University of Groningen
Correlation, causation, and dynamics Bhushan, Nitin
DOI:
10.33612/diss.126588820
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Publication date: 2020
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Citation for published version (APA):
Bhushan, N. (2020). Correlation, causation, and dynamics: Methodological innovations in sustainable energy behaviour research. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.126588820
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Acknowledgements
A psychologist, an engineer and a statistician are out bowling as a team, and the target is the head pin. The engineer, born deterministic, knowing pre-cisely, the mass and angular momentum of the ball and the drag coefficient of the oil, invokes complicated calculations and bowls a ball that goes 10cm to the left of the head pin. The psychologist, inherently random, knowing that sometimes, all it takes is a bit of luck, bowls a ball that goes 10cm to the right of the head pin. The statistician, ever the optimist, jumps up and yells “You got a strike!”†.
That I managed to strike the pin more often than not during my time as a phd student is predominantly due to my promoters, Casper Albers and Linda Steg. To them, I would like to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude. With an eye for the smallest detail, thank you Casper for ensuring that my inferences, statistical or otherwise, and visualizations were always up to the mark. Thank you Linda, for sharpening my thoughts and showing me that sloppy writing is often, an effect of sloppy thinking. Working, writing, and communicating effectively across disciplines is seldom an easy task, I thank you both for providing me with plenty of tips on how it can be done.
I would like to thank my colleagues at the department of Psychometrics
†adapted from the world wide web.
and Statistics. Hanny, thank you for all your help and encouraging me to speak dutch with you, even if it meant we often took the risk of sending the wrong form to the wrong office. Tanja, my first office mate, and the best statistical sparring partner. Lieke, who shares my appreciation for sarcasm and silly jokes. Anja, Daniela, Jorien, Karin, Maliheh, Matthias, Mark, Mar-vin, Sarahanne, Sebastian, Tom - thank you for the fun train rides and coffee meetings. Thank you Don, Edith, Henk, Iris, Jorge, Laura, Marieke, Susan and Rob for always making me feel I could drop by your offices and discuss concepts I found hard to grasp.
This thesis benefited greatly from the discussions I had with my colleagues at Environmental Psychology. Daniel, two chapters in this thesis directly benefited from your contribution. Apart from being a great colleague and collaborator, I also had the privilege to know you as a person and I thank you. Annemijn, Elliot, Leonie, Lise, Marko, Thijs - Thank you for the fun lab meetings and open atmosphere. You made me feel welcome. Florian, I enjoyed supervising your thesis on the Gaussian graphical model. Thank you for your enthusiasm.
Writing a thesis can sometimes be a frustrating experience, more so in a multidisciplinary setting, and I am indebted to friends and loved ones -Niek, Faris, Harman, Jorine, Marcella, Rob, Tanya, Eike, Afke, Rachel, Ger-ard, Saravana and others who helped me find balance, Thank you. Ilinka, I will always be grateful for the love and support I received from you and your family. Efteling is indeed a good way to react to a paper rejection email and I look forward to more holidays together! Rohitha, I look forward to being a
fun uncle to kesh and kut now that I am done with the thesis!
Ma, appa, you both worked long hours to provide me with a good educa-tion. I owe my current sense of privilege to you, and I thank you for every-thing.
