistics.

The purpose of this 1-day workshop is to provide a basic introduction to these models, with the main goal of enabling participants to understand when and how they are useful in social and personality research. A basic knowledge of regression and ANOVA will be assumed. Example data and analyses using SPSS and SAS will be provided.

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Niall Bolger is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. Currently he has three research interests. He studies adjustment processes in close relationships using intensive longitudinal research designs that include diary-based reports and physiological measurements. He also studies personality processes as they are revealed in patterns of behavior, emotion and physiology in daily life. Finally, he is interested in statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal and multilevel data. He teaches courses in adult relationships, research methods, and longitudinal data analysis. He is a Charter Member and Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, a member of the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology and of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. He has served on the Social and Group Processes grant review panel of the National Institute of Mental Health and as Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes.  

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