Department of Psychology
Biography:
Keywords: development; psychopathology; attachment; physiology
I entered graduate school at York University with a strong interest in research and clinical work with developmentally atypical populations. My current research interests involve developmental psychopathology, the study of biopsychosocial factors that influence the course of development, either typical or atypical. This interest is the result not only of my graduate training, but of subsequent work at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital with adults with extreme mental health difficulties, Surrey Place Centre with children and adults with intellectual disabilities and their families, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in the Child, Youth, and Family Programme. My research at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital and Surrey Place Centre focused on psychometrics, the study of constructs and how best to measure them. My work in psychometrics has greatly influenced my subsequent research on development. In my lab, we carefully define constructs and measure each multiple times using varied methodology, such that the possibility of error is reduced and the understanding of what it is we are measuring is augmented.
I came to Ryerson University in 2007. My current work focuses on the “root causes” of psychopathology, starting in infancy. I study attachment, attention, emotion regulation, genetics, and physiology as these influence and are influenced by development, either typical or atypical. In this regard, we collaborate with other psychologists, psychiatrists, geneticists, and physiologists in a truly multidisciplinary approach to developmental psychopathology. In the past and in my present lab, I have been privileged to work with some truly extraordinary graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research assistants who embrace one or more aspects of this research and move it in some fascinating directions. The courses I particularly enjoy teaching include attachment, developmental psychopathology, meta-analysis, and psychometrics.
Selected publications:
Chisholm, V., Atkinson, L., Donaldson, C., Noyes, K., Payne, A., & Kelnar, C. (in press). An exploratory study of positive and incongruent communication in young children with type 1 diabetes and their mothers. Child: Care, Health, and Development.
Madigan, S., Atkinson, L., Laurin, L., & Benoit, D. (in press). Child-caregiver attachment relationships and internalizing behaviour problems: A meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology.
Pereira, J., Vickers, K., Atkinson, L., Gonzalez, A., Wekerle, C., & Levitan, R. (2012). Parenting stress mediates between maternal maltreatment history and maternal sensitivity in a community sample. Child Abuse and Neglect, 36(5), 433-437.
Atkinson, L. (2012). Strategic decisions: Life history, neurobiology, interpersonal relations and ethics in parenting and development. Parenting: Research and Practice, 12(2-3), 185-191. Discussant in Special Issue on “The Arc of Parenting from Epigenomes to Ethics”.
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