Developmental Psychology
Study Topics
Developmental psychologists, including those at NDSU study how age is related to:
- problem solving abilities
- the way we perceive other people
- language development
- social interaction
- coordinated behaviors (e.g., driving, eye-hand coordination)

Participant Opportunities
Thank you for your interest in participating in our research! Researchers at NDSU study a wide range of topics related to child development, including learning, emotions, and social interactions. If you have a child who is 2 to 18 years old and would like to be contacted about participating in our research, please fill out the form below. Someone will contact you when we have a study that your child is the right age for!

Our Programs
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Major | Minor
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Doctoral
Developmental Psychology Faculty and Research
Benjamin Balas, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: High-level vision, face recognition, visual development, ERPs
Erin Conwell, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Early childhood development
Katherine Duggan, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Personality, sleep, cardiovascular disease, lifespan development, healthy aging, statistics/methods
Anna Finley, Ph.D. - Research Interests: Social and affective neuroscience, emotion regulation, self-regulation, well-being, healthy aging, loneliness
Jeremy Hamm, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Motivation, emotion, self-regulation, life transitions, healthy aging
Linda Langley, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Cognitive aging, attention, visual search, cognitive training
Affiliated Faculty
James E. Deal, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Personality development in children; Relationship between individual development and family relationships
Elizabeth Blodgett Salafia, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Family and peer influences on adolescents disordered eating attitudes and behaviors
Heather Fuller, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Social relationships across the lifespan (e.g. intergenerational relationships); Psychological well-being in old age; Culture and Aging; Migration, transnationalism and acculturation; Biculturalis
Joel Hektner, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Aggressive children; Research methods; Prevention programs for high-risk aggressive children; Peer affiliation patterns and peer influences on children's behaviors; Family and school conditions that facilitate optimal experiences (flow) and optimal development; The Experience Sampling Method
Melissa Lunsman O'Connor, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Examining age-related differences and changes in cognitive and functional abilities, such as driving, among healthy adults and clinical populations; quantitative methods and psychometrics; interventions for improving cognition, health, and everyday functioning; and attitudes toward dementia.
Brandy A. Randall, Ph.D. ~ Research Interests: Child, Adolescent Development, Relational and contextual influences on adolescents' and young adults' positive and problem behaviors