Jeffrey M. Girard, Ph.D.

Man with short dark hair, wearing glasses and a red button-down shirt
  • Co-Director, Kansas Data Science Consortium
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
  • M. Erik Wright Scholar
  • Director, Brain, Behavior, and Quantitative Science Program

Contact Info

Fraser Hall, Room 454
1415 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045

Personal Links

Biography —

Dr. Girard studies how emotions are expressed through verbal and nonverbal behavior, as well as how interpersonal communication is influenced by individual differences (e.g., personality and mental health) and social factors (e.g., culture and context). This work is deeply interdisciplinary and draws insights and tools from various areas of social science, computer science, statistics, and medicine.  

Education —

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 2018
M.S. in Clinical Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 2013
B.A. in Psychology & Philosophy, University of Washington, 2009

Research —

  • Affective Communication
  • Interpersonal Functioning
  • Clinical Assessment
  • Affective Computing
  • Technology in Psychology

Teaching —

  • Statistical Methods in Psychology I (PSYC 790)
  • Foundations of Data Science (PSYC 792)
  • Data 2: Hands-on Data Science (PSYC/ECON/POLS 399)
  • Assessment I: Foundations of Psychological Assessment (PSYC 850)

Selected Publications —

Girard, J.M., Vail, A.K., Liebenthal, E., Brown, K., Kilciksiz, C.M., Pennant, L., Liebsen, E., Öngür, D., Morency, L.P., & Baker, J.T. (in press). Computational analysis of spoken language in acute psychosis and mania.Schizophrenia Research.

Van Oest, R., & Girard, J.M. (in press). Weighting schemes and incomplete data: A generalized Bayesian framework for chance-corrected interrater agreement. Psychological Methods.

Girard, J.M., Cohn, J.F., Yin, L., & Morency, L.P. (2021). Reconsidering the Duchenne smile: Formalizing and testing hypotheses about eye constriction and positive emotion.Affective Science. 2(1), 32-47.

Girard, J.M., Wright, A.G.C., Beeney, J.E., Scott, L.N., Lazarus, S.A., Stepp, S.D., & Pilkonis, P.A. (2017). Interpersonal problems across levels of the psychopathology hierarchy. Comprehensive Psychiatry. 79, 53–69.

McDuff, D., Girard, J.M., & el Kaliouby, R. (2017). Large-scale observational evidence of cross-cultural differences in facial behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 41(1), 1–19.

Girard, J.M. & Cohn, J.F. (2015). Automated audiovisual depression analysis. Current Opinion in Psychology, 4, 75–79.

Girard, J.M., Cohn, J.F., Jeni, L.A., Sayette, M.A., & De la Torre, F. (2015). Spontaneous facial expression in unscripted social interactions can be measured automatically. Behavior Research Methods. 47(4), 1136–1147.

Girard, J.M., Cohn, J.F., Mahoor, M.H., Mavadati, S.M., Hammal, Z., & Rosenwald, D.P. (2014). Nonverbal social withdrawal in depression: Evidence from manual and automatic analyses. Image and Vision Computing, 32(10), 641–647.