Presidential column

The outgoing Div. 7 president reviews the division's tasks and accomplishments and congratulates award winners and the newly elected executive committee.

It's my sincere honor to have served as the president of APA Div.7 (Developmental Psychology) during this almost two-year period. I will hand over the reins in January to the new president, Jacquelynne Eccles, PhD (University of California, Irvine). Because each president serves a two-year term, in addition to two years as president-elect and two years as past president, it's a six-year commitment in all. In the role of president, there are many tasks to keep the division moving ahead. In this presidential column, I want to tell you about some of the recent tasks, accomplishments and news and acknowledge people who help make Div.7 a success.

Div. 7's Program at the APA convention in Washington, D.C.

We have a terrific program in place for the upcoming APA convention, thanks to our program chair, Leslie Carver, PhD (University of California, San Diego). For example, Michael Lamb, PhD (Cambridge University), will give the G. Stanley Hall Award address on the topic of developmental psychology and law, and Ann Masten, PhD (University of Minnesota), will present the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award address on resilience. As the recipient of the Boyd McCandless Award, Adriana Galván, PhD (University of California, Los Angeles), will discuss her research on neuroscience and the adolescent brain. These awards are for distinguished contributions to developmental psychology, and the talks will showcase the scientific power and importance of our field.

At our Div. 7 business meeting, Barbara Rogoff, PhD (University of California, Santa Cruz), will enlighten us about her book, “ Developing Destinies,” which won the 2014 Eleanor Maccoby Book Award, as did the book by Paul Harris, PhD (Harvard University), entitled, “ Trusting What You Are Told .” At the business meeting, we will also honor Hyowon Gweon, PhD (Stanford University), recipient of the 2014 Div. 7 Dissertation Research Award. She will speak about her innovative dissertation research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As you can rightly infer, our business meeting will be quite substantive in communicating new empirical work, as well as quickly providing an update on the division's business proper. We will also honor the winners of the Div. 7 Early Career Research Grant and Early Career Outstanding Paper. Speaking of the Dissertation and Early Career grants, we hope more people will apply for these funds. Also of importance, we need senior developmentalists to help fund these two grant programs so that the new generation can propel developmental science forward. Big congratulations go to all our award winners and a big thanks in advance goes to the more senior developmentalists, who we hope will contribute by contacting our Treasurer, Andrea Greenhoot, PhD (University of Kansas).

Meeting of Developmental Area Heads

In the past, Div. 7 has sponsored meetings of developmental area heads each year at the Society for Research in Child Development meetings. Fortunately, Judith Bryant, PhD (University of South Florida), is making progress in reinstituting these “DOTDEP” meetings and in establishing a DOTDEP email list. If you are an area head of a developmental psychology or human development program, stay tuned for emails and notices about the upcoming meeting we are planning. For information, please contact Judith Bryant.

New Task Force

Div. 7 has a new Task Force in place joint with APA Div. 37 (Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice). The task force is charged with reviewing the scientific findings on the effects of physical punishment on children. There are more empirical findings being published on this topic and, therefore, it seemed a good time to review the literature.

APA-Related Activities

The division has been working closely with APA in a number of new ways. APA is now in charge of part of our website (Louis Manfra, PhD[University of Missouri], still maintains control of important parts of it), and APA handles more of our membership documentation than ever before. We are also starting, with our historian John Hagen, PhD (University of Michigan), and our graduate student representative, Kelly McWilliams (University of California, Davis), to work more with APA on our archiving efforts. For example, our newsletters will be archived by APA in PsycEXTRA. These newsletters serve not only as communication with our members now, but also as important records of Div. 7's history.

Mentoring Program

We remind members that we have a mentoring program to link early career developmentalists with senior researchers who have agreed to provide guidance and support. This is a program started by Past President Nancy Eisenberg, PhD, and is now headed by Executive Committee Member Leslie Carver, PhD. If you are looking for a mentor and would be willing to serve as one, please let us know.

Congratulations

I would like to congratulate our Div. 7 awardees for 2014, who I mentioned previously in this article. (Note that Adele Diamond, PhD [University of British Columbia], also received the Bronfenbrenner Award for 2014.) And it is time to announce and congratulate our Div. 7 awardees for 2015. The new award winners are:

G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology: Carolyn Zahn-Waxler, PhD (University of Wisconsin).
Urie Bronfenbrenner Award For Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society: Michael Cole, PhD (University of California, San Diego).
Boyd McCandless Award: Felix Warneken, PhD (Harvard University).
Eleanor Maccoby Book Award: Geoffrey Saxe, PhD (University of California, Berkeley).
Dissertation Research Award: Larisa Heiphetz, PhD (Boston College).

Congratulations to those who won Div. 7 elections. Starting Jan. 1, 2015, our executive committee will consist of the following:

President: Jacquelynne Eccles, PhD
Past president: Gail Goodman, PhD
President-elect: Michael Lamb, PhD
APA Council representatives: Suniya Luthar, PhD and Kang Lee, PhD
Treasurer: Andrea Greenhoot, PhD
Secretary: Kali Trzesniewski, PhD
Members-at-large: Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD; Susan Rivera, PhD; and Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, PhD
Membership Committee chair: Bonnie Klein-Tasman, PhD
Education Committee chair: Judith Bryant, PhD
Early career representatives: Angela Evans, PhD and Lindsay Malloy, PhD
Historian: John Hagen, PhD
2015 APA Div. 7 Program Committee chair: Sandra Simpkins, PhD
Newsletter editor: Kate McLean, PhD
Graduate student representative: Sue D. Hobbs, MA
Webmaster: Louis Manfra, PhD
Email list administrator: Adam Winsler, PhD (ex officio)
Fellows Committee chair: Bennett Bertenthal, PhD

A Big Thanks and Conclusion

We are fortunate to have a wonderful executive committee. Special thanks to Nancy Eisenberg, PhD, past president (Arizona State University). Congratulations to her on becoming the new president of the Association for Psychological Science. A special thanks as well to Adam Winsler, PhD (George Mason University), for serving as our Div. 7 email list administrator.

Please continue your membership and encourage others to join. You do not need to be a member of APA to join Div. 7. First year is free for everyone; graduate and undergraduate student affiliates are always free. Again, we encourage senior members of the division and of the field of developmental psychology generally, to contribute to the Dissertation and Early Career Grant funds so that we can help keep developmental research alive and well for upcoming generations.