Mother-child interaction and the development of imitation in preterm infants. (360G-Wellcome-084911_Z_08_Z)

£70,000

Developmental psychology is an area that has intrigued me for many years. In face it was one of the main reasons to study psychology at degree level. The variety of experiences I have had working with children has encouraged a keen interest in the different ways in which children develop. The majority of my work experience has involved working with atypically-developing children in both school and play settings. I also spent some time in Sri Lanka after the Boxing Day Tsunami, where I volunteered in camps for displaced families, and at an orphanage for children with learning difficulties. All of these experiences have demonstrated the importance of social interactions, and not only biological dispositions, in development. Whilst studying my undergraduate degree at Cardiff university, my interest in developmental psychology was reinforced when I was given a chance to work as a research assistant for the research group headed by Dr. Merideth Gattis. This work allowed me to see the ways in which imitation is a skill which is not only interesting in its own right but helps to uncover other social and cognitive processes as well. Melzoff (1995) presented infants with completed or incompleted actions by humans or machines. When offered the chance to imitate, infants completed the actions which had been performed by human models but not those performed by machines. Therefore the imitation demonstrated that infants replicated intended rather than viewed actions; a result that has been replicated in a number of different studies. This ability to understand psychological processes of others has been suggested to be lacking in children with autism (Aldridge, Stone, Sweeney & Bower, 2000). This idea of individual differences in intention understanding (as measured by imitative response) in different populations is of interest to me due to my work experience with both children with disabilities and a group investigating goal directed imitation. I believe a PhD would allow me to combine aspects of both my undergraduate degree and the extensive experience I have acquired over the past seven years of working with children. Once I have completed my PhD, I hope to continue with research looking at social cognition in both normally and atypically developing populations.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 70000
Applicant Surname Winstanley
Approval Committee WT/NIH Four Year PhD Programme Interview Committee
Award Date 2008-02-27T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2007/08
Grant Programme: Title WT/NIH Four Year PhD Studentship
Internal ID 084911/Z/08/Z
Lead Applicant Miss Alice Winstanley
Partnership Name Wellcome Trust-NIH PhD Studentships
Partnership Value 70000
Planned Dates: End Date 2012-09-30T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2008-10-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region Wales
Sponsor(s) Prof Merideth Gattis