Human Development

Field Description

The program prepares students for careers in academic life, primarily in psychology, sociology, or human development; in research programs of governmental agencies at various levels; and in a range of programs in community agencies and private enterprise. It does not prepare students to be clinical psychologists, school psychologists, or family life counselors.

Students develop an individual program of study and research in consultation with their Special Committee, which is chaired by a member of the Field of Human Development but may include faculty members from other fields.

All students are expected to acquire a basic background in the behavioral sciences and to master a broad base of knowledge of human development in the context of family and society. Both the M.A. and the Ph.D. degree programs require a research thesis or dissertation.

For the Ph.D. degree, two semesters of graduate-level training in statistics and some teaching experience are required. The field also requires that candidates complete a predoctoral research project before taking the Admission to Candidacy examination. The Ph.D. program ordinarily takes four years to complete.

Research facilities:
There are a number of fully equipped laboratories directed by individual faculty members who are conducting observational and experimental studies of basic processes in development. In the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, students may become involved in research or demonstration projects involving child maltreatment, families under stress, and adulthood and aging.

Contact Information

Website: https://psychology.cornell.edu/graduate-admission-and-requirements---human-development-
Email: ma84@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-4661

G201B Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and Degrees

Developmental Psychology

Human Development and Family Studies

Concentrations by Subject

Developmental Psychology

  • aging and health
  • cognitive development
  • developmental psychopathology
  • ecology of human development
  • law, psychology and human development
  • social and personality development

Human Development and Family Studies

  • aging and health
  • ecology of human development
  • family studies and the life course

Faculty

Adam Keith Anderson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; cognitive development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health
  • Research Interests: emotion-cognition interactions, facial and peripheral/central physiological expression of emotions

Charles Brainerd

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; cognitive development; law, psychology and human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health
  • Research Interests: cognitive neuroscience; memory and cognitive development; mathematical modeling; psychology and law

Anthony Burrow

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: developmental psychopathology; ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: ethnic minority psychology; identity processes; development and function of purpose among youth

Daniel Casasanto

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development

Marianella Casasola

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development
  • Research Interests: developmental psychology; cognitive development; word learning, spatial cognition, and the relation between language and thought in infants

Stephen John Ceci

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; developmental psychopathology; law, psychology and human development
  • Research Interests: ecological model of intelligence; intellectual development; children and the law; forensic psychology

Audun Dahl

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; ecology of human development; law, psychology and human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: development of morality across the lifespan

Eve DeRosa

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; cognitive development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health
  • Research Interests: Attention and Learning, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience

Rachel E Dunifon

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: child and family policy; family structure and child well-being; parent-child interactions

Gary William Evans

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: children's environments; environmental stress; the environment of poverty

Michael H. Goldstein

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: cognitive development; social and personality development; social learning, with a focus on the development of speech and language

Marlen Z Gonzalez

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development; Developmental Psychology: developmental psychopathology; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: affective and social neuroscience, life span development, development context, mental health

Valerie Hans

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: law, psychology and human development
  • Research Interests: psychology and law; social psychology; jury decision-making

Cynthia Hazan

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: social and personality development
  • Research Interests: affiliative bonding; attachment, parenting, and mating behavior; normative and individual difference processes in human social behavior

Will Hobbs

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; ecology of human development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development; family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: social and political affects of government actions, health and resilience in social networks, low-dimensional representation of social interaction and language

Adam J. Hoffman

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development; family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: development of social identities across adolescent development, quantitative psychology, ethnic-racial and gender academic achievement gaps

Misha N. Inniss-Thompson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: Black girls' lived experiences in 1) positive mental health and well-being; 2) coping processes and cultural assets; 3) disparities in education policy and practice.

Corinna E. Loeckenhoff

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; cognitive development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health
  • Research Interests: life-span trajectories of motivation, emotion and personality; social cognition; health care choices and behaviors

Barbara Catherine Lust

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development
  • Research Interests: first-language acquisition in various languages; universals in syntax acquisition; cognitive science

Jane Mendle

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: developmental psychopathology; ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: adolescent psychopathology; psychosocial development during puberty; behavioral genetics

Anthony D. Ong

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health
  • Research Interests: stress and emotions; resilience and life course development; ethnic minority mental health

Karl Andrew Pillemer

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development; family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: sociology of family, aging, and the life course; social networks; family care provision to disabled elders; family conflict and abuse

David A. Pizarro

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: developmental psychopathology; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: moral judgment; moral intuitions (especially concerning moral responsibility, and the permissibility or impermissibility of certain acts); biases that affect moral judgment

Jeffrey John Rachlinski

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: law, psychology and human development
  • Research Interests: psychology and law; civil procedure; environmental law

Manney C. Reid

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development; family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: social science and gerontology; experimental intervention research

Valerie Reyna

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; cognitive development; law, psychology and human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health
  • Research Interests: memory; judgment; decision making

Steven S Robertson

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development
  • Research Interests: fetal and infant development; early behavioral mechanisms and adaptive functions; developmental psychobiology; attention, thought, and action

Sharon L. Sassler

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human Development and Family Studies: family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: social demography; union formation (marriage, cohabitation); immigrant adaptation; racial and ethnic differentiation; young adult transitions

Dawn Ellen Schrader

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: moral psychology; metacognition; social and epistemological development; lifespan (especially adolescent) psychology; educational psychology; relational aggression

Robert J. Sternberg

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; cognitive development; ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: development of intelligence, creativity, wisdom, styles of learning and thinking, leadership, love, hate; teaching and learning; university education

Felix Thoemmes

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: Quantitative methods; causal inference; propensity scores; missing data; structural equation modeling

Qi Wang

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; ecology of human development; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: autobiographical memory and self-concept in children and adults; emotion knowledge; cross-cultural research

Jenna Wells

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: aging and health; developmental psychopathology; social and personality development; Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: emotion in close relationships, dementia family caregiving, health and well-being, positive interpersonal processes

Nancy M. Wells

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: ecology of human development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: effects of environmental on health and concentration; well-being through the life course; environmental influences on diet, physical activity and obesity; influence of the natural environment on cognitive functioning and psychological well-being

Elaine Wethington

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Human Development and Family Studies: aging and health; ecology of human development; family studies and the life course
  • Research Interests: epidemiology of mental health and illness; gender, stress, and health

Wendy Williams

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; ecology of human development; law, psychology and human development; Human Development and Family Studies: ecology of human development
  • Research Interests: development, assessment, training and societal implications of intelligence and related abilities in children and adults; interrelationship of science and policy

Vivian Zayas

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Developmental Psychology: cognitive development; social and personality development
  • Research Interests: social cognition; relationships; attachment; self-regulation; unconscious cognition