About Sara

About Me

Hi, everyone. I'm Sara Locatelli, the person behind Deeply Trivial. This blog began as a place for me to overanalyze trivial topics, mostly pop culture.

It grew into a place to write about the things that interest me, whatever they may be, but mostly statistics, social psychology, movies, and music (and more recently, politics). It's a place for me to share my thoughts on a variety of topics, offer guidance on statistical topics for graduate students and researchers, and hopefully generate some discussion with others. 

I started the blog in 2011, right after I finished my PhD. I've participated in the April Blogging A-to-Z challenge 4 years now, with posts on the A to Z of tidyverse (2020), A to Z of R (2018), and A to Z of statistics (2017), and A to Z Social Psychology (2016).

To tell you more about myself, I'm a data scientist, primarily using R, and a psychometrician, a statistician who uses statistical models to develop, validate, and standardize assessments. I have a BS in Psychology, and an MA and PhD in Social Psychology, as well as post-doctoral training in health services research and psychometrics. 

In my free time, I'm an amateur writer (I regularly participate in National Novel Writing Month and also some short story competitions), and I sing with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago. I love to read, rewatch my favorite show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and belly dance. I'm also currently learning ukulele.

You can contact me at sara@deeplytrivial.com.

About My Work

As with so many psychology majors, I took statistics because it was required for my major. What I didn't expect was to fall in love with it, or want to do statistics as a career. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to learn many statistical approaches and tools:
  • Rasch measurement model
  • Classical test theory and item analysis
  • Structural equation modeling
  • Factor analysis
  • Classification tree analysis
  • Mediation and moderation analysis
  • Meta-analysis
  • Power analysis (and using PASS)
  • Regression analyses with fixed, random, and mixed effects
  • Quantile regression
  • Item response theory
  • Qualitative comparative analysis
  • Analysis with R, SPSS, Stata, Winsteps, Facets, and NVivo
  • Database management with SQL (PostgreSQL)
In my work as a researcher in the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as a program evaluator at Loyola University and Chicago Public Schools, I've also built my skills in qualitative and mixed research methods, including:
  • Content analysis
  • Focus groups
  • Guided tours
  • Interviews
  • Thematic analysis
  • Cognitive interviews
  • Grounded theory
  • Participatory research methods. 
I also served as a member of the Institutional Review Board (the ethics board for research with human participants) during part of my time with the VA, and have a fair amount of experience with writing grants.

You can find information on my publications on Google Scholar and Research Gate

4 comments:

  1. nice to see that u did very well for your self :) im happy to see someone did alot.

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  2. I am in love with your blog.
    Greetings from Spain!

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  3. I really love your blog and your career, I congratulate you, I'd like to get in touch with you, since I'm a fan of data the statistics applied to psychology; and I'd like to undertake projects in the area. Email is: ribarra1971@gmail.com

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  4. I just discovered your blog when I searched on Youtube how to interpret CFA results with the Lavaan package. As a new PhD student in cognitive psychology, your blog is sooo informative! Thank you for writing all of this!

    ReplyDelete