Osofsky, Joy Doniger

During the 20th century, scientific interest in infancy and early childhood was fueled by four key transformational events. The first was the gradual demise of mechanistic models of behavior and the emergence of worldviews that stressed active, dynamic, contextual, and emergent process models of development. The second event involved the emergence of clinical research and the presumption that the origins of psychopathology and developmental disability did not wholly reside within the infant, but were at least [Page 766]partially products of infant-caregiver relationships as they occurred in various contexts. The third transforming event was the dramatic growth in knowledge about the first 3 years of postnatal life. Although scientific study of the infant began early in the century, the last 60 years were unprecedented with respect to the attention investigators gave to a particular period in the life cycle. The century ended with the “Decade of the Brain” and its strong emphasis on the importance of brain growth and development during infancy and early childhood. The “Decade of the Brain” was also a time when society challenged the academic and scientific communities to begin to deliver on its investment and to engage with community partners to help solve the real-world problems generated by poverty, crime, racism, and social injustice. Joy D. Osofsky's professional life embraces each of these transformational events, and in many respects, her personal life mirrors them as well. Transition and transformation have been part of the deep structure of Osofsky's life as she worked her way through personal loss and numerous family relocations, while charting pathways that have brought her national and international respect in the field of infant mental health, applied developmental science, and violence prevention.

Joy Osofsky (née Doniger) was born in 1944 in New York City and was raised in Rye, New York. Her father died when she was 16, an event that she recalls provoked an examination of her vulnerabilities as well as motivating her to strengthen her sense of independence, self-confidence, and resolve to move forward in life. In 1962, she enrolled at Simmons College in Boston. After completing her freshman year, she married Howard Osofsky, an obstetrician and gynecologist (who later became a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst), and began to structure a career pathway that not only was nontraditional but also required every ounce of the resolve that had been generated in her midteen years. The first stop on that pathway was Syracuse University. She completed her bachelor's degree in psychology in 1966, and only 3 years later (MA in psychology, 1967; PhD, 1969) earned her doctoral degree in psychology, under the direction of William J. Meyer, with support from a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Predoctoral Fellowship. During her years at Syracuse, Osofsky developed a strong interest in human development and was influenced by Bettye Caldwell and Julius Richmond and their innovative approaches to early intervention. She also was deeply influenced by Richard Q. Bell's 1968 publication on the direction of effects in socialization. Bell's seminal article demonstrated that relationships are bidirectional—that children have an impact on parenting just as parents have an influence on child behavior and development. Each of these early influences is evident in Osofsky's work. First, Bell's influence can be seen in Osofsky's early studies of parent-child relationships, including some of the earliest studies of father-infant relationships. Second, her recent work on approaches to prevention of community violence clearly reflects the spirit of the Caldwell/Richmond early-intervention models, which influenced national programs such as Head Start.

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