Lia Simon
Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor in Psychology
Developmentalist with an interest in self-efficacy, learning, friendship and group differences.
My background is in child development in education, and my research interests lie in the psychological process of learning and how it is influenced by self-efficacy, as well as social factors, such as societal images of groups and pressure from parents and friends. I am also interested in the importance of friendship on our early creation of ourselves. I am also a methodologist by training, with a background in latent variable analysis.
I primarily teach developmental psychology and related classes, and love exploring how the early years shape who we become as people. How do internal and external forces impact how we develop in different areas? Are our differences social or biological? How do emotions and emotional regulation develop? What impact does parenting have? Is it really all your mom's fault? How does friendship and the ability to form friendships impact us? My main goal in teaching is to encourage students to explore the real world applications of concepts and theories we learn, and understand how they apply. I hope students walk away from my class feeling comfortable critically exploring these theories and critically evaluating research.
In my free time, I love reading science fiction and fantasy, crafting, and exploring with my dog.
Education
- B.A., Barnard College
- M.S., University of Pennsylvania
- M.A., University of California-Santa Barbara
- Ph.D., University of California-Santa Barbara