Ross A. Thompson
Lab Director
Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Phone: (530) 754-6663
e-mail: rathompson@ucdavis.edu
Faculty website: psychology.ucdavis.edu/people/rathom
Dr. Thompson’s work focuses on early personality and socioemotional development in the context of close relationships, an interest that contributes to the cross-disciplinary field of developmental relational science. This interest takes his work in two directions. First, his research explores the influence of relational processes on emotional growth, conscience development, emotion regulation, early prosocial behavior, and self-understanding. Recent studies have examined, for example, how the content and structure of early parent-child discourse shapes young children’s developing representations of emotion, morality, and self. Second, he has worked on the applications of developmental relational science to public policy problems concerning children and families, such as child poverty, early childhood mental health, school readiness, child abuse prevention, and research ethics. You will find an interview from the Center for Poverty Research here.