Professor Emeritus of Psychology; Research Professor Emeritus, CHGD
About
Arnold J. Sameroff, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts retired from active faculty status on May 31, 2011.
Professor Sameroff received his B.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 1961 and his Ph.D. degree from Yale University in 1965. He served on the faculty of the University of Rochester (1967-78), the University of Illinois at Chicago (1978-86), and Brown University (1986-92) before joining the University of Michigan faculty as professor in 1992.
Professor Sameroff is a developmental theorist who has made contributions to our understanding of risk processes in human development and behavioral science. He proposed a new theoretical model for conceptualizing how biological and environmental risk factors operate together as causes of developmental impairments in childhood. Professor Sameroff's transactional model has enjoyed mainstream popularity for almost 50 years and continues to inspire new empirical and theoretical research. He has written or co-written 15 books and monographs and nearly 200 articles and chapters. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of an important new field of behavioral science, developmental psychopathology. In recognition of his lasting contributions to developmental science, he has received numerous major awards, including the G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology from the American Psychological Association (2001), the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for Research in Child Development (2005) and the Distinguished Contribution Award from the International Congress of Infant Studies (2022). He has also served as President of the Society for Research in Child Development, President of the International Congress for Infant Studies, and President of the Developmental Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association.
Representative Publications
Sameroff, A.J. (2005). The Science of Infancy: Academic, Social, and Political Agendas. Infancy, 7(3), 219-242.
Sameroff, A. J. (Ed.) (2009). The Transactional Model of Development: How Children and Contexts Shape Each Other. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Sameroff, A. J. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child Development, 81, 6-22.
Sameroff, A.J. (2010). It’s more complicated. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 2, 1-26.
