DJ Simons, MA, is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina’s developmental psychology program, where he had a formal concentration in quantitative methods.  He has served as a teacher’s assistant many times, including four times for Statistics for Psychologists and twice for Research Methods for Psychology.  He has also served as a data analyst for a private education research firm, and has privately tutored undergraduate and graduate students in statistics.

DJ has aided students and colleagues through all steps of the research process, from formulating a research question and hypothesis, through data analysis, to reporting the results in a scholarly fashion using APA style.  He is happy to help undergraduate and graduate students with their statistics classes, master’s theses or doctoral dissertations in the social sciences, explaining every step of the process clearly and concisely.  He will make sure that you understand your data, and that you can speak intelligently on its content, use and application.

He can advise on, among other things, research methodology, ANOVA, ANCOVA, t-tests, linear, multiple and logistic regression, chi-square, factor analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling/multilevel modeling (HLM).  Although his background is in quantitative psychology, he can help with statistics for other social sciences such as Sociology, Social Work and Education.  He is highly proficient with SPSS, both menu-based and syntax, and can also help with SAS, CEFA, and R.

Social Science Data Analysis

• Strengths in research methodology, including instrument design and sampling.
• Familiar with and able to perform an array of  statistical analyses, including:
• ANOVA & Multiple/Logistic Regression
• Factor Analysis & Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
• Hierarchical Linear Regression (HLM) or Multilevel Modeling
• Longitudinal data analysis
• Survival analysis
• Cluster analysis
• Statistical Computing Software:
• SPSS/PASW & SAS, R, CEFA
• HLM/WHLM
• All MS Office software (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Teaching experience in statistics & research methods

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Research Associate – Horizon Research, Chapel Hill, NC
For a private, education research firm, responsible for:

• Preparing datasets for analysis using data cleaning and data mining techniques
• Performing statistical analyses on large, longitudinal data sets, using SPSS syntax and HLM
• Interpreting and reporting results of analyses to researchers in layman’s terms

Teaching Associate - Department of Psychology, CSU Long Beach and UNC Chapel Hill
For Statistics and Research Methods in Psychology, responsible for:

• Leading lab/recitation sections; Holding office hours
• Leading computer laboratory sessions to teach statistical methods and SPSS for Windows.
• Aiding students in every step of the research process, from data collection, to statistical analyses, to reporting results in an APA-formatted scholarly paper.

Graduate Research Assistant - Center for Developmental Science, Chapel Hil
For the Durham Child Health and Development Study, responsible for:

• Preparing data reports for statistical database
• Coding, entering and analyzing data, both as a team and individually
• Maintaining the study’s web site using HTML and Dreamweaver

EDUCATION

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.A. Developmental Psychology
Formal concentration: Quantitative Methods

CaliforniaStateUniversity at Long Beach
M.A. Research Psychology (ABT)

OhioStateUniversity, Columbus, OH
B.A. Psychology