Aditi Hosangadi, Graduate Student
B.S., University of California, Davis (Psychology)
I am interested in the mechanisms behind how early experiences help children learn to understand and empathize with the people around them. Specifically, I’m interested in factors in a child’s early social environment (e.g. parent emotionality and emotion-language-use, or sibling and peer interactions) and in other experiences that provide a window into perspectives outside their own (e.g. narratives from books and other media). I hope that my work can help inform early social-emotional education.
Email: hosangadi@wisc.edu
Laura Jett, Graduate Student
B.S., 2021, University of California – Davis (Cognitive Science)
Children learn by exploring the world around them and by trying new things—ranging from a baby putting everything in their mouth, to a teen talking to new people at a party. Individuals differ in how much they are willing to explore and take risks, and these differences may influence social-emotional development. I am interested in how children’s environment and experiences shape exploration and risk-taking, and how exploration supports the development of social-emotional skills. I hope that this work can be used to inform targeted interventions and policy to improve children’s well-being.
Email: ljett@wisc.edu
Saideeka Jones, Graduate Student
BA 2022, Rutgers University (Psychology)
I am interested in how children’s upbringing, socio-economic status, and culture play a part in their long-term outcomes in life. Most know that certain circumstances make it harder for some children to succeed than others, but what is less clear is what allows some to reach expected life markers versus others who seem to fail and/or develop mental disorders due to a lack of emotional wellness. I hope to work towards unearthing more information on this subject.
E-mail: srjones6@wisc.edu
Andrea Stein, Graduate Student
B.A., 2014, Yale University (Ethics, Politics & Economics)
M.A., 2015, Teachers College, Columbia University (Elementary Inclusive Education)
We all experience and encounter emotions in diverse, complicated ways. Sometimes we smile in happiness, while other times we might cry; in some contexts, a frown suggests anger, while in others it merely suggests concentration. Yet even in the face of this complexity, we somehow develop distinct understandings of a number of emotion concepts, which we use to construe our own and others’ emotions. My interests are in the social, cognitive, and linguistic mechanisms by which children learn such emotion concepts from a complex environment, as well as how representations of these concepts change across the lifespan.
E-mail: agstein@wisc.edu