Interviu cu Assist. Prof. Heather Henderson (Miami, U.S.A.), Mai 2006

Dr. Henderson si-a primit titlul de doctor in Dezvoltarea Umana la Universitatea din Maryland, in 2002. In prezent este asistent universitar in psihologie la Universitatea Miami din Coral Gables, Florida, USA. Activitatea sa de cercetare urmareste studiul contributiilor temperamentului pentru comportamentul social al copiilor; studiul influentelor afective si cognitive asupra auto-reglarii in cazul copiilor cu dezvoltare tipica si a celor cu dezvoltare atipica; incluzand si o serie de studii de psihofiziologie a dezvoltarii.

In continuare va invitam sa parcurgeti interviul cu Prof. Heather Henderson realizat de Mihaela Chraif, studenta anul III (F.P.S.E).

APR: Prof. Henderson, it is your first time in Romania?

Prof. Henderson: Yes, it is, it is my first trip in Romania.

APR: Can you tell us about latest project, researches in U.S.A.?

Prof. Henderson: My researches are interested in the social emotional development in children both typically developing and atypically developing, so among typically developing and atypically developing children in my lab were studied in China and Miami over time. On the other side we were working on studying children with high functionally in autism, children who intellectually are compatible to appear but social show inability to interact with other people. So we are trying to combine behavioral and observational measures with physiological measures to try to understand the interaction between emotion and cognition as they are related to social behavior.

APR: What about your future projects, research in U.S.A.?

Prof. Henderson: There are pretty comfortable what I am doing right now, but what I’m really trying to do continue this studies in examining response monitoring both behaviorally and physiologically, and to come out with new observation work and correlation research, and to try to develop experimental paradigms in observing the cognitive processing in the early years in order to understand the correlation.

APR: Do you find in Romania a positive environment for developing mutual relationships in researches and studies?

Prof Henderson: I’ve been very impressive. I’ve been here with the people, the people were very open and they were asking lots of questions. I hope to be a collaborative relationship.

APR: Could the shyness be reinforced by the cultural environment?

Prof. Henderson: Absolutely! I think a lot of children become shy because of the environmental and socialization effects: parenting and evocative effects. Over childhood and adolescence, high levels of shyness are associated with: social reticence, poor peer relationships, academic difficulties, internalizing behavior problems and negative self perception.

APR: How do you see the development tendencies of research in the study of autism in U.S.A.?

Prof. Henderson: Children with autism not only display social impairments but also significant individual differences in social development. Current theory and research suggest that individual differences in response monitoring, a special function of the anterior cingulated cortex, may contribute to social-emotional and social-cognitive impairments and individual differences in autism.

APR: Are you planning future collaboration between Miami Medical School and the Faculty of Psychology – Bucharest?

Prof. Henderson: We haven’t done yet, but we are open for mutual collaboration between the institutes among the time.