Warren College Faculty

[return to Faculty Spotlights]

Gail Heyman

Professor of Psychology

I received my B.S. in Psychology at the University of Michigan, my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then returned to the University of Michigan to complete a post-doctoral fellowship. I am a developmental psychologist who studies social and cognitive development, with a focus on children's reasoning about people. One of my lines of research addresses children's understanding of personality traits and ability. Another line of research, which is being conducted both in the U.S. and in China, focuses on how children present information to others, and how they evaluate information that others present. I am also interested in the relation between language and person perception, differences in children's reasoning about people versus other entities, and flexibility in children's thinking.

I have been teaching at UCSD since fall of 1998. This fall I'll be teaching a course on the development of social cognition (Psych 187), and the large introductory course on developmental psychology (Psych 101). My office is 3109 McGill Hall. My phone number is 822-2482 and my email address is gheyman@ucsd.edu.

When I'm not at work I like to spend time with my husband and three children (Jeff, 11; Alison, 10; and Molly, 2).

For more info about my research, teaching, etc., please see my web site at http://psy.ucsd.edu/~gheyman

Degrees/institutions:
    Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1995.
    M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1991.
    B.S., University of Michigan, 1987.

Courses:
    Psych 217A   Graduate Developmental Proseminar
    Psych 213   Professional Procedures and Survival in Psychology
    Psych 211   Development of Social Cognition
    Psych 187   Development of Social Cognition
    Psych 101   Introduction to Developmental Psychology
    Psych 87   Seminar in Achievement Motivation