Wednesday, October 12: Alexandra Main, Audun Dahl, Eric Walle will present their research on Emotional Development
Wednesday, October 26: Dacher Keltner, Developments in Positive Psychology
Wednesday, November 2: Ron Dahl, The Feeling of Motivation in the Developing Brain: An exciting focus for interdisciplinary developmental research. Prof. Phil Cowan will be the discussant for this talk.
Wednesday, November 16: Kris Perry, Executive Director of First 5 California, Evidence Informing Policy Options: The Case of Early Childhood Development
All of these events will be held from 12:00-1:30pm in Room 1111 Tolman Hall.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
April 21: Prof. Unni Wikan, University of Oslo
Freedom: From the Middle East to Scandinavia--Some Thoughts on Moral and Social Development
Drawing on research over forty years in the Middle East, including a visit to Egypt after the revolution, Prof. Wikan wants to explore the concept of freedom for what it can tell about contesting voices and values in the Muslim world. Prof. Wikan will further highlight the difficult concept of freedom by drawing on a case history from Sweden that was all about liberty, but for whom, and to what end? Thus she will try to draw a line from the Middle East to the West, and back, that will illuminate some aspects of social and moral development of increasing significance in our common world.
Room 5101 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Unni Wikan is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Currently, she is a Visitor at the University of Chicago, holding the Lurcy Professorship. Professor Wikan has conducted research on cultural theory, religion, poverty and development, gender, medical anthropology, emotions, and human rights. She has done fieldwork in Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Indonesia, and Bhutan. She has also done extensive work on immigration and integration in Scandanavian countries. Among her books are: "Tomorrow God Willing: Self-made Destinities in Cairo" (1996), "Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe" (2002), and "In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame" (2008).
Drawing on research over forty years in the Middle East, including a visit to Egypt after the revolution, Prof. Wikan wants to explore the concept of freedom for what it can tell about contesting voices and values in the Muslim world. Prof. Wikan will further highlight the difficult concept of freedom by drawing on a case history from Sweden that was all about liberty, but for whom, and to what end? Thus she will try to draw a line from the Middle East to the West, and back, that will illuminate some aspects of social and moral development of increasing significance in our common world.
Room 5101 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Unni Wikan is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Currently, she is a Visitor at the University of Chicago, holding the Lurcy Professorship. Professor Wikan has conducted research on cultural theory, religion, poverty and development, gender, medical anthropology, emotions, and human rights. She has done fieldwork in Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Indonesia, and Bhutan. She has also done extensive work on immigration and integration in Scandanavian countries. Among her books are: "Tomorrow God Willing: Self-made Destinities in Cairo" (1996), "Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe" (2002), and "In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame" (2008).
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
April 7: Stephen Hinshaw, Department of Psychology and the Institute of Human Development
Risk and Resilience in the Transition to Adolescence for Girls
Girls are largely protected from behavioral and emotional disturbance during the first decade of life, due to their strengths related to empathy, verbal skills, and compliance. Yet these same protective factors may turn into risk factors during the second decade of life, once puberty occurs, for girls with vulnerabilities (e.g., maltreatment, family history of mental illness). What are the particular vulnerabilities associated with early adolescence for girls? Which psychosocial/cultural forces propel ever-earlier and more severe risk for depression, suicide, self-harm, eating disturbances, and even aggression for teenage girls? How can a developmental perspective aid in this inquiry?
Girls are largely protected from behavioral and emotional disturbance during the first decade of life, due to their strengths related to empathy, verbal skills, and compliance. Yet these same protective factors may turn into risk factors during the second decade of life, once puberty occurs, for girls with vulnerabilities (e.g., maltreatment, family history of mental illness). What are the particular vulnerabilities associated with early adolescence for girls? Which psychosocial/cultural forces propel ever-earlier and more severe risk for depression, suicide, self-harm, eating disturbances, and even aggression for teenage girls? How can a developmental perspective aid in this inquiry?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
March 17: Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Dept. of Psychology
Intergroup friendship: Integrating social and developmental psychological approaches
Both social psychology and developmental psychology have seen a resurgence in research on intergroup friendship. In an effort to draw bridges between our fields, this talk will be meant to review some of the current work being done in social psychology on processes and outcomes related to intergroup friendship. Prof. Mendoza-Denton will emphasize research in the area, as well as the dominant theoretical approaches that social psychologists use to understand intergroup relations (both conflict and friendship). Prof. Mendoza-Denton will argue that social psychology, while strong on process, can benefit from a focus on antecedents, development, and context of such friendship. More broadly, the talk will touch on implications for conceptualizing person-by-environment dynamics, the interpersonal self, and interventions to ameliorate intergroup attitudes.
1111 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Both social psychology and developmental psychology have seen a resurgence in research on intergroup friendship. In an effort to draw bridges between our fields, this talk will be meant to review some of the current work being done in social psychology on processes and outcomes related to intergroup friendship. Prof. Mendoza-Denton will emphasize research in the area, as well as the dominant theoretical approaches that social psychologists use to understand intergroup relations (both conflict and friendship). Prof. Mendoza-Denton will argue that social psychology, while strong on process, can benefit from a focus on antecedents, development, and context of such friendship. More broadly, the talk will touch on implications for conceptualizing person-by-environment dynamics, the interpersonal self, and interventions to ameliorate intergroup attitudes.
1111 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Monday, February 28, 2011
March 10: Susan Rivera, Dept. of Psychology, UC Davis
Investigating Gene-Brain Relationships Across the Lifespan in the fragile X spectrum of Disorders
Mutations of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene are the genetic cause of fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common inherited form of mental retardation. Large expansions of the CGG trinucleotide repeat in the full mutation range (> 200 CGG repeats) consequently result in transcriptional silencing of the FMR1 gene and deficiency or absence of the FMR1 protein. Smaller expansions (~ 55 to 200 repeats)are referred to as the premutation (FXPM). My laboratory has been investigating individuals across the fragile X spectrum of involvement (including both premutation carriers and individuals with the full mutation) using both infrared eyetracking and brain imaging techniques. We have gathered data from individual across the life span, from infants to aging adults, and are converging on a consistent pattern of results which suggests that alterations in a fronto-parietal circuit may underly many of the observed cognitive deficits seen across the fragile X spectrum (especially, difficulty with spatial and numerical processing and attentive tracking). Furthermore, across these multiple studies, we have observed correlations between level of impairment on these tasks and molecular variables such as CGG repeat size and protein expression, suggesting a dosage effect of FMR1 mutations on cortical functioning in this prefrontal-parietal network.
Room 1111 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Mutations of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene are the genetic cause of fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common inherited form of mental retardation. Large expansions of the CGG trinucleotide repeat in the full mutation range (> 200 CGG repeats) consequently result in transcriptional silencing of the FMR1 gene and deficiency or absence of the FMR1 protein. Smaller expansions (~ 55 to 200 repeats)are referred to as the premutation (FXPM). My laboratory has been investigating individuals across the fragile X spectrum of involvement (including both premutation carriers and individuals with the full mutation) using both infrared eyetracking and brain imaging techniques. We have gathered data from individual across the life span, from infants to aging adults, and are converging on a consistent pattern of results which suggests that alterations in a fronto-parietal circuit may underly many of the observed cognitive deficits seen across the fragile X spectrum (especially, difficulty with spatial and numerical processing and attentive tracking). Furthermore, across these multiple studies, we have observed correlations between level of impairment on these tasks and molecular variables such as CGG repeat size and protein expression, suggesting a dosage effect of FMR1 mutations on cortical functioning in this prefrontal-parietal network.
Room 1111 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Feb. 24: Geoffrey Saxe, Graduate School of Education & IHD
The emergence, reproduction, and change of collective representations and ideas: The study of small communities in the New Guinea and the United States
Psychological studies of cognitive development are often conducted without regard for the interplay between the cognitive activities of individuals and the cultural histories of communities. In Prof. Saxe's talk, he illustrates a heuristic research framework that illuminates this interplay through studies drawn from his work with a remote Papua New Guinea group; He focuses on the emergence, reproduction, and alteration of collective representations for naming currency tokens in the community over an extended period of time. The second is drawn from work on mathematics in upper elementary classroom communities in the United States, where the focus is on geometric and arithmetic representations for fractions in classroom communities.
Room 1111 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Psychological studies of cognitive development are often conducted without regard for the interplay between the cognitive activities of individuals and the cultural histories of communities. In Prof. Saxe's talk, he illustrates a heuristic research framework that illuminates this interplay through studies drawn from his work with a remote Papua New Guinea group; He focuses on the emergence, reproduction, and alteration of collective representations for naming currency tokens in the community over an extended period of time. The second is drawn from work on mathematics in upper elementary classroom communities in the United States, where the focus is on geometric and arithmetic representations for fractions in classroom communities.
Room 1111 Tolman Hall
12:00-1:30p.m.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Feb. 10: Frank C. Worrell, Graduate School of Education
Are Cultural Identities Developmental? Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Identity
Much of the early theorizing about racial identity (e.g., Cross, 1971) utilized a developmental framework, postulating change across a sequence of stages. Early theorizing about ethnic identity (e.g., Phinney, 1989) used Cross' model and Marcia's (1966) conceptualization of identity statuses to suggest developmental change. In this presnetation, the evidence in support of a developmental conceptualization of racial and ethnic identity are considered. An attitudinal perspective is suggested as an alternative hypothesis.
Much of the early theorizing about racial identity (e.g., Cross, 1971) utilized a developmental framework, postulating change across a sequence of stages. Early theorizing about ethnic identity (e.g., Phinney, 1989) used Cross' model and Marcia's (1966) conceptualization of identity statuses to suggest developmental change. In this presnetation, the evidence in support of a developmental conceptualization of racial and ethnic identity are considered. An attitudinal perspective is suggested as an alternative hypothesis.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Jan. 27: Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan
Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count
Many laypeople, and many scientists who study intelligence, believe that intelligence is highly heritable and for this reason is little modifiable by the environment. It is often assumed that the environment that families create for their children has little impact on intelligence. In fact, heritability is not as great as is often assumed, is very different for different groups, and poses no barrier to modification. The environment has a massive impact on intelligence. Schools have a substantial effect; the environmental differences between families are very important; IQ scores have been going up since they were first tested in the 20th century; different cultures encourage the development of intelligence to very different degrees; and interventions ranging from ambitious pre-school programs to brief interventions by school psychologists have a large impact on academic skills.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
12:00-1:30p.m.
Room 5101 Tolman Hall
Many laypeople, and many scientists who study intelligence, believe that intelligence is highly heritable and for this reason is little modifiable by the environment. It is often assumed that the environment that families create for their children has little impact on intelligence. In fact, heritability is not as great as is often assumed, is very different for different groups, and poses no barrier to modification. The environment has a massive impact on intelligence. Schools have a substantial effect; the environmental differences between families are very important; IQ scores have been going up since they were first tested in the 20th century; different cultures encourage the development of intelligence to very different degrees; and interventions ranging from ambitious pre-school programs to brief interventions by school psychologists have a large impact on academic skills.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
12:00-1:30p.m.
Room 5101 Tolman Hall
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