Welcome to the Healthy Social-Emotional Development Lab. We are located in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. Our lab conducts experimental and observational studies to advance knowledge about developmental changes in children’s and adolescents’ social-emotional processes (e.g., neural correlates in processing social information, friendships, health behaviors) that are relevant to mental health across the life course. While some patterns of development are normative, we recognize that every child is unique and has different experiences. We seek to learn how individual differences, such as temperament and social experiences, shape youths’ developmental processes and health.
Our work uses multiple methods (e.g., EEG, ERPs, lab observations) and multivariate statistics in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and epidemiological studies. See our research page for more information.
Training opportunities
We are recruiting graduate PhD students for the 2023-2024 cycle. Interested prospective students should email Dr. Alva Tang at alvatang@utdallas.edu.
News
Oct 26, 2022
Check out our recently published work on how early temperament and reward processing are associated with the development of anxiety and depression into adulthood.
Aug 1, 2022
Dr. Alva Tang has joined the department of Psychology at UT Dallas. The lab is under construction. There will be exciting and forthcoming work!
See other media coverage of our research on CNN and Psychology Today.