The Department of Comparative Human Development (CHD) focuses on the study of the individual within context. Its faculty believes that behavior is too complex to be left within any one discipline. Consequently, the department brings together anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and biologists who highlight, for example, the role that culture plays in individual psychology, the interplay of biological and social processes, and all of this as individuals travel through the life course. Some current research programs include the impact of globalization on family relationships, the relation of language to thought, the health consequences of social experiences, gender identity, the nature of the self, the consequences of cultural collision, and variations in the learning process in educational settings. Applicants should be prepared to work on the critical edge of thought and research in the social sciences.

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