Dr Jackson received his PhD in 1996. The central thesis of his work was that measurement practices in psychology, including construct validation, the act frequency approach, and Guttman's Facet Theory, rest on a flawed logical foundation. Drawing from Wittgenstein's philosophy of psychology, Dr Jackson showed that the rule-guided nature of measurement is absent in all measurement theories currently employed in psychology. This he argued, renders most psychometric methodology inappropriate to the measurement problems it is used to address. A target article arising from this work appeared in Personality and Individual Differences in 1996.
Following receipt of his PhD, Dr Jackson began work as a statistical consultant for the Breast Tumor Group of the BC Cancer Agency. In this capacity, Dr Jackson authored and coauthored numerous research articles on both breast and prostate cancer. Just prior to leaving the BCCA in 2000, Dr Jackson was awarded a post doctoral fellowship by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
In 2001, Dr Jackson became Vice President of research at Scottworks Solutions Inc. In this capacity he consulted to TD Bank, Intra-west, Deloitte and Touche, Sears, and many other organizations on employee and customer measurement. As VP of Research, Dr Jackson developed one of the first ever Online survey, analysis and reporting tools. This tool was used to conduct the most comprehensive employee survey ever conducted during the merger of TD Bank and Canada Trust.
In 2006, Dr Jackson accepted an appointment at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC. He is now full faculty in the department of psychology at Douglas College. In 2009, with the technical support of Mr Christopher Jennings, a former Douglas College student, Dr Jackson launched the Canadian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The CJHSS is a peer reviewed Online journal publishing articles on a wide range of topics in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2011, Dr Jackson stepped down as editor of the CJHSS.
Dr Jackson has published over 15 academic articles and book chapters. Subjects include psychometrics, measurement theory, surgical oncology, philosophy of science, risk taking, and sensation seeking. He currently teaches statistics, research methods, and the philosophy and history of science.
Dr Jackson is also the owner of a statistical consulting company called Metrix Consulting. Metrix Consulting has worked with numerous national and multinational corporations on a wide range of projects that involve psychological measurement and data analysis. His clients include TDCT, Deloitte and Touche, The Government of Canada, Douglas College, Lasso, Wray Consulting, and The McKinley Group.
In addition to his academic work, Dr Jackson is also a published landscape photographer. His work can be found at www.marulandscapes.ca.
