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
Current and upcoming courses
Developmental Psychology
PSYC207
Human infants and children are simultaneously the most adept learners, yet the least able to care for themselves. This course will wrestle with understanding how children’s development is shaped by human capacities and by the ways in which family, friends, and the larger community influence the maturational process. Through lectures, discussions, activities, and first-hand observations of children at the Child Study Center, we will examine children’s social, cognitive, emotional, perceptual, physical, and language development and try to understand how they relate to one another from conception (or before!) through early adolescence. Special attention will be given to public policy issues related to education, parenting, and children’s rights in the international community.
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Seminar: Becoming Me. Development of Self in Early Life
PSYC331
How do we become who we are? This course explores developmental creation of the self in infancy and childhood. We are not born knowing that others are different from ourselves, so how do we create our sense of self? How do we conceptualize ourselves in relation to family and friends? Emphasis will be placed on the negotiation between inside and outside forces—how do children navigate their own wants versus those that others have for them? We will discuss cognitive changes that occur in perception of self and others, and the social psychology of understanding the self in relation to family and friends. Students will use theory and literature and their own experiences to understand individuation and the conception of the self.