Christie Pugh Karpiak, Ph.D.
I am a clinical child psychologist. My research interests and specialty area courses are informed by the Developmental Psychopathology perspective. This integrative perspective is characterized by attention to lifespan development, typical and atypical developmental trajectories, and contributions of “nature” and “nurture” to the development of psychological characteristics and psychiatric conditions. From this perspective, assessment and treatment ideally are based on developmental trajectories and underlying processes, not just diagnostic categories. The “Links” tab on the left includes a list of my favorite books and articles from developmental psychopathology. The “Student Research” tab describes current research with student assistants, and presentations and publications by former students.
I teach an array of classes including abnormal child psychology and child clinical psychology. I teach statistics using Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and integrate PBL-type case studies into abnormal and clinical psychology courses. I have conducted research, published in Teaching of Psychology, on PBL and other aspects of university-level teaching.