Developmental Psychopathology

Dante Cicchetti, Ph.D., is McKnight Presidential Chair of Child Psychology in the Institute of Child Development and in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota. He also is Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. From 1985 to 2005, he directed the Mt. Hope Family Center at the University of Rochester. His major research interests lie in the formulation of an integrative developmental theory that can account for both normal and abnormal forms of ontogenesis. His work has several foci: 1) developmental psychopathology; 2) the developmental consequences of child maltreatment; 3) neural plasticity and sensitive periods; 4) the impact of traumatic experiences upon brain development; 5) the biology and psychology of unipolar and bipolar depressive diseases; 6) the interrelationships among molecular genetic, neurobiological, socio-emotional, cognitive, linguistic and representational development in normal and pathological populations; and 7) the study of attachment relations and representational models of the self and its disorders across the life span. Cicchetti has published hundreds of articles, books, and journals that have had far-reaching impact on developmental theory as well as science, policy, and practice related to child maltreatment, depression, mental retardation, and numerous other domains of development.