I am an associate specialist in cooperative extension and the associate director of research for the statewide 4-H youth development program. I received my PhD from the Department of Psychology at UC Davis in 2003, and have been back to UC Davis as a faculty member since 2010. During my time away from Davis, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, England and at Stanford University. After that, I was an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario.
I study social-developmental psychology. In general, I am interested in understanding how personality and social factors influence a person’s developmental course from conception to death. I am interested in understanding how to raise children to grow up to be healthy, productive members of society; including, finding supportive relationships and having a family, supporting themselves and their family, and not bringing harm to others. As such, I am interested in the developmental origins, developmental course, and interrelations among self-esteem, achievement, and antisocial behavior.
I enjoy learning about different methods and statistical techniques and have used a wide range of research designs, such as cross-sectional, experimental, longitudinal, behavioral genetic, and the analysis of archival datasets. I also integrate a wide range of statistical procedures into my research program, such as multilevel modeling (including growth modeling), meta-analysis, quantitative genetics, and structural equation modeling.