Current Studies
Parenting in Iceland
In this project, we investigate the parenting behaviors of parents living in Iceland. Our aim is to develop a scale that researchers and practitioners can use by comprehensively assessing both culturally specific and universal parenting behaviors in Iceland.
Hæ! Ert þú foreldri barns á aldrinum 3 til 12 ára?
Okkur langar að bjóða þér að taka þátt í rannsókninni okkar sem ber heitið “Uppeldi á Íslandi í dagsins önn”.
Við erum rannsakendur við Háskólann á Akureyri, við erum að skoða uppeldishætti foreldra og félags- og tilfinningaþroska barna. Þú tekur könnun sem samanstendur af spurningum í gegnum snjalltæki að eigin vali. Spurningarnar snúa að þér, fjölskyldu þinn og hlutverki þínu sem foreldri. Það tekur á bilinu 15-20 mínútur að ljúka könnunni. Svör þín eru nafnlaus og fullum trúnaði er heitið.
Þú finnur könnunina hér: bit.ly/emlcccturnew
Exploration
In this cross-cultural project, we investigate how various learning strategies influence young children’s decision to engage in strategic exploration of their environment. Particularly, we are interested in whether encouraging children to view problems in new ways promotes more strategic exploration in an online search task. In addition, we explore how individual difference (e.g., parenting styles, general cognitive abilities, age) impact children’s search behavior. We collected data from children aged between 3.5 and 6.5 years old in both the U.S. and Turkey. We are now processing and analyzing data.
Social Evaluation in Babies
In this project, we are looking at how babies make moral inferences and differentiate between right and wrong behavior. We are also interested in the sources of individual differences in moral inferences such as why some babies are more attuned to characters behaving in a nice way. To answer these questions, we collect data from infants between the ages of 5.5 and 10.5 months and their parents.
Prosocial Values and Behaviors in Children
In this project, we examine children’s prosocial behaviors in the first three years of life. Prosocial behaviors include sharing, helping, comforting, and cooperating. These behaviors develop over time, but each child has a unique developmental trend. So, we also investigate how parenting behaviors are associated with differences in prosocial behaviors.
Synchrony and Active Learning
In this longitudinal project, we examine how babies develop a synchronous relationship with their mothers over time. Synchronous interaction refers to (roughly) “being on the same page at the same time,” where the page can be affective and/or behavioral in our study. In addition, we investigate the association between this synchronous interaction and babies’ engagement with their environments and ways of getting more information from adults around them in later years. We collected data from babies and their mothers when the babies were 8, 10, 12, 14, and 18 months (about 1 and a half years) old. We are now processing and analyzing data.
If you are interested in joining our lab as a research assistant, please apply through this link.