Become a Psychologist

A Sample of Recent Research

Developmental psychology deals with human development throughout the lifespan, and is a vibrant, diverse field. Below is just a sample of the work being done in applied developmental psychology by faculty members who supervise the work of Claremont Graduate University students.

Browse sample research topics:

Dr. Mita Banerjee: Children's Understanding of Emotions

“My research has focused largely on children's early understanding of emotions, ” says Dr. Mita Banerjee, “and it represents an interest in both social and cognitive aspects of this understanding. My most recent studies have examined children's knowledge about emotion regulation, as well as parents’ values and beliefs about emotion. The connection between parents’ ‘metaemotion theories’ and their emotion interactions with children is a focus of present work. Through the use of a natural language dataset, I am also examining the messages about emotions and their regulation that are contained in parents’ spontaneous speech to their children.”

Children’s literature and its meaning for the development of social cognition also plays a role in Dr. Banerjee’s work. “As a way of extending my work on the socialization of emotion understanding, ” she says, “I am examining the depiction of emotion regulation presented in children's storybooks, and the way in which mind and emotion are linked in these portrayals.

“In keeping with my interest in the way in which social cognition and social experiences interact, I am also researching cultural differences in children's understanding of the family. I have supervised a number of graduate students from Claremont Graduate University on research projects, as well as in my own research on children's understanding of emotion regulation and on children's concepts of the family.”