Advanced Categorical Data Analysis for Alcohol Research

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一个新的申请指导定量研究发展奖（K25）。申请人道格拉斯·斯坦利（Douglas Steinley）是密苏里-哥伦比亚大学（University of Missouri-Columbia）心理科学系的一名数量心理学家，他提出了一段职业发展和研究的时间，旨在将他在方法开发方面的技能集中在酒精相关研究的紧迫问题上。在密苏里-哥伦比亚大学心理科学策展人教授Kenneth J. Sher的指导下，申请人将熟悉有关酒精滥用和酒精中毒的理论和实质性问题。此外，导师将指导候选人如何获得资助，最终目标是将申请人转变为独立研究者。这个过程包括一个详细的职业发展计划，其中包括教学部分（例如，酒精研究相关的课程和研讨会）和进入一个被证明成功的酒精研究环境（例如，立即融入导师的实验室，与系里从事酒精研究的其他教员互动，促进与附近的中西部酒精研究中心的合作，等等）。关于他的研究计划，申请人计划将他在分类/聚类方面的广泛基础的方法发展应用于有关酒精研究中发现、验证和验证亚型的领域特定问题。该研究计划包括调查酒精使用障碍在共同发生的精神病理和人类发展背景下的横断面和纵向关系的组成部分。此外，将专门制定方法来处理这些领域的问题。利用现有的数据集（NIAAA的NESARC数据）和拟议导师目前正在构建的数据集，申请人提议开始一项研究计划，开发新的方法并协调现有的，但可能不为酒精研究人员所知的酒精研究方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a new application for a Mentored Quantitative Research Development Award (K25). The applicant, Douglas Steinley, a quantitative psychologist in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, proposes a period of career development and research designed to focus his skills in methodological development on pressing problems in alcohol related research. Under the mentorship of Kenneth J. Sher, Curator's Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the applicant will become familiar with theoretical and substantive issues concerning alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Additionally, the mentor will guide the candidate with respect to grantsmanship with the ultimate goal being the transition of the applicant to an independent investigator. The process includes a detailed career development plan that includes a didactic component (e.g., alcohol research related coursework and workshops) and an emersion into a provenly successful alcohol research environment (e.g., immediate integration into the mentor's lab, interaction with other faculty members in the department conducting alcohol research, promoted collaboration with the nearby Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, etc.). With respect to his research plan, the applicant plans to apply his broad based methodological developments in classification/clustering to domain specific questions concerning discovering, verifying, and validating subtypes in alcohol research. The research plan includes components for investigating cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships among alcohol use disorders in the context of co-occurring psychopathology and human development. Furthermore, methodology will be developed specifically to address problems in these areas. Using existing data sets (NIAAA's NESARC data) and data sets currently under construction by the proposed mentor, the applicant proposes to begin a research program that develops new methodology and coordinates existing, but likely unknown to alcohol researchers, methodology in the context of alcohol research. Public Health Relevance: The research is relevant to public health in that the applicant will develop new methodological techniques that are appropriate for alcohol research. Furthermore, a set of standards will be developed to validate existing results and future findings in alcohol research, providing applied researchers the ability to discern when to apply specific analytic techniques.