West has received multiple awards, including the ASU Graduate School’s outstanding graduate mentor award, Division 5’s (Evaluation, Statistics, and Methods) Jacob Cohen award for outstanding teaching, and the Board of Educational Affairs’ Outstanding Graduate Teaching of Psychology as a core STEM Discipline Award from the American Psychological Association (APA). He has received Division 8’s (Personality and Social Psychology) Henry Murray award for lifetime contributions to the study of lives and Division 5’s Samuel Messick Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award for scientific contributions within the field of quantitative research methods from the APA, the Saul Sells award for distinguished multivariate research from the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology, and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Forschungspreis for lifetime contributions to research methods.

His methodological work is in causal inference, experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, multiple regression, structural equation modeling, and longitudinal data analysis. His substantive research is in the areas of personality and in prevention-related issues in health, mental health, and education. He is co-author of over 150 articles, 30 chapters, and 13 books and edited volumes. He is most proud of the many graduate students with whom he has worked who have gone on to careers at major research universities, some of whom have received awards for their early career contributions.