Ross Thompson

Ross A. Thompson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, where he founded and directed the Social and Emotional Development Lab. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1981, an A.M. in Psychology from the same institution in 1979, and an A.B. magna cum laude in Psychology from Occidental College in 1976. Thompson's career began at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as Assistant Professor in 1981, where he advanced to Professor, served as Director of the Developmental Psychology Program, and held the Carl A. Happold Distinguished Professorship from 2000 to 2003. He joined UC Davis in 2003 as Professor of Psychology, later becoming Distinguished Professor in 2011, and served as Developmental Area Head and Interim Vice-Chair of the department. His research specializations encompass early parent-child relationships, the development of emotion understanding and emotion regulation, conscience development, self-understanding in young children, the role of early experience in developmental psychopathology, and the application of developmental science to public policy on children and families, including school readiness, early childhood investments, and early mental health.

Thompson has received major awards such as the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology from the American Psychological Association in 2018, the Ann L. Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research in 2007, the UC Davis Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2011, the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award in 1988, and the Marjorie P. Hinckley Lectureship in 2011. Key publications include books like Infant-mother attachment: The origins and developmental significance of individual differences in Strange Situation behavior (1985), From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2000), Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 (2015), and Attachment: The Fundamental Questions (2021, editor). He has contributed to policy through principal authorship of California Preschool Learning Foundations in Social-Emotional Development (2008) and History-Social Science (2012), service on National Research Council committees, and numerous lectures including the Daniel K. Lapsley Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame in 2016. His work has shaped understanding of social-emotional development and informed early childhood programs and interventions.

Professional Email: rathompson@ucdavis.edu