This class has two goals: a) introducing structural equation modeling as a statistical method as a generalization of Multiple Regression; b) familiarize participants with MPlus as software. MPlus is one of the most widely used programs to run SEM models and is able to run very sophisticated analyses or which we will cover only those that are common in psychological and educational applications (e.g., mediation, moderation, multi-group, multi-level, and missing data handling).
The background in statistics of the participants and specific needs will affect pace and coverage of this course. The idea for this course is to acquire practical knowledge in SEM and MPlus, statistical theory (e.g., estimation procedures, identification problems etc.) is not focus of this class but will be discussed as needed.