Grazyna Kochanska

Kochanska grew up in Warsaw, Poland, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw. She immigrated to the United States in 1981. Kochanska completed post-doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Laboratory of Developmental Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.[1]

By 1991, she created her own laboratory at the University of Iowa. The research she studies includes social-emotional development and developmental psychopathology, focusing on the interplay of children's biologically-based characteristics and parent-child relationships in the origins of adaptive and maladaptive developmental pathways.[1]

Kochanska received the G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology in 2017 from Developmental Psychology, Division 7 of the American Psychological Association.[2]

Kochanska conducted the research study called Children and Parents Study (CAPS). The goal of this research study is to learn about the different aspects of young children's social and emotional development. She also studied the differences in children's biological based temperament and the differences in parents' care giving styles. They also try to understand how those influence children's early development. Her team's main goal was to prevent maladaptive pathways and to advocate positive, adaptive pathways in children's socioemotional development.[3]

The research took place in the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences in Iowa City. The children are kept there and when they are about 7–9 months old, they receive two and a half hour visit in the family's home to observe the mom, dad and baby. They continue to have visits when the child is 15–17 months, 36–38 months, and 46–48 months.

The children were tested based on their individuality twice at 26–41 months and at 43–56 months repeatedly in multiple experimental situations as well as using parental reports. The good internal consistencies occurred in children at toddler and preschool age. The children's internalization was detected while they were left alone with restricted objects. They were given day-to-day chore, playing games that cause cheating, being persuaded to go against the code of conduct, as well as evaluated by using parental reports. Considering the individuality of children was significant but was often neglected as it played a significant role in developing internalization. At both ages, the girls outperform the boys.[4]

Another study she conducted was to observe the development of self-regulation in the first four years of a child's life. She examined the situational compliance and the committed compliance of 108 children. These forms of compliance are studied "Do" and "Don't" contexts in which "Do" context is when the mother requests her child sustains unpleasant behavior, and "Don't" context is when the mother requests their child to suppress pleasant behavior. Similar assessments were done at 14, 22, 33, and 45 months of age for each child. At these ages, the "Do" context was harder than the "Don't" context. Committed compliance was connected to the internalization of maternal rules in the children, whereas the situational compliance was not. There was enough evidence to show that committed compliance might be generalized to interactions with other adults and not just the mother.[5]

• Kochanska, G., Murray, K. T., & Harlan, E. T. (2000). Effortful control in early childhood: continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development. Developmental Psychology, 36(2), 220.
• Kochanska, G., Murray, K., Jacques, T. Y., Koenig, A. L., & Vandegeest, K. A. (1996). Inhibitory control in young children and its role in emerging internalization. Child Development, 67(2), 490–507.
• Kochanska, G., Coy, K. C., & Murray, K. T. (2001). The development of self‐regulation in the first four years of life. Child Development, 72(4), 1091–1111.