Melanie Killen

Melanie Killen is a developmental psychologist and Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, and Professor of Psychology (Affiliate) at the University of Maryland, as well as Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK She has conducted extensive research on social and moral development, social exclusion and the origins of prejudice, moral reasoning and group dynamics, peer relationships, social-cognitive development, and children's understanding of social inequalities and social mobility.She is supported by funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her research. In 2008, she was awarded Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by the Provost's office at the University of Maryland. She is the Director of the Social and Moral Development Lab at the University of Maryland.

Killen obtained her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a NIMH Predoctoral trainee, and her B.A. in Psychology from Clark University, where she was awarded a New England Psychological Association undergraduate Honorary Fellow.

Killen has developed with Adam Rutland a theoretical framework, referred to as the Social Reasoning Developmental (SRD) model which identifies three factors, morality, group identity, and psychological assessments that bear on how individuals evaluate intergroup contexts.Morality includes fairness, equality, and rights; group identity includes group dynamics, in-group preferences and outgroup distrust, group advantaged and disadvantaged status, and group functioning; psychological assessments include attributions of intentions and mental state knowledge.

Killen has served as an expert witness in a federal school desegregation case and helped prepare two Supreme Court briefs regarding the impact of school desegregation on children's social development. She has consulted for the U.S. Government in the area of peer conflict resolution as well as for Sesame Workshop and Teaching Tolerance. She has also served as a consultant for a federal initiative on interventions designed to reduce prejudice and to promote inclusion in U.S. elementary schools.

In 2011-2012, Killen and her research team were commissioned by Anderson Cooper at CNN AC360 to conduct a study on children's racial biases which aired in April, 2012, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding News and Analysis, October 1, 2013.Killen serves on the expert advisory panel for the new National Children's Museum in Washington, D.C., and her research has been profiled in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Examiner, The American Scientist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American School Board Journal, Teaching Tolerance Magazine, ABCNews.com, Newsweek.com, Parenting, Parent-Wise Magazine, Redbook, Baby Journal, as well as other print and media outlets.

• University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents’ Faculty Award in Mentoring, 2018.
• Ronald B. Lippin Lecturer in Ethics, Rock Institute for Ethics, Pennsylvania State University, 2014.
• Fellow, Society for the Study of Psychological and Social Issues, 2013- on.
• Outstanding Graduate Director of the Year Award, University of Maryland, 2012.
• Funded study on children's intergroup biases was selected as featured research for "NSF Highlights: Social Factors in Bias and Stereotyping" by the National Science Foundation Office of Legislative and Public Affairs.
• Graduate Mentor of the Year Award, University of Maryland, 2010
• Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award from the Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Maryland, 2010.
• Honorable Mention, Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Prize, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), for Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood (Eds. S. Levy & M. Killen), Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Full member, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, 2009
• Allen Edwards Endowed Lecturer in Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2007.
• Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year Award, University of Maryland, 2004
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, 2003.
• Recipient, James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award from the James McKeen Cattell Foundation, Duke University, 2000.
• Winner, Outstanding Book Award for 1997,Moral Development and Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Morality in everyday life: Developmental Perspectives, Cambridge University Press.
• Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 7, Developmental Psychology), 1997.
• Visiting Faculty Fellow, Yale University, Yale/Mellon Visiting Faculty Program, 1990.
• NIMH Predoctoral Traineeship, National Research Service Award, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1979-1984.
• Chancellor's Patent Fund Award for Dissertation Research from the University of California, Berkeley, 1984.
• Soroptimist International of America, Founder Region Fellowship for Dissertation Research, 1984.
• Psi Chi Honorary Society, 1978
• Undergraduate Honorary Fellow, New England Psychological Association, 1978
• Jonas Clark Scholarship, Clark University, 1974.

• Killen, M., & Smetana, J.G. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of moral development, 2nd edition. NY: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis Group.
• Killen, M., & Rutland, A. (2011). Children and social exclusion: Morality, prejudice, and group identity.New York: Wiley/Blackwell Publishers.
• Killen, M., & Coplan, R. J. (2011). Social development in childhood and adolescence: A contemporary reader. NY: Wiley/Blackwell Publishers.
• Killen, M., & Smetana, J.G. (Eds.) (2006). Handbook of moral development. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.(Translated into Chinese and Korean).
• Levy, S.R., & Killen, M. (Eds.). (2008). Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Honorable Mention, Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Prize, from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
• Killen, M., Lee-Kim, J., McGlothlin, H., & Stangor, C. (2002). How children and adolescents evaluate gender and racial exclusion. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Serial No. 271, Vol. 67, No. 4. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers.
• Langer, J., & Killen, M. (Eds.). (1998). Piaget, evolution, and development.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Killen, M., & Hart, D. (Eds.) (1995). Morality in everyday life: Developmental perspectives. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Winner, Outstanding Book Award for 1997, from Moral Development and Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)

Her publications include:

• Killen, Melanie; Stangor, Charles (2001). "Children's Social Reasoning about Inclusion and Exclusion in Gender and Race Peer Group Contexts". Child Development. 72 (1): 174–186. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00272. ISSN 0009-3920. PMID 11280477.
• Rutland, Adam; Killen, Melanie; Abrams, Dominic (2010). "A New Social-Cognitive Developmental Perspective on Prejudice" (PDF). Perspectives on Psychological Science. 5 (3): 279–291. doi:10.1177/1745691610369468. ISSN 1745-6916. PMID 26162160.
• Killen, Melanie; Mulvey, Kelly Lynn; Richardson, Cameron; Jampol, Noah; Woodward, Amanda (2011). "The accidental transgressor: Morally-relevant theory of mind". Cognition. 119 (2): 197–215. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.006. ISSN 0010-0277. PMC 4142201. PMID 21377148.