Dr. Marc Jambon

I am a developmental psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. I was born and raised in southern Louisiana and completed my Ph.D. at the University of Rochester (with Dr. Judith Smetana). In 2016 I moved to Canada where I completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Calgary (with Drs. Sheri Madigan and Jennifer Jenkins) and the University of Toronto Mississauga (with Dr. Tina Malti). I also served as a research methodologist at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University prior to joining Laurier in 2022.

My primary research focuses on the intersections between moral and social development in early and middle childhood. The goal of this work is to understand the mechanisms and processes that give rise to individual differences in children’s thinking about right and wrong, the capacity to experience emotions like sympathy and guilt, and behaviors that impact others’ rights and wellbeing (e.g., aggression). I approach the study of individual differences through a constructivist and developmental systems lens, meaning that I view children’s interpretations of their experiences as serving a critical role in their development. As such, much of my research involves interviewing children to capture their unique perspectives on the world. Taking into account the child’s perspective is often necessary for capturing the full complexity of human development, but it is not sufficient. I therefore strive compliment interview techniques with other methods depending on the research question, including behavioral observations, parent and teacher-report questionnaires, and physiological assessments.