Meet The CRDH Facutly Members

My research examines from a self-regulation perspective, how people can adjust to challenging life circumstances and prevent the adverse consequences on their psychological, biological, and physical health (e.g., depression, cortisol dysregulation, or chronic disease).

This research program integrates theories from personality, developmental, and health psychology, and is based on the premise that there are reliable individual differences in people’s personality processes that determine the quality of life of individuals who confront problematic life situations.

Dr. Erin Barker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and member of the Centre for Research in Human Development at Concordia University, where she directs the Lifespan Well-Being Laboratory.  She is a developmental scientist whose program of research examines patterns of emotional experience across developmental transitions. She is particularly interested in how stress and coping affect mental health and wellbeing during the transition to adulthood.

I’m a philosopher of science who focuses mostly on biology and psychology, including human development. In addition to studying particular categories such as well-being, species, and human, I study issues pertaining to scientific categories in general, such as how best to classify and get evidence about scientific categories, and how these categories intersect with ethical issues. 

The lab is pursuing a longitudinal project with 200 Montreal families who we have been following for 10 to 15 years. We are interested in many different aspects of human development, including parent-child relationships, cognitive development, academic achievement, peer relationships, sleep, emotional and behavioral adjustment, puberty, brain development, and others. Our objective is to advance the understanding of how relational, socio-emotional, cognitive, biological and neural influences interact with each other to lead to healthy psychological development in childhood and adolescence.

My research program examines adolescent and emerging adults’ psychosexual development features. Specifically, my ongoing SSHRC research projects focus on the transition into sexual activity (including among women who have sex with women), on desynchronization of the sexual transition timing (i.e. early versus late onset, virginity in adulthood), on the social and media representations of adults’ sexual inexperience, and on sexlessness and involuntary incelibacy (I.e. Incels, Femcels) in emerging adulthood. Dr.Boislard-Pépin holds the Research Chair in Developmental Sexology.

4 axes of research:

1-Positive and negative bias of self-evaluation: mechanisms and factors, psychological correlates, developmental trajectories, consequences, etc.
2- Feeling of imposture: personal and social factors, developmental trajectories and impact on youths’ psychological and academic adaptation.
3- Role of teachers: self-efficacy, beliefs and attitudes towards students and impact on academic perseverance and success.
4) School transition experiences (primary to secondary, secondary to college, etc.): impact on motivational profile, personal and social factors of adaptation and perseverance.

Dr. Krista Byers-Heinlein’s work focuses on how bilingualism in the infant and preschool years affects children’s language, social, and cognitive development. She is particularly interested in how bilingual infants navigate their language environments to learn the sounds and words of their language. Much of her work uses bilingualism as a wedge into understanding how early experience shapes development. She has a strong interest in and commitment to large-scale collaborations and Open Science.

My research program is about hearing, speech, and cognition, using a combination of behavioral and neurophysiological techniques. Our goal is to help individuals with sensory loss, with a special attention given to users of cochlear implants. We aim to improve the technology of auditory prostheses along with helping the brain make the most use of the information delivered from these devices.  

My research is grounded in relationships theory, which argues that children’s development occurs in the context of close, meaningful relationships. I have employed observational methods to study children’s behavior with siblings and friends in naturalistic settings (e.g., home). My work focuses on how young children co-construct meaning in their significant relationships via interactions during play, pretense, prosociality, conflict, teaching, imitation, and humor in children’s evolving interactions with others. The role of play materials in influencing children’s interactions is also of interest.
 

Suzanne King. is a research psychologist. The primary objective of her research is to increase understanding of the effects of prenatal maternal stress on the cognitive, behavioral, physical, and motor development of the unborn child. Her work is unique in the use of five natural disasters (ice storms, floods, wildfires) as quasi-random stressors, approximating the experimental method used in animal research. Her unique psychosocial methods assess objective, subjective, and cognitive aspects of women’s stress experience. 

I direct the Laboratory for Adult Development and Cognitive Aging at Concordia University. We study the role of executive functions in supporting complex cognitive, motor, and perceptual performance in old age. We also study training programs to improve cognitive-motor multitasking in healthy older adults, and those with cognitive or sensory impairments. My research support includes federal and provincial sources: CIHR, CFI, NSERC, FRQ.

​ Alex defines himself as a lifespan developmental psychologist, with broad research interests anchored in the exploration of the social determinants of psychological well-being and psychopathologies at various life stages and various settings, with a more specific focus on self-concept development in adolescence and workplace commitment among working adults. Most of his research activities are anchored in a substantive-methodological synergy framework, and thus represent joint ventures in which new methodological developments are applied to substantively important issues.

Currently, my work focuses on the following major areas:
•    Speech and language processing in younger and older bilinguals
•    The implications of being bilingual/multilingual on cognitive and neural reserve
•    Understanding how sensory loss (olfaction, hearing, vision) is associated with cognitive decline and brain atrophy in persons with or at risk for dementia
•    The implications of hearing and vision impairment for cognitive screening (e.g., using the MoCA) and neuropsychological assessment in older adults
•    Cognitive profiles of persons with or at risk for dementia

Dr Poulin-Dubois studies the development of language in infancy and early childhood with a focus on bilingualsm (NSERC Discovery Grant).   A second area of research concerns early social cognition, particularly the development of a theory of mind and social learning during the first years of life (SSHRC Insight Grant).   At what age and how infants attribute desires, emotions, and intentions is currently being examined by comparing infants' behaviors towards people and robots. 

Dr. Recchia's research concerns children’s and adolescents’ social and moral development in the context of their relationships with parents, siblings, and peers. Her program of work examines how children’s sociomoral learning is shaped by their everyday experiences and the role of socialization agents such as parents and teachers in guiding children’s development. She has studied these processes by interviewing parents, teachers, and children, by observing children’s naturalistic interactions in the home, and by recording children’s reflective discussions of morally-laden events with their parents and peers.

Our research aims to understand how relationships with peers, parents and teachers influence the academic success and perseverance of children, adolescents and young adults. We study the role of risk and protective factors, and seek to understand how school and social experiences contribute to the success of life transitions and to individuals long-term psychological well-being.

My research focuses on cognitive-affective processes that give rise to psychopathology. This involves using multiple methodologies, but primarily event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the activity of neural systems devoted to processing errors, emotional stimuli, and rewards, and working to establish reliable links between the function of these systems and behavior in multiple populations.

My research focuses on stress, hormones (oxytocin and cortisol), and family-environmental risk factors associated with the development of affective disorders and other forms of psychopathology. In addition to basic research, we are currently engaged in knowledge translation initiatives that aim to test the efficacy of prevention andintervention protocols for improving mental health and social outcomes. These include a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of the use of intranasal oxytocin as an adjunct to psychotherapy in the treatment of major depressive disorder and the development of a prevention program (Reducing Unwanted Stress in the Home, RUSH)for families with a parent having bipolar disorder.

The cognitive neuroscience of learning and development, with a focus on infants and methods

My work focuses on peer relationships, friendships, and sibling relationships, in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Broadly, I am interested in (a) identifying the skills needed to develop and maintain high-quality interpersonal relationships; (b) understanding how experiences in relationships contribute to the onset and maintenance of psychological symptoms. In my lab, we use different methodologies to answer our research questions, including observational approaches, daily diaries, questionnaires, and tasks examining emotion recognition and production.

My research focuses on how children interact with, learn from, and evaluate the people in their environment. Specifically, I examine the effect of social cognition on the development, production, and maintenance of trust and prosocial behaviour. The long-term goal of my research program is to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the effect of trust on human behaviour and development through the utilization of methods and theory from social, cognitive, and evolutionary psychology.

Children’s truth-telling and lie-telling Children’s eyewitness testimony Children’s understanding of concepts of false-belief Peer social interactions face-to-face and on-line.

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

A short bio or description will appear here as soon as one is available. 

My research focuses on risk and resilience processes among racially/ethnically minoritized youth and families. Specifically, I employ a wide range of quantitative methods (1) to examine the impact of discrimination on trajectories of psychopathology and wellbeing among marginalized youth and families, (2) to better understand the development and potential protective effects of cultural resilience factors (e.g., ethnic-racial identity, ethnic-racial socialization, cultural values, youth activism, etc.), and (3) to create, evaluate, and improve measures of cultural processes in minoritized communities.

My research focuses on the motivational and affective aspects of expertise and competence acquisition over the lifespan. I direct the Groupe of Research in Adulthood, the life Course, and Expertise (GRACE) at UQAM. We study how motivation evolves during the development of an expertise, with a focus on the last phases of expertise acquisition : its peak and eventual decline (for instance, through retirement) and how they affects well-being. We investigate different areas of expertise, such as music, sports, video games, work and everyday expertise. We also examine how the dual continua of mental health (''positive'' and ''negative'' mental health) can be applied throughout the lifespan