June 2025 Live Online Short Course

Introduction to SEM with LAVAAN
Dr. Betty Zhou

Session I: June 2-5 | 10:00 AM EDT – 3:00 PM EDT

Course Description

This introductory course requires no previous knowledge of structural equation modeling (SEM), but participants should possess a strong understanding of regression AND have understanding about the basic data handling functions using R. All illustrations and in-class exercises will make use of the R LAVAAN package, and participants will be expected to have LAVAAN installed on their laptop computers prior to beginning of the course. No course time will be spent going over basic R data handling and installing the LAVAAN package. The course will start with an overview of the principals underlying SEM. Subsequently, we move into measurement model evaluation including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Time will be spent on interpreting the parameter estimates and comparing competing measurement models for correlated constructs. We will then move onto path model evaluation where paths representing “causal” relations are placed between the latent variables. Again, time will be spent on interpreting the various parameter estimates and determining whether the path models add anything above their underlying measurement models. If time permits, longitudinal models will be introduced.

Required Software: R installed with LAVAAN package

Course Preview

Meet the Instructor

Le (Betty) Zhou is an associate professor and B. Marie Oth Professor in Business Administration at Mays Business School of Texas A&M University. Prior to her current appointment, she was an associate professor (with tenure) at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in Management from the University of Florida in 2014. She has an M.S. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland (2011) and a B.S. in Psychology from Peking University in China (2009). Her research interests include leadership, work groups and teams, self-regulation at work, and quantitative research methods (e.g., longitudinal data analysis, computational modeling, and AI/ML). Her work has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Organizational Research Methods and other outlets. Her research has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She currently serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Organizational Research Methods. She also served as an associate editor at the Journal of Organizational Behavior, is currently serving as an associate editor at Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and a guest associate editor for a special issue on social networks and networking for Personnel Psychology. She is an elected officer of the Research Methods Division of the Academy of Management, serving as a representative-at-large during 2018-2021 and in the chair track during 2021-2025.