Social Evaluation and Development

Monday, September 20, 2010

Gail D. Heyman

Professor, Department of Psychology
University of California, San Diego

The act of judging other people is pervasive throughout human society, and the tendency to view the social world through an evaluative lens begins early in life. However, researchers frequently overlook the importance of social evaluation in children’s development. There is reason to believe that a better understanding of social evaluative processes will shed light on children’s cognitive capacities and limitations, and their developing sense of themselves as goal-directed communicators who have the potential to strategically influence the minds of others

Web: http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~gheyman/research.html