Joanna Peplak
She/Her
Assistant Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University, CanadaAbout the author:
My research program aims to answer this question: What can we do to support children’s emotional development, build their capacity for kindness, and nurture their positive relationships with others? I examine how children’s emotions develop, with a focus on emotions that motivate kindness such as sympathy and moral pride. I also assess how parents and children discuss important personal, community, and global events within conversations, and how features of conversations (e.g., types of questions that are asked, the emotional tone of the conversation, and the messages parents strive to transmit) shape whether children respond to these events with care. Throughout my studies, I consider the role that culture plays in defining what healthy emotional development means.
What I want to achieve:
The goal of my research program is to share science with the community and to develop evidence-based tools, activities, and curricula that focus on raising healthy and happy children. I strive to empower caregivers to nurture children’s social-emotional capacities with the objective of building respectful, inclusive, and caring communities.