Developmental Psychology

Dr. Melvin Wilson's academic, research, and training activities generally focus on understanding contextual processes and outcomes and conducting parental interventions in low-income, ethnic minority families. Specifically, he has conducted analyses on young, low-income, unwed, and nonresident fathers and their involvement with their children. In addition, he is interested in developing intervention protocols aimed at helping young men meet family responsibilities and involvements. Currently, Dr. Wilson is conducting a preventive intervention involving low-income families with toddlers at-risk for conduct disorder.

Meghan Puglia

Jen Musselman — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:27:32 +0000

Meghan Puglia

Jen Musselman Mon, 06/10/2024 - 09:27

Assistant Professor of Neurology and Psychology

mhm8yp@virginia.edu

https://www.puglialab.org/team

Research Areas

Cognitive Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Jamie Jirout

Jen Musselman — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:19:05 +0000

Jamie Jirout

Jen Musselman Mon, 06/10/2024 - 09:19

Assistant Professor, School of Education and Human Development

jj3wc@virginia.edu

https://education.virginia.edu/about/directory/jamie-j-jirout

Research Areas

Developmental Psychology

Tanya Evans

Jen Musselman — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:16:15 +0000

Tanya Evans

Jen Musselman Mon, 06/10/2024 - 09:16

Assistant Professor, School of Education and Human Development

tme4j@virginia.edu

https://education.virginia.edu/about/directory/tanya-evans

Research Areas

Developmental Psychology

Amrisha Vaish

Jen Musselman — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 16:54:44 +0000

Amrisha Vaish

Jen Musselman Tue, 06/04/2024 - 12:54

Pamela Feinour Edmonds and Franklin S. Edmonds, Jr. Discovery Associate Professor in Psychology

av8u@virginia.edu

Research Areas

Developmental Psychology

Office Address: 140L Gilmer Hall
Lab Website: Early Social Development Lab; Child Development Laboratories

Biography

Dr. Amrisha Vaish received her B.A. in Psychology and English from the University of Virginia in 2002, her M.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago in 2006, and her PhD in Psychology from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Free University Berlin in 2010. Prior to starting at U.VA, she was a Dilthey Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Research Interests

Humans are inordinately cooperative beings, and our ultra-cooperative, moral nature is thought to account for our success as a species. My research focuses on the ontogenetic emergence of the moral emotions, cognitions, and behaviors that make children successful cooperators. This includes the emergence of social emotions such as sympathy, guilt, and forgiveness; of moral evaluations of one's own and others' actions; and of moral behaviors such as helping, sharing, and the enforcement of moral norms. I have also recently begun examining more uncooperative phenomena, such as cheating and reputation enhancement, in order to expand our understanding not only of when and why cooperation works but also of when and why it doesn’t.

My other research interests include infant social referencing, children's understanding of others’ desires as an early form of theory of mind, and the development of the negativity bias.

For more information about Dr. Vaish's research click here.

Selected Publications

Vaish, A., & Savell, S. (2022). Young children value recipients who display gratitude. Developmental Psychology, 58(4), 680-692. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001308
Yucel, M., Drell, M., Jaswal, V., & Vaish, A. (2022). Young children do not perceive distributional fairness as a moral norm. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001349
Chajes, J., Grossmann, T., & Vaish, A. (2022). Fairness takes time: Development of cooperative decision making in fairness context. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 216, 105344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105344
Vaish, A., & Hepach, R. (2020). The development of prosocial emotions. Emotion Review, 12, 259-273. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073919885014 [Invited target article]
Beeler-Duden, S., & Vaish, A. (2020). Paying it forward: The development and underlying mechanisms of upstream reciprocity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 192, 104785. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104785
Oostenbroek, J., & Vaish, A. (2019). The emergence of forgiveness in young children. Child Development, 90, 1969-1986. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13069
Tomasello, M., & Vaish, A. (2013). Origins of human cooperation and morality. Annual Reviews of Psychology, 64, 231-255.
Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Sympathy through affective perspective-taking and its relation to prosocial behavior in toddlers. Developmental Psychology, 45, 534-543. doi: 10.1037/a0014322
Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2008). Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 383-403. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.134.3.383

Awards

All-University Teaching Award, 2019
Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, Association for Psychological Science, 2018
Designated “Rising Star,” Association for Psychological Science, 2015
Division 7 Dissertation Award, American Psychological Association, 2012
Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, Society for Research in Child Development, 2011

Charlotte J. Patterson

Jen Musselman — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 12:50:35 +0000

Charlotte J. Patterson

Jen Musselman Tue, 06/04/2024 - 08:50

Professor of Psychology and Women, Gender & Sexuality

cjp@virginia.edu

434 924-0664

Research Areas

Community Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Office Address: 140J Gilmer Hall
Office Hours: By Appointment Only

Biography

CHARLOTTE J. PATTERSON (she, her, hers) is professor of psychology in the Psychology Department at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the role of sexual orientation in human development and family lives, particularly the study of child development in lesbian- and gay-parented families. She co-edited the Handbook of Psychology and Sexual Orientation (Oxford University Press, 2013), and a 2020 report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine entitled, Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQ Populations. A fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS), Patterson has been the recipient of APA’s Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy Award, and a number of other recognitions. Patterson’s Ph.D. degree in psychology is from Stanford University.

Selected Recent Publications

Patterson, C. J., Tate, D., Sumontha, J. & Xu, R. (2018). Sleep difficulties among sexual minority adults: Associations with family relationship problems. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 5, 109 – 116.

Farr, R.H., Bruun, S. T., Doss, K. M., & Patterson, C. J. (2018). Children’s gender-typed behavior from early to middle childhood in adoptive families with lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parents. Sex Roles, 78, 528 – 541.

Patterson, C. J. (2019). Lesbian and gay parenting. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of Parenting 3rd Edition, Volume 3. New York: Routledge.

Tate, D. P., Patterson, C. J., and Levy, A. J. (2019). Predictors of parenting intentions among childless lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adults. Journal of Family Psychology, 33, 194 – 202.

Patterson, C. J., & Potter, E. C. (2019). Sexual orientation and sleep difficulties: A review of research. Sleep Health, 5, 227 – 235.

Potter, E. C., & Patterson, C. J. (2019). Health-related quality of life among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults: The burden of health disparities in the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. LGBT Health, 6, 357 – 369.

Tate, D. P., & Patterson, C. J. (2019). Desire for parenthood in context of other life aspirations among lesbian, gay, and heterosexual young adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, article 2679 (published Nov 28 2019).

Farr, R. H., Bruun, S. T., & Patterson, C. J. (2019). Longitudinal associations between co-parenting and child adjustment among lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adoptive parent families. Developmental Psychology, 55, 2547 – 2560.

Farr, R. H., Vazquez, C. P. & Patterson, C. J. (2020). LGBTQ Adoptive Parents and Their Children. In A. E. Goldberg & K. R. Allen (Eds.), LGBT-Parent Families: Innovations in Research and Implications for Practice (2nd Ed.). New York: Springer.

Potter, E. C., Tate, D. P., & Patterson, C. J. (2021). Perceived threat of COVID-19 among sexual minority women. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 8 (2), 188 – 200.

Patterson, C. J., & Potter, E. C. (2022). Sleep difficulties among sexual minority adults: Evidence from the 2018 National Health Interview Study. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity 9(2), 242-253. doi: 10.1037/sgd0000473

Li, Y. (B.) & Patterson, C. J. (2022). Parenting Aspirations Among Chinese International Students of Diverse Sexual Identities: A Cultural Perspective, LGBTQ+ Family, 18, 20-37. doi: 10.1080/1550428X.2021.1999360

Li, Y. (B.) & Patterson, C.J. (2022). Ideas about family formation among sexual minority and heterosexual Chinese international students. Journal of Family Psychology, 36, 1194 – 1204. Doi:10.1037/fam0001007

Patterson, C. J. (2022, in press). Parental sexual orientation, parental gender identity, and the development of children. In J. J. Lockman (Ed.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, volume 63. Elsevier Press.

Angeline Lillard

Jen Musselman — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:42:40 +0000

Angeline Lillard

Jen Musselman Mon, 06/03/2024 - 12:42

Professor of Psychology

lillard@virginia.edu

434 982-4750

Research Areas

Developmental Psychology

Office Address: 140S Gilmer Hall
Lab Website: The Early Developmental Lab

Research

Social and cognitive development, Montessori education, children’s play

Book

Montessori: The Science behind the Genius

Publications

See lab website for most recent list of publications.

Lillard A. S. & Taggart, J. (in press). Reimagining Assessment in a Large Lecture: Alternative Assessment Inspired by Thomas Jefferson and Maria Montessori. College Teaching.
Eisen, S. L., Taggart, J., Salehi, P., Liller, A., & Lillard, A. S. (in press). Children prefer fantasy, but not anthropomorphism, in their storybooks. Journal of Cognition and Development.
Basargekar, A*., & Lillard, A. S. (in press). Motivation and Self-Determination in Montessori Education. In E. T. Ahlquist, M. Debs, M. McKenna, & A. K. Murray (Eds.), Bloomsbury Handbook of Montessori Education. Bloomsbury Publishing.
LeBoeuf, L.*, Snyder, A.*, & Lillard, A. S. (in press). “My Name Is Sally Brown, and I Hate School!”: A Retrospective Study of School Liking Among Conventional and Montessori School Alumni. Psychology in the Schools. Published online 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22777
Lillard, A. S., Taggart, J.*, Yonas, D*., & Seale, M. N. (in press). An alternative to “no excuses”: Considering Montessori as culturally responsive pedagogy. Journal of Negro Education.
Lillard, A. S. (2022). Ignored no more: The second century of Montessori Education. In J. de Brouwer & P. Sins (Eds.), Perspective on Montessori. Saxion Progressive Education University Press.
Lillard, A. S. (2022). Pretending at hand: How children perceive and process puppets. Cognitive Development, 63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101202
Skyview, A. M*., Beeler-Dudena, S*., Goldstein, A. M., Gancaycob, C. A., Lillard, A. S., Connelly, J. J., & Morris, J. P. (2022). Neuroepigenetic impact on mentalizing in childhood. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 54, 101080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101080
Lillard, A. (2022). Materials: What Belongs in a Montessori Primary Classroom? Results from a Survey of AMI and AMS Teacher Trainers. Montessori pedagogy and education. Translated to Greek from Montessori Life, 22(3), 18-32.
Lillard, A. S., Meyer, M. J., Vasc, D.*, & Fukuda, E.* (2021). An association between Montessori education in childhood and adult wellbeing. Frontiers in Psychology, 12:721943. 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.721943
- Written up in Forbes, Psychology Today, and many local publications (e.g., New Orleans’ The Big Easy magazine)
Sidera, F., Lillard, A. S., Amado, A., Caparros, B., Rostan, C., & Serrat, E. (2021). Pretending emotions in the early years: The role of language and symbolic play. Infancy. http://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12414
Snyder, A*., Tong, X., & Lillard, A. S. (2021). Standardized test performance in public Montessori schools. Journal of School Choice, 16(1), 105-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2021.1958058
- Reprinted in AMI Communications, 2022
Hopkins, E. H*., & Lillard, A. S. (2021). A Magic School Bus problem: How fantasy affects children’s learning from stories. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 210. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105212
Golino, H., Christensen, A.*, Becker, I.*, & Lillard, A. S. (2021). Investigating the structure of the children’s concentration and empathy scale using exploratory graph analysis. Psychological Test Adaptation and Development. Doi: 10.1027/2698-1866/a000008
Basargekar, A*., & Lillard, A. S. (2021). Math Achievement Outcomes Associated with Montessori Education. Early Child Development and Care, 191(7-8), 1207-1218. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1860955
Lillard, A. S. (2021). Montessori as an Alternative Early Childhood Education. Early Child Development and Care, 191(7-8), 1196-1206. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1832998
Taggart, J.*, Becker, I. *, Rauen, J. *, Al Kallas, H. *, & Lillard, A. S. (2020). What shall we do: Pretend or real? Preschoolers’ choices and parents’ perceptions. Journal of Cognition and Development, 21(2), 261-281. 10.1080/15248372.2019.1709469
Taggart, J. *, Ellwood, M. C. *, Vasc, D. *, Chin, S. J.*, & Lillard, A. S. (2020). Parents’ roles and question-asking during pretend and real activities. Social Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12436
Vasc., D.*, & Lillard, A. S. (2020). Pretend and Sociodramatic Play. In S. Hupp & J. Jewell (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. New York: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171492
Eisen, S., & Lillard, A. S. (2020). Learning from Apps and Objects: The Human Touch. Mind, Brain, and Education, 14(1), 16-23.
Taggart, J.*, Eisen, S.*, & Lillard, A. S. (2019). The current landscape of US children’s television: Prosocial, educational, fantastical, and violent content. Journal of Children and Media, 13, 276-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2019.1605916
Lillard, A. S. (2019). Shunned and Admired: Montessori, Self-Determination, and a Case for Radical School Reform. Educational Psychology Review, 31, 939-65. doi: 10.1007/s10648-019-09483-3.
- 2nd most downloaded article of 2019 among all Springer/Nature Education journals.
- Featured in Nature’s Science of Learning Research Roundup.
Li, H.*, Eisen, S.* & Lillard, A. S. (2019). Anthropomorphic Media Exposure and Preschoolers' Anthropomorphic Thinking in China. Journal of Children and Media, 13(2), 149-162. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2019.1570960
Lillard, A. S., & McHugh, V. (2019). Authentic Montessori: The Dottoressa’s View at the End of Her Life Part I: The Environment. Journal of Montessori Research, 5(1), 1-18. doi: https://doi.org/10.17161/jomr.v5i1.7716
Lillard, A. S., & McHugh, V. (2019). Authentic Montessori: The Dottoressa’s View at the End of Her Life Part II: The Teacher and the Child. Journal of Montessori Research, 5(1), 19-34. doi: https://doi.org/10.17161/jomr.v5i1.9753
Lillard, A. S., & Taggart, J.* (2019). Pretend play and fantasy: What if Montessori was right? Child Development Perspectives, 13(2), 85-90. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12314
- Selected for the Society for Research in Child Development’s special cross-191 journal virtual Covid-19 issue on The Science of Learning and Teaching at Home, April-July 2020.

Awards

University of Virginia Research Achievement Award, 2021
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2020
Faculty Mentor for Psi Chi and APS Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award recipient (Sierra Eisen), 2016-17
Fellow, American Psychological Association, 2011, and Association for Psychological Science, 2006
Cognitive Development Society Book Award, 2006, for Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius
James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Fellow, 2005-2006
American Psychological Association Boyd McCandless Young Scientist Award, 1999 and Outstanding Dissertation Award, 1992

Vikram Jaswal

Jen Musselman — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:40:29 +0000

Vikram Jaswal

Jen Musselman Mon, 06/03/2024 - 12:40

Professor of Psychology | Director of Graduate Studies

jaswal@virginia.edu

434 982-4709

Research Areas

Cognitive Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Office Address: 140T Gilmer Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-315 and Wednesdays 11-12
Lab Website: Jaswal Lab, Jaswal Lab Publications

Biography

My research has addressed a range of topics in typical development, including in word learning, categorization, memory development, and social cognition. My current research focuses on communication in autism—specifically, the cognitive and social processes underlying communication in nonspeaking autistics, and how some parents and their nonspeaking children develop unconventional but successful ways of communicating with each other.

Tobias Grossmann

Jen Musselman — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:24:41 +0000

Tobias Grossmann

Jen Musselman Mon, 06/03/2024 - 12:24

Professor of Psychology

tg3ny@virginia.edu

Research Areas

Developmental Psychology

Office Address: 140N Gilmer Hall
Lab Website: UVA Baby Lab
Website: https://www.tobiasgrossmann.com/

Biography

Tobias Grossmann is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia where he directs the UVA Babylab. His research focuses on the early development of the social, cognitive and brain processes that underpin adaptive social communication and behavior. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the Max Planck Institutes for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He was then awarded a Sir Henry Welcome Fellowship at the Center for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Before joining UVA, he led an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and received his Habilitation from Heidelberg University’s Institute of Psychology.

Selected Publications

Grossmann, T. (2022). The human fear paradox: Affective origins of cooperative care. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Jessen, S., & Grossmann, T. (2020). The developmental origins of subliminal face processing. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 116, 454-460.

Grossmann, T., Missana, M., & Vaish, A. (2020). Helping, fast and slow: Exploring intuitive cooperation in early ontogeny. Cognition, 196: 104144.

Krol, K.M. , Moulder, R.G., Lillard, T.S., & Grossmann, T.,& Connelly, J.J. (2019). Epigenetic dynamics in infancy and the impact of maternal engagement. Science Advances, 16, eaay0680.

Grossmann, T., Missana, M., & Krol, K.M. (2018). The neurodevelopmental precursors to altruistic behavior in infancy. PLOS Biology, 16:e200528.

Grossmann, T. (2017). The eyes as windows into other minds: An integrative perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12, 107-121.

Grossmann, T. (2015). The development of social brain functions during infancy. Psychological Bulletin, 141, 1266-87.

Krol, K.M., Monakhov, M., Lai, P.S., Ebstein, R., & Grossmann, T. (2015). Genetic variation in CD38 and breastfeeding experience interact to impact infants' attention to social eye cues. PNAS, 112, E5434–E5442.

Jessen, S. & Grossmann, T. (2014). Unconscious discrimination of social cues from eye whites in infants. PNAS, 111, 16208-16213.

Fairhurst, M. T., Löken, L., & Grossmann, T. (2014). Physiological and behavioral responses reveal 9-month-old infants' sensitivity to pleasant touch. Psychological Science, 25, 1124-1131.

Grossmann, T., Oberecker, R., Koch, S.P., & Friederici, A.D. (2010). The developmental origins of voice processing in the human brain. Neuron, 65, 852-858.

Grossmann, T., Johnson, M. H., Lloyd-Fox, S., Blasi, A., Deligianni, F., Elwell, C., & Csibra, G. (2008). Early cortical specialization for face-to-face communication in human infants. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 275, 2803-2811.

Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2008). Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in early social-emotional development. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 383-403.