The goal of the LIFE graduate training program is to provide international training experiences in the study of the systematic changes in human behavior over evolutionary and ontogenetic time. The general approach is aimed at advancing the behavioral and social science of human development. LIFE will take an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to understanding human development in a changing world, connecting evolutionary, ontogenetic, historical, and institutional approaches. The focus is on the evolution and interaction of individual and institutional development. Training for graduate students will be provided in each of the following four general areas:

·       proximal biological influences on development (e.g., embryology, development of the stress reaction system, biological maturation, biological components of aging, the biology of puberty, genetics, public health issues related to the life span, etc.)

·       ultimate (distal) biological influences (e.g., ecology and evolutionary influences on human development)

·       proximal psychological, cognitive,  and social influences on development (e.g., developmental psychology, educational psychology, family influences on development, risk and resilience)

·       distal (macro) social influences on the life course (e.g., ecological models of development, anthropology of the life course, sociology of the life course, cultural psychology of the life course, economic/political/historical influences on the life course).