Cody Ding, Ph.D.

Dr. Cody Ding completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He was trained as a psychologist with an emphasis on developmental psychology, methodology, and measurement. Over the years, he has been working as a professor at universities, teaching educational and psychological assessment, research designs, behavioral analysis, statistical modeling, and other methodological related courses. Currently, Dr. Ding is the director of the educational psychology and educational research program. In addition, he has been working with many school districts and state educational agencies on various evaluation projects to improve student learning and school practices.

With expertise in quantitative methods and research design, particularly growth modeling and classification and predictive modeling, Dr. Ding focuses on multidimensional scaling, data visualization, and multilevel modeling. Psychometric expertise includes item response theory and multidimensional scaling applied to measurement and evaluation research. Dr. Ding has been actively involved in research on multidimensional scaling as a latent growth model in education and psychological assessment. His research interests include exploratory latent variable analysis via multidimensional scaling (MDS), applications of Item Response Theory (IRT), machine learning, network modeling, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in studying the psychosocial adaptation of adolescents and young adults, such as emotional and social skill development. Relatedly, Dr. Ding is also a faculty in the school psychology program, applying his expertise in mental health, learning, and behavior to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. Operating from a problem-solving framework, his focus is on preparing data-based decision-makers capable of intervening to address both individual- and systems-level challenges in the school setting. 

Dr. Cody Ding has been conducting substantive research regarding the effects of social experiences, particularly negative ones, on cognition/attention, which may lead to psychological distress. The research also includes dynamic interaction between teaching and learning. The research is based on data from questionnaires, behavioral experiments, and neuroscience studies. He has provided high-level consulting services to quantitative researchers in the social and behavioral sciences, including several evaluation grants investigating the program's effectiveness on student learning.

Program Involvement

• EdS - School Psychology
• Grad Cert - Program Evaluation Certificate
• PhD - Educational Psychology

Published Research Areas

• Academic Outcomes
• Achievement
• Adolescence
• Affective Education
• Analysis of Change
• Assessment
• At-Risk Students
• Cognition
• Cross-Cultural Studies
• Data Analysis
• Decision Making
• Differentiated Instruction
• Evaluation
• Growth Modeling
• Health
• Hierarchical Modeling
• Human Development
• Individual Differences
• Learning Processes/Strategies
• Measurement
• Memory 
• Multidimensional scaling  
• Preference Modeling  
• Profile Analysis  
• Psychometrics  
• Research Methodology  
• School/Teacher Effectiveness  
• Self-Concept  
• Social Context  
• Statistics  
• Structural Modeling  
• Survey Research  
• Teacher Assessment  
• Teaching and Learning Theory
• Test Theory/Development