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Psychology Research Groups

Mind, Movement, Interaction and Development (MMID)

The Mind, Movement, Interaction and Development Research Group (MMID-RG) incorporates several interrelated projects. A number of key research collaborations are maintained. Several consultants further contribute to training and applications in methods, research design, data analysis and conceptualization. Several Pace University students actively participate in research. Some doctoral projects are pursued. Students have participated in professional presentations and publications.

Principal interests

  • Nonverbal behavior
  • Parent-child interaction and qualities of relationship
  • Intergenerational transmission
  • Stress, trauma and loss
  • Autism; theory of mind and mentalization (embodied intentions)
  • Infant temperament
  • Genocide/Holocaust studies.

Ongoing projects

  1. Mothers and their 1 year old children, focused on of parental and child behaviors in relation to emotional-availability, parent personality, parent stress and infant temperament;
  2. Collaboration with Dr. Beatrice Beebe’s Communication Lab at New York State Psychiatric Institute, involving split-screen micro-analytic sequential analysis of affect-related nonverbal regulatory behaviors, maternal depression and attachment behaviors;
  3. Investigation of college-age individuals with autism spectrum disorder, examining social cognition, narratives and nonverbal behavior;
  4. Studies (in collaboration with the International Study of the Organized Persecution of Children) of psychologically-relevant narrative qualities in child-survivor (Holocaust) interviews;
  5. Further validational, developmental, and exploratory studies examining the empirical utility and theoretical coherence of the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP);
  6. In collaboration with Dr. Frances La Barre, case-intensive longitudinal studies of parent-young-child relationships and intergenerational transmission of parental-states via nonverbal behavior are being pursed within the context of the Parent-Infant/Toddler Research Nursery
  7. Examination of effective primary prevention methods in early development, especially using video-feedback methods.

Meetings

Fridays: 9:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m.

156 William St, 5th Floor / Nursery

Student Requirements: Interest in development and observational research methods. Mentored lab students offer 4 additional hours of research work, which involve collaborative study, coding, data analysis, and literature review that may apply to an MA thesis or a group project.

Contact

K. Mark Sossin, PhD
Research Group Lead
Email: ksossin@pace.edu