Together with faculty from the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, the concentration of active researchers in psychology and law is one of the largest in the nation.  Research areas include scientific evidence, memory, jury decision-making, child victim/witness, juvenile offenders, mental health and justice, and miscarriages of justice.

The concentration in psychology & law endeavors to investigate issues and train graduate students to address problems that fall at the intersection between these fields. At this point, several Psychology and Social Behavior faculty who work on this topic are affiliated with the Center for Psychology and Law and many current graduate students are pursuing it as an "individually tailored minor." Students wishing to pursue graduate work and research in Psychology and Law at UCI must apply and be accepted into either the Ph.D. program in Psychology & Social Behavior or the Ph.D. program in Criminology, Law & Society.



Faculty

Cauffman, Elizabeth E., Ph.D., Temple University
Adolescent development, mental health, psychopathy, juvenile justice, female delinquency, legal and social policy.

Clarke-Stewart, Alison, Ph.D., Yale University
How young children's skills and psychological well-being are affected by their social environments and the people in these environments; outcomes of children in different custodial arrangements following parental divorce; effects of infant daycare on development; parental knowledge and behavior, and children's eyewitness testimony.

Ditto, Peter H., Ph.D., Princeton University
Judgment and decision-making in emotionally-charged or motivationally-involving situations. Current interests include biases in how people respond to threatening medical information and information that challenges firmly-held attitudes and prejudices, and psychological issues involved in end-of-life medical decision-making.

**Loftus, Elizabeth F., Ph.D., Stanford University
Human memory; the legal field; how facts, ideas, suggestions and other forms of post-event information can modify our memories; psychology and the law.

Maddi, Salvatore, Ph.D., Harvard University
Stress management, health, and personality, especially personal "hardiness;" naturalistic research designs involving adult participants.

Odgers, Candice, Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Developmental psychopathology; longitudinal analysis of growth and change; effects of externalizing disorders on health.

Quas, Jodi, Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Memory development in early childhood and children's involvement in the legal system. Specific interests include the effects of stress on children's memory; emotional regulation as a predictor of children's memory and suggestibility; interview strategies that facilitate and impede children's eyewitness abilities; the effectiveness of techniques designed to help children involved in legal proceedings; jurors' perceptions of child witnesses; short- and long-term consequences of legal involvement on child victims.

Skeem, Jennifer L., Ph.D., University of Utah
Research designed to inform clinical and legal decision-making about individuals with mental illness. Focuses on understanding psychopathic personality disorder, assessing and treating violence risk, and identifying factors that influence the outcomes of offenders who are mandated to accept psychiatric treatment.

Thompson, William, C., J.D., University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. , Stanford University
Psychology and the law; human judgment and decision making; the use of mathematical and scientific evidence in jury trials, focusing on the introduction of forensic DNA tests; the use in trials of hearsay and character evidence; testimony of children.



** Member: National Academy of Sciences