S. Mason Garrison

I am an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Psychology at Wake Forest University. As a behavior geneticist, quantitative psychologist, and data scientist with a keen interest in diversity science, my work spans multiple disciplines but converges on a central theme: using genetically-informed designs to better understand the causes and consequences of inequity and their relationship with individual differences.

Research Focus

My research is characterized by two interrelated streams:

Methodological Advancements in Biometrically-Informed Designs: This line of work focuses on developing and refining methods for behavior genetic and discordant kin models. We explore how to leverage family structures and genetic information to strengthen causal inferences in psychological research. This includes creating new statistical approaches, simulating complex datasets, and developing software tools to implement these methods. Our projects in this area include:

• Modeling complex family structures with hundreds of thousands of individuals (Burt, Garrison, et al., under revision)
• Simulating data to explore the implications of various design choices (Lyu & Garrison, Twin Research and Human Genetics, 2023)
• Creating new approaches for extended pedigree analysis (Hunter, Garrison, et al., under review)
• Developing R packages for behavior genetic analysis (Garrison, Hunter, et al., Journal of Open Source Software, 2024)

Example student-driven projects in this area include:

• An R package for simulating and fitting ACE models with various kinship pairs (Lyu & Garrison, CRAN, 2022)
• An exploration of the China Family Panel Study’s potential for behavior genetics research (Milhollen et al., Behavior Genetics Annual Meeting, 2022)

Applications to Understanding Health Inequity and Individual Differences: In this stream, we apply our advanced methods to investigate how individual differences influence the relationship between socioeconomic status and health. Our research covers a wide range of topics, from personality and cognitive abilities to mental health and substance use, always with an eye towards understanding the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors in shaping human outcomes. Key studies have examined:

• Advancing diversity in behavior genetics research (Garrison et al., Behavior Genetics, 2024)
• The causal pathways underlying the socioeconomic status-health gradient (Garrison & Rodgers, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2019)
• The long-term impact of personality traits on lifespan (Jackson, Connolly, Garrison, et al., Psychological Science, 2015)

Student-driven projects in this area have investigated:

• The relationship between ADHD diagnosis and cannabis use frequency (Tyson, Webster, et al., Behavior Genetics Annual Meeting, 2024)
• How depression and gender relate to delinquent behavior (Sims, Trattner, & Garrison, Frontiers in Psychology-Personality and Social Psychology, 2024)
• Ableism in psychology curricula, with a focus on borderline personality disorder (Navarre, Uliaszek, & Garrison, Under revision)
• The influence of parenting styles on adolescent rule-breaking behavior (McKinzie, Lyu, & Garrison; SPSP Annual Convention, 2022)

These streams are interconnected, with methodological innovations driving insights into substantive questions, and applied research spurring further methodological advances.

Student Mentorship and Collaboration

A core part of my academic mission is mentoring students and fostering student-driven research. You can read more about my mentoring style and approach to working with students in a recent paper I published with two undergraduates (Garrison, Webster, & Good, 2024) as part of a special issue on IDEA: Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, and Access in Behavioral and Quantitative Genetic Investigations in my field’s flagship journal Behavior Genetics.

Connect

For more information on my publications, software contributions, and academic background, please refer to my CV. You can always find a current version at the following url: https://smasongarrison.github.io/CV-Tex/SMasonGarrisonCV.pdf If you’re interested in collaboration, have questions about my research, or want to discuss potential projects, I welcome you to reach out:

• Email: garrissm@wfu.edu
• Course Materials:
  • Syllabi
  • Data Science for Psychologists
• Social Media:
  • GitHub:  https://github.com/smasongarrison
  • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/SMasonGarrison
  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Smasongarrison