Jack Demick
Adjunct Professor of Education
131 Waterman
(401) 421-0060 (phone)
(401) 863-1276 (fax)
Jack_Demick@brown.edu
Areas of Specialization: Clinical-Developmental Psychology, Developmental Theory, Adoption and Foster Care, Effects of Children on Adults (e.g., Parents, Teachers), Critical Person-in-Environment Transitions Across the Life Span (e.g., Home to School), Child and Adult Assessment
Description of Research and Teaching Interests: My scholarship is framed within the holistic, developmental, systems-oriented approach to person-in-environment functioning across the life span (e.g., Wapner & Demick, 1998). This approach is an extension and elaboration of Heinz Werner's comparative developmental theory. Both the original theory and our elaborated approach have been termed "organismic" (insofar as cognition, affect, valuation, and action are considered in relation to the total context of human activity) and "developmental" (providing a systematic governing principle and corollaries for studying developmental progression and regression so that living systems may be compared with respect to formal, organizational features). Thus, integrating my work is the goal of demonstrating the heuristic potential of applying this theory to the development of diverse phenomena (e.g., the individual, an idea, a culture, neuropathology/
psychopathology). Current research projects (broadly defined) include: the psychology of adoption and foster care (e.g., child, coparent, and family processes in gay male and lesbian vs. heterosexual adoptive families); effects of children on adults (e.g., parents, teachers); and, with Edith Kaplan, the development and validation of a neuropsychological screening test for use across the life span. Viewing research and teaching as synergistic activities, I have enjoyed teaching a wide range of courses in the fields of developmental and clinical psychology.
Office Hours
Fall 2007Mondays
3:00 to 5:00 p.m. and by appointment
Degrees
Clark University Ph.D., 1980
Psychology (APA-Approved Clinical Training Program)
Clark University M.A., 1977
Psychology
Yale University A.B., 1974
Psychology (Magna cum Laude)
Publications
-Demick, J. (in press). Effects of children on adults: Parenthood and beyond. In C. Hoare (Ed.), Oxford handbook of adult development and learning. New York: Oxford University Press.
-Upshur, E., & Demick, J. (in press). Adoption and identity in social context. In K. Wegar (Ed.), Adoptive families in a diverse society. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
-Wapner, S., & Demick, J. (2005). Critical person-in-environment transitions across the life span. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), Heinz Werner and developmental science. New York: Springer.
-Demick, J. (2003). "Roots that clutch:" What adoption and foster care can tell us about adult development. In J. Demick & C. Andreoletti (Eds.), Handbook of adult development (pp. 475-491). New York: Kluwer.
-Demick, J. (2002). Stages of parental development. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 3. Being and becoming a parent (2nd ed., pp. 389-413). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
-Wapner, S., & Demick, J. (2002). The increasing contexts of context in the study of environment-behavior relations. In R. B. Bechtel & A. Churchman (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (pp. 3-14). New York: Wiley.
-Wapner, S., & Demick, J. (2000). Person-in-environment psychology: A holistic, developmental, systems-oriented perspective. In W. B. Walsh, K. H. Craik, & R. H. Price (Eds.), Person-environment psychology: New directions and perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 25-60). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
-Wapner, S., & Demick, J. (1999). Developmental theory and clinical practice: A holistic, developmental, systems-oriented approach. In W. K. Silverman & T. H. Ollendick (Eds.), Developmental issues in the clinical treatment of children (pp. 3-30). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
-Wapner, S., & Demick, J. (1998). Developmental analysis: A holistic, developmental, systems-oriented perspective. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 761-805). New York: Wiley.
-Demick, J., Ishii, S., & Inoue, W. (1997). Body and self experience: Japan versus USA. In S. Wapner, J. Demick, T. Yamamoto, & T. Takahashi (Eds.), Handbook of Japan-United States environment-behavior research: Toward a transactional approach (pp. 83-99). New York: Plenum.
-Harkins, D., & Demick, J. (2005). Gender differences in field dependence-independence cognitive style across adulthood: Absence of an experimenter effect. Manuscript in preparation.
-Likewise, R., & Demick, J. (2005). Child, coparent, and family processes in gay male and lesbian versus heterosexual adoptive families. Manuscript in preparation.
-Rideout, M., d'Arrigo, M., & Demick, J. (2005). A holistic, developmental, systems approach to body experience: Demonstrations from cross-cultural psychology and psychopathology. Manuscript in preparation.
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1992- - Editor, Journal of Adult Development
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Courses
EDUC1100 - Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods
EDUC1240 - Reframing Psychoanalysis as a Positive Developmental Science: Educational Implications
EDUC1260 - Emotion, Cognition, Education
EDUC1710 - History and Theories of Child Development
EDUC1750 - Contemporary Social Problems: Views from Human Development and Urban Education
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