Psychology

• PSY 382 Infant, Child, and Adolescent Development
• PSY 608 Developmental Bases of Behavior

• O'Brien, L., Mendonça, S. E., & Price, U. S. (in press). The development of gratitude in the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
• O'Brien, L., Price, U., Liang, Y., & Mercon-Vargas, E. (in press). Relations between parents' and children's gratitude. In J. Tudge and L. Freitas (Eds.), Developing Gratitude. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Tudge, J. R. H., Freitas, L. B. L., O'Brien, L., & Mokrova, I. L. (in press). Methods for studying the development of gratitude cross-culturally Cross-Cultural Research.
• Kiang, L., Merçon-Vargas, E., Payir, A., & O'Brien, L. (in press). The development of gratitude and its relation to spending preferences and materialism. In J. Tudge and L. Freitas (Eds.), Developing Gratitude. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Tudge, J., Payir, A., Mercon-Vargas, E., Cao, H., Liang, Y., Li, J., and O'Brien, L. (2016). Still misused after all these years? A re-evaluation of the uses of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory of human development. Journal of Family Theory and Review.
• Tudge, J., Freitas, L., & O'Brien, L. (2015). The virtue of gratitude: A developmental and cultural approach. Human Development.
• Tudge, J., Freitas, L., & O'Brien, L. (2015). Development of the virtue of gratitude. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. Thousand Oaks: CA.

Broadly, my research interests are in the bi-directional relations between context and cognitive, social, and character development in children and adolescents. My current research is focused on the development of gratitude, optimism, and future orientation.