University of Michigan

The Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan has been among those at the forefront of developmental research since the 1940s. The social and behavioral sciences have had distinguished histories at Michigan, both in terms of individual departments and in the establishing of collaborations and joint efforts that cross traditional departmental boundaries. Thus, when the department decided to establish a program in developmental psychology, the climate and the components were already in place to ensure success for the new endeavor.

The developmental program formally began in 1965, but the contributions of the university to the field preceded that date by more than 20 years. Many of the pioneers in developmental psychology obtained their training at Michigan, most often in social psychology. Urie Bronfenbrenner received his PhD at Michigan in 1942 and returned as an assistant professor after serving in World War II. The students at Michigan in psychology during the postwar period included Eleanor Maccoby, Susan Erwin Tripp, Martin Hoffman, Roger Brown, Seymour Wapner, and Elizabeth Douvan, who, although she remained in social psychology, made a major contribution to developmental psychology through her studies of adolescents conducted at Michigan's Institute for Social Research. During that same period, Marie Skodak Crissey (1996) taught applied developmental courses at the School of Education designed to train visiting teachers who would work in the newly funded programs for special needs children in the public schools.

In 1948, Kurt Lewin's research group moved from MIT to the University of Michigan to join the Institute for Social Research. This group—Group Dynamics—became one of three units in the institute, joining the Survey Research Center and the Economic Behavior Program. Important studies of children were conducted in Group Dynamics, under the leadership of Ronald Lippitt. The focus was on children's peer groups, juvenile delinquency, and the effects of families on children's social and academic adjustment. The family studies used data obtained from both mothers and fathers as well as from the children, peers, and teachers. They included some of the first research on the effects of mothers' employment on children and on the father's role in the family (e.g., Hoffman, Rosen, & Lippitt, 1960).

By the early 1960s, there were several faculty at Michigan whose work was relevant to developmental science—in the psychology department, at the Institute for Social Research, in the School of Education, and at the medical school. Under the leadership of the department chair, Wilbert J. McKeachie, a committee was formed, consisting of Klaus Riegel, David Birch, Joseph Veroff, and Lorraine Nadelman, to set up a graduate program in developmental psychology.

In 1965, the graduate program was established as one of 10 areas in the psychology department. Three new faculty members were recruited. Martin Hoffman was hired to be professor and chair of the program; David McNeal, whose area was psycholinguistics, was brought in from Harvard; and John Hagen, a new PhD in cognitive development, came from Stanford. The rest of the developmental group included persons who were already part of the Michigan faculty.

The early graduate students were also drawn from other areas in the department and included Sandra Bem and Carol Feldman, who were the first graduates from the program. Their first positions were as assistant professors at Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Chicago, respectively. Other early students included Charles Perfetti, Ruth Sabo, William Gekoski, Carole Quarterman, Lynn S. Liben, and Barbara Newman.

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