The University of British Columbia

Core Area(s): Quantitative Methods, Social/Personality

Research Interests
Latent variable modeling, especially structural equation modeling (SEM). Development of new statistical methods to handle incomplete data, nonnormal data, and categorical data. Political psychology, particularly racial attitudes.

Courses Taught
PSYC 217 How to Think Clearly About Psychology, PSYC 546H Measurement and Applications, PSYC 546Y Structural Equation Modeling

Representative Publications
Rhemtulla, M., Brosseau-Liard, P., & Savalei, V. (2012). How many categories is enough to treat data as continuous? A comparison of robust continuous and categorical SEM estimation methods under a range of non-ideal situations. Psychological Methods. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0029315

Savalei, V., & Rhemtulla, M. (2012). The performance of robust test statistics with categorical data. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8317.2012.02049.x

Savalei, V., & Rhemtulla, M. (2012). On obtaining estimates of the fraction of missing information from full information maximum likelihood. Structural Equation Modeling, 19, 477-494.

Falk, C., & Savalei, V. (2011). The relationship between unstandardized and standardized alpha, true reliability, and the underlying measurement model. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93, 445-453.

Savalei, V. (2010). Expected vs. observed information in SEM with incomplete normal and nonnormal data. Psychological Methods, 15, 352-367.

Biesanz, J. C., *Falk, C., & Savalei, V. (2010). Inferences and estimation for indirect effects: Missing data, non-normality, and sample size. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 45, 661-701.

Savalei, V. (2010). Small sample statistics for incomplete nonnormal data: extensions of complete data formulae and a Monte Carlo comparison. Structural Equation Modeling, 17, 245–268.

Savalei, V., & Yuan, K.-H. (2009). On the model-based bootstrap with missing data: obtaining a p-value for a test of exact fit. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 44, 741-763.

Sears, D.O., & Savalei, V. (2006). The political color line in America: many “peoples of color” or black exceptionalism? Political Psychology, 27, 895-924.