Arnold Sameroff

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 pioneering theorist who has made profound and long-lasting 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, unlike most prior research in this area, which had been based on reductionist and mechanistic models positing single risk factors as primary causes of developmental impairments. Professor Sameroff's theory has enjoyed mainstream popularity for over 30 years and continues to inspire new empirical and theoretical research. His 1975 review article introducing his theory was listed by the Society for Research in Child Development as one of the most influential contributions to developmental science in the twentieth century. During a career spanning more than 40 years, Professor Sameroff 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), and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for Research in Child Development (2005).
 

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.

Honors

• President of the International Society for Infant Studies
• President of the Society for Research in Child Development