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Developmental Psychology

Developmental Area Contact Person:  Dr. Stuart Marcovitch, s_marcov@uncg.edu , (336) 256-0020.

The Developmental Program is dedicated to understanding behavioral changes across the lifespan. Our program takes an interdisciplinary approach by studying developmental processes from social, cognitive, perceptual, and psychobiological perspectives. The primary goal of the program is to train students for academic and research settings, although there are opportunities to be involved in applied research settings. We have 7 on-campus laboratories specialized for developmental research, including facilities for infant, child, and animal research. In addition, the developmental program at UNCG has cooperative research relationships with local day care centers, schools, and other agencies.

• Faculty Research Specialties:
   
• Dr. Janet Boseovski: Social and cognitive development in early childhood; personality understanding; prejudice and stereotyping; developmental psychopathology.
• Dr. Susan Calkins: Social and emotional development in infancy and early childhood; development and developmental trajectories of early disruptive behavior.
• Dr. Anthony DeCasper: Early development of human perception and learning from the prenatal period to the preschool years.
• Dr. Heidi Gazelle: Social and emotional development in middle childhood and early adolescence; risk and resilience in anxious solitary children.
• Dr. Robert Guttentag: Developmental changes in cognitive functioning across the life-span; memory functioning during childhood; children's understanding of complex emotions.
• Dr. Stuart Marcovitch: Cognitive development; representational flexibility; conscious control of behavior in childhood and across the lifespan.
• Dr. George Michel: Neuropsychology of sensorimotor development in human infants (particularly handedness); neural and endocrine processes underlying parental care and offspring development of species-typical behaviors of small mammals (e.g. voles) and birds (e.g. doves).
• Dr. Walter Salinger: Mechanisms of early brain development, and errors in brain development such as failures of neural migration and mistakes in connection formation; individual differences.
• Dr. Lilly Shanahan: Family systems and developmental psychopathology in middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Risk factors, the development of depression, sibling similarities and differences, and developmental methods.
• Dr. Douglas Wahlsten: Heredity and development in humans and animals, power analysis, mouse behavior, the corpus callosum.

There are a number of additional faculty members in the department of psychology who have active developmental interests, including Dr. Wesley Allan, Dr. Arthur Anastopoulos, Dr. Susan Keane, Dr. Douglas Levine, Dr. Lili Sahakyan, Dr. Dayna Touron, and Dr. Amber Tyler. There are also many active collaborations with faculty members in the Human Development and Family Studies program at UNCG.

Philosophy of Training.   We follow a mentor-apprentice model. Students work directly with a faculty advisor and will gradually develop their own program of research. There will also be opportunities to collaborate with other faculty and students in psychology and in other departments.  We encourage students to publish with several faculty members before they graduate.  The small size of the program means that students receive a lot of individualized attention.  Also, the central location of the "gate city" (Greensboro) has resulted in close ties to other top southeastern psychology departments, creating more opportunities for our graduate students.

Support.  Students generally receive a teaching assistantship or research assistantship for the duration of their time at UNCG.

Brown Bag. The spring 2008 schedule has been announced. Speakers: A departmental laptop will be set up for your talk unless you contact the graduate student assisting with your talk (see below) to make alternate arrangements. All dates are Fridays at noon in Eberhart 292 unless otherwise noted.

January 18: Jackie White, Ph.D., Social Psychology faculty member. “An integrative developmental approach to studying intimate partner violence.” (Tamara Spangler assisting)

February 1: Alan Kamhi, Ph.D., Communication Sciences and Disorders faculty member, "The Case for the Narrow View of Reading." (Rachael Reavis assisting)

February 15: David Demo, Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies faculty member, “The kids are alright (at least, most of them): Links between divorce and child well-being.” (Janet Haislip assisting)

February 29: Esther Leerkes, Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies faculty member, “Predictors of Maternal Sensitivity to Infant Distress: A Social Information Processing Perspective.” (Parita Vithlani assisting)

March 28: TBA (Rachael Reavis assisting)

April 11: Stephanie Coard, Ph.D., human development and family studies faculty member. “The Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies Program: A Randomized Pilot Study.” (Madelynn Druhen assisting)

April 25: Linda Hestenes, Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies faculty member, “The Measurement and Influence of Outdoor Child Care Quality on Preschool Children’s Experiences.” (Jeremy Bailoo assisting)

For additional information about graduate study in developmental psychology, please contact Dr. Stuart Marcovitch, s_marcov@uncg.edu, (336) 256-0020.