Steven Z
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at George Mason University
Expertise
Psychology, leadership, organizational behavior, statistics, psychometrics
Bio
Steven Zhou earned his Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from George Mason University and is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. His primary areas of research include leadership, personality, psychometrics and quantitative methods (including the application of LLMs and machine learning algorithms), careers and calling, and the academic-practitioner gap. Dr. Zhou has published 20+ peer-reviewed articles, brought in almost $40k in external research funding as a graduate student, taught almost a dozen course sections at both undergraduate and graduate levels in both psychology and business, and has several years of full-time corporate experience in HR, data analytics, and leadership development.Project ideas
Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
Developing a new method of measuring multiraciality
Have you ever wondered what happens to data collected from participants who check the box "Multi-racial" when asked about their race or ethnicity? In most cases, those data points are discarded, because we currently lack a reliable and effective method of analyzing racial-ethnic differences among multiracial individuals. This project proposes a new statistical analysis method that potentially allows us to find unique and groundbreaking insights into the collection and measurement of multiracial data.
Coding skills
R, Mplus, some PythonTeaching experience
I have taught several undergraduate courses and mentored undergraduate honors students on their research projects. I have also taught middle/high school speech and debate. I also regularly volunteer with leading high school club groups. Finally, I have successfully mentored a previous high school student to publish a paper in the Journal of Emerging Investigators.Credentials
Work experience
Claremont McKenna College (2025 - Current)
Assistant Professor of PsychologyPurdue University (2023 - 2024)
Survey and Measurement Methods LeadHelloFresh (2017 - 2019)
Senior AnalystEducation
Pepperdine University
BA Bachelor of Arts (2015)
Industrial and Organizational PsychologyPepperdine University
MA Master of Arts (2017)
Religion and PhilosophyGeorge Mason University
PhD Doctor of Philosophy (2024)
Industrial-Organizational Psychology