Event Details

Longitudinal regime-switching models provide one possible way of representing within- and between-person heterogeneities in change by allowing individuals to transition between different latent classes or regimes over time. The notion that individuals may manifest quantitatively and/or qualitatively distinct dynamics across different phases of a change process has been a dominant premise of many stagewise developmental theories in psychology. Regime-switching models provide a methodological framework for testing and further extending these theories. Using empirical examples from education, alcohol use and emotions, I will illustrate the utility of such models in enriching our conceptualization of whether and how individuals change over time. The parallels between regime-switching models and other well-known discrete change models in the literature will also be discussed.