Amanda Sheffield Morris | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Developmental scientist, academic, and author |
Academic background | |
Education | B. A., Psychology PhD, Developmental psychology |
Alma mater | Southwestern University Temple University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of New Orleans Oklahoma State University |
Amanda Sheffield Morris is an American developmental scientist,known primarily for her work on parenting,emotion regulation,and the neuroscience of adversity and resilience in terms of optimal child and adolescent development. She is currently the Regents Professor of Psychology at Oklahoma State University. [1]
Morris has focused her research on socio-emotional development,parenting,early life adversity,and risk and resilience. [2] She is the author/co-author of several books,including Authoritative Parenting,Adverse and Protective Childhood Experiences:A Developmental Perspective,and The Cambridge Handbook of Parenting:Interdisciplinary Research and Application. She is the editor in chief for the Journal of Research on Adolescence [3] and is an associate editor for the journal Adversity and Resilience Science:Research and Practice. [4]
Morris graduated from Southwestern University in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. She then enrolled at Temple University,and earned her doctoral degree in developmental psychology in 2000. In the following year,she served as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Nancy Eisenberg,at Arizona State University. [5]
Morris started her career with a brief appointment as research assistant in the Department of Psychology at Southwestern University in 1994,and later on,served in this position at Temple University from 1995 till 2000. She joined Arizona State University as postdoctoral research associate in 2000. From 2001 till 2006,she held appointment as assistant professor of psychology at the University of New Orleans. She then came to Oklahoma State University as associate professor of human development and family science in 2006,was promoted to professor in 2012,and became regents professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science in 2017. After serving in this role,she took a position as regents professor in the Department of Psychology in 2021. She has held the George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair in Child Development since 2016. [5]
Morris has published over 150 papers. Her research covers a broad range of topics in developmental psychology,with a specific focus on social and emotional development in childhood and adolescence. She has worked to explore contextual influences on psychosocial development,and to highlight the role that adverse and protective experiences play in child and adolescent development. [6]
Morris proposed strategies to enhance effortful control and school readiness among kindergarten children from primarily low-income families. She argued that children's effortful control,behavior problems in school,and peer relations are directly interlinked with academic adjustment variables at the end of the school year. [7] She introduced tripartite model in 2007,suggesting that parents can influence children's emotion regulation through three mechanisms:children's observation of parents' emotion regulation,emotion-related parenting practices,and the emotional climate of the family. [8] [9] Along with co-authors,she also published papers to describe the relations that exist between family participation in CareerAdvance, [10] an agency which provides opportunities for families to connect with career coaches while recruiting parents of Head Start children into a workforce training program. [11]
In 2021,Morris presented a model focused on highlighting how experiences affect the whole child,the heart and the head,and considers development within context and across domains. [12] Moreover,she discussed contemporary challenges,and the ways that parents can use to promote healthy development of their children. She provided an overview on highly researched topics on parenting and adolescent development,such as the impact of parenting on adolescent peer and romantic relationships;gene-environment interactions in parenting research,the impact of parenting on adolescent brain development;and parents' involvement in adolescents' social media usage. [13]
In her studies focused on developmental neuroscience,Morris investigated cross-brain associations between parents and children. She discussed how neurobiological bases of dyadic emotion regulation plays a significant role in the development of psychopathology. [14] She was a co-investigator for the Adolescent Brain Child Development (ABCD) and was part of the Culture and Environment (CE) Workgroup of ABCD that curates measures in terms of families' social and cultural environment. [15] She is of the view that parent–adolescent relationship is important for adolescents’emotion regulation (ER). Having said that,she provided evidence of CBC and explored associations between cross-brain connectivity (CBC),parenting,and adolescent internalizing symptoms. [16] She is an MPI on the Oklahoma site of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD),where she provided principles for guiding the selection of early childhood neurodevelopmental risk and resilience measures. [17]
Morris developed the Protective and Compensatory Experiences measure and framework with Jennifer Hays-Grudo. The framework was intended to investigate the health effects of childhood adversity and the promotion of resilience through positive experiences. [18] Her 2020 book,Adverse and Protective Childhood Experiences:A Developmental Perspective,explores impacts of enduring childhood experiences,and provides evidence-based approaches for protecting children and repairing the enduring negative consequences of (ACEs) they face as adults. [19] In a series of papers published 2021,she explored the role of cumulative protection in the context of understanding resilience,as well as evaluated the associations between ACEs,PACEs,and attitudes towards nurturing and harsh parenting. [20] Furthermore,she proposed a model for understanding the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as dynamic biobehavioral adaptations to early life stress in children. [21] [22]
Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis,or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.
Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma;these might include neglect,abandonment,sexual abuse,emotional abuse,and physical abuse,witnessing abuse of a sibling or parent,or having a mentally ill parent. These events have profound psychological,physiological,and sociological impacts and can have negative,lasting effects on health and well-being such as unsocial behaviors,attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),and sleep disturbances. Similarly,children whose mothers have experienced traumatic or stressful events during pregnancy have an increased risk of mental health disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
The differential susceptibility theory proposed by Jay Belsky is another interpretation of psychological findings that are usually discussed according to the diathesis-stress model. Both models suggest that people's development and emotional affect are differentially affected by experiences or qualities of the environment. Where the Diathesis-stress model suggests a group that is sensitive to negative environments only,the differential susceptibility hypothesis suggests a group that is sensitive to both negative and positive environments. A third model,the vantage-sensitivity model,suggests a group that is sensitive to positive environments only. All three models may be considered complementary,and have been combined into a general environmental sensitivity framework.
Daniel S. Schechter is an American and Swiss psychiatrist known for his clinical work and research on intergenerational transmission or "communication" of violent trauma and related psychopathology involving parents and very young children. His published work in this area following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York of September 11,2001 led to a co-edited book entitled "September 11:Trauma and Human Bonds" (2003) and additional original articles with clinical psychologist Susan Coates that were translated into multiple languages and remain among the first accounts of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath Schechter observed that separation anxiety among infants and young children who had either lost or feared loss of their caregivers triggered posttraumatic stress symptoms in the surviving caregivers. These observations validated his prior work on the adverse impact of family violence on the early parent-child relationship,formative social-emotional development and related attachment disturbances involving mutual dysregulation of emotion and arousal. This body of work on trauma and attachment has been cited by prominent authors in the attachment theory,psychological trauma,developmental psychobiology and neuroscience literatures
Suniya S. Luthar was founder and executive director of AC Groups nonprofit,Professor Emerita at Teachers College-Columbia University,and Co-founder Emerita at Authentic Connections Co. She had previously served on the faculty at Yale University's Department of Psychiatry and the Yale Child Study Center and as Foundation Professor of Psychology at the Arizona State University.
Moral development focuses on the emergence,change,and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. The theory states that morality develops across a lifespan in a variety of ways and is influenced by an individual's experiences and behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods of physical and cognitive development. Morality concerns an individual's reforming sense of what is right and wrong;it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgment and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness." It also refers to a specific code of conduct that is derived from one's culture,religion,or personal philosophy that guides one's actions,behaviors,and thoughts.
Amy Gene Halberstadt is an American psychologist specializing in the social development of emotion. She is currently Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh,North Carolina,and is an editor of the journal Social Development.
An important part of the heritage of family resilience is the concept of individual psychological resilience which originates from work with children focusing on what helped them become resilient in the face of adversity. Individual resilience emerged primarily in the field of developmental psychopathology as scholars sought to identify the characteristics of children that allowed them to function "OK" after adversity. Individual resilience gradually moved into understanding the processes associated with overcoming adversity,then into prevention and intervention and now focuses on examining how factors at multiple levels of the system and using interdisciplinary approaches promote resilience. Resilience also has origins to the field of positive psychology. The term resilience gradually changed definitions and meanings,from a personality trait to a dynamic process of families,individuals,and communities.
Dante Cicchetti is a developmental psychologist and developmental psychopathology scientist specializing in high-risk and disenfranchised populations,including maltreated children and offspring of depressed parents. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Medical School and in the Institute of Child Development. He is the McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair and the William Harris Endowed Chair.
Tina Malti is a Canadian-German child psychologist of Palestinian descent. She currently holds an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Early Child Development and Health as the first child psychologist and female psychologist in the award's history. She directs the Alexander von Humboldt Research Group for Child Development as research chair at Leipzig University. She is also a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and founding director of the Centre for Child Development,Mental Health,and Policy at the University of Toronto.
Early childhood trauma refers to various types of adversity and traumatic events experienced during the early years of a person's life. This is deemed the most critical developmental period in human life by psychologists. A critical period refers to a sensitive time during the early years of childhood in which children may be more vulnerable to be affected by environmental stimulation. These traumatic events can include serious illness,natural disasters,family violence,sudden separation from a family member,being the victim of abuse,or suffering the loss of a loved one. Traumatic experiences in early childhood can result in severe consequences throughout adulthood,for instance developing post-traumatic stress disorder,depression,or anxiety. The effects of this trauma can be experienced very differently depending on factors such as how long the trauma was,how severe and even the age of the child when it occurred. Negative childhood experiences can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration,and lifelong health and opportunity. However,not all children who are exposed to negative stimuli in early childhood will be affected severely in later life;some children come out unscathed after being faced with traumatic events,which is known as resilience. Many factors can account for the invulnerability displayed by certain children in response to adverse social conditions:gender,vulnerability,social support systems,and innate character traits. Much of the research in this area has referred to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE) study. The ACE study found several protective factors against developing mental health disorders,including mother-child relations,parental health,and community support. However,having adverse childhood experiences creates long-lasting impacts on psychosocial functioning,such as a heightened awareness of environmental threats,feelings of loneliness,and cognitive deficits. Individuals with ACEs are more prone to developing severe symptoms than individuals in the same diagnostic category.
Ann S. Masten is a professor at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota known for her research on the development of resilience and for advancing theory on the positive outcomes of children and families facing adversity. Masten received the American Psychological Association Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Service of Science and Society in 2014. She has served as president of the Society for Research in Child Development and of Division 7 (Developmental) of the American Psychological Association.
Jelena Obradovic is a developmental psychologist who currently works as associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education,where she is a member of the Steering Committee of the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA). She also directs the Stanford Project on Adaptation and Resilience in Kids (SPARK).
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include childhood emotional,physical,or sexual abuse and household dysfunction during childhood. The categories are verbal abuse,physical abuse,contact sexual abuse,a battered mother/father,household substance abuse,household mental illness,incarcerated household members,and parental separation or divorce. The experiences chosen were based upon prior research that has shown to them to have significant negative health or social implications,and for which substantial efforts are being made in the public and private sector to reduce their frequency of occurrence. Scientific evidence is mounting that such adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a profound long-term effect on health. Research shows that exposure to abuse and to serious forms of family dysfunction in the childhood family environment are likely to activate the stress response,thus potentially disrupting the developing nervous,immune,and metabolic systems of children. ACEs are associated with lifelong physical and mental health problems that emerge in adolescence and persist into adulthood,including cardiovascular disease,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,autoimmune diseases,substance abuse,and depression.
Social emotional development represents a specific domain of child development. It is a gradual,integrative process through which children acquire the capacity to understand,experience,express,and manage emotions and to develop meaningful relationships with others. As such,social emotional development encompasses a large range of skills and constructs,including,but not limited to:self-awareness,joint attention,play,theory of mind,self-esteem,emotion regulation,friendships,and identity development.
Eamon Joseph McCrory is a London-based scientist and clinical psychologist. He is Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology at University College London,where he Co-Directs the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit. He is a Programme Director and member of the Executive team at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families,Director of UKRI's programme on Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing,and Co-Director of the UK Trauma Council.
Nim Tottenham is a professor of psychology at Columbia University,where she leads the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research highlighted fundamental changes in amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuitry across childhood and adolescence and the influential role of early experiences on the developmental trajectories of these circuits.
Katie A. McLaughlin is an American clinical psychologist and expert on how stress,trauma,and other adverse events,such as natural disorders or pandemics,affect behavioral and brain development during childhood and adolescence. McLaughlin is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.
Jodi Anne Quas is an applied developmental psychologist who is known for her work on how maltreatment and abuse affect memory development and children's ability to give eyewitness testimony after experiencing trauma. She holds the position of Professor of Psychological Science and Nursing Science at the University of California,Irvine School of Social Ecology.
Julie May Croff is an American academic and public health researcher,known for her work in the field of health behavior. She is currently a professor of Rural Health at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS). She was the founding Director of the Master of Public Health program at Oklahoma State University and served as the founding executive director for the Center for Wellness and Recovery at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.
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