Award for Distinguished Contributions to Developmental Psychology
Submissions accepted September 1–December 1, 2026
The Award for Distinguished Contributions to Developmental Psychology is given to a single individual (sometimes a research team) who has made distinguished contributions to developmental psychology, including contributions in research, student training, and other scholarly endeavors. Evaluations are based on the scientific merit of the individual's work, the importance of this work for opening up new empirical or theoretical areas of development psychology, and the importance of the individual's work in linking developmental psychology with issues confronting the larger society or with other disciplines.
The membership of Division 7 will present the award at that year’s APA Annual Convention. Winners do not need to attend APA's convention to receive awards.
Membership in APA’s Division 7 is required to earn an award. The individual must be a member of Division 7 by November 1 of the year they are nominated.
Nominations should include:
- A letter of nomination, with two additional letters of support provided by the nominator. At least one of these three letters should be from someone with membership in Division 7 at the time of submitting the nomination.
- The nominee’s curriculum vitae.
- Up to four representative publications.
2027 Award Timeline
- September 1, 2026: Call for award nominations
- December 1, 2026: Due date for award nominations
Please email nomination materials.
2026: Monique Ward
2025: Philip David Zelazo
2024: Kenneth Rubin
2023: Laurence Steinberg
2022: Robert Siegler
2021: David C. Geary
2020: Andrew Meltzoff
2019: Charles Brainerd
2018: Stephen J. Ceci
2017: Nathan Fox, Grazyna Kochanska
2016: Susan Gelman
2015: Carolyn Zahn-Waxler
2014: Michael Lamb
2013: Rand Conger
2012: Henry Wellman
2011: Mark Bornstein
2010: Mary Rothbart
2009: Nancy Eisenberg
2008: Katherine Nelson
2007: Nora Newcombe, Alan Sroufe
2006: Megan Gunnar
2005: Dante Cicchetti, Judith Dunn
2004: Michael Rutter
2003: Peter Jusczyk
2002: Janellen Huttenlocher
2001: Arnold Sameroff
2000: Marshall Haith
1999: Robert Cairns
1998: Gerald Patterson
1997: Lois Bloom
1996: Ross Parke
1995: Jerome Kagan
1994: Robert A. Hinde
1993: Norman Garmezy
1992: Willard Hartup
1991: No Award
1990: Jack Block, Jeanne Humphrey Block
1989: Jacqueline J. Goodnow
1988: Harold Stevenson, Diana Baumrind
1987: Marian Radke-Yarrow
1986: John H. Flavell, E. Mavis Hetherington
1985: Urie Bronfenbrenner
1984: Erik H. Erikson, Mary D. S. Ainsworth
1983: Marjorie Honzik, Donald O. Hebb
1982: Frances Graham, Eleanor Maccoby
1981: George D. Stoddard, Lois Barclay Murphy
1980: Sidney W. Bijou
1979: Edward Zigler
1978: Alfred Baldwin
1977: Harriet Rheingold
1976: Joseph McVicker Hunt
1975: Jerome Bruner
1974: John Bowlby
1973: Roger W. Brown, John W. M. Whiting
1972: Margaret Harlow, Harry Harlow, Jean MacFarlane
1971: Nancy Bayley, Jean Piaget
1970: Eleanor J. Gibson, Orvis C. Irwin
1969: Roger Barker, Robert R. Sears
1968: Mary Cover Jones, Lois Meek Stolz
1967: Helen L. Koch, Harold M. Skeels