Samuel Putnam

Affiliation: Psychology

A. Myrick Freeman Professor in Social Sciences, Chair of Psychology Department

Professor Putnam specializes in social development. He teaches a survey course in child development, a lab in developmental research methods, introduction to psychology, and a seminar in social development. His research interests involve exploring interactions between nature and nurture in the development of sensation seeking, negative emotionality, and attentional control.

Professor Putnam has recently completed two large-scale projects exploring the role of culture in the formation of early aspects of personality. Results from the first were published in the book Toddlers, Parents, and Culture: Findings from the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium (Routledge Publishing, 2018), which describes relations among parents' goals for socializing their children, the daily activities in which children participate, and children's social and emotional behavior (see a brief summary here). His more recent effort coordinated data on over 80,000 children gathered from nearly 500 researchers around the world. The first paper from this endeavor, “The Global Temperament Project: Parent-Reported Temperament in Infants, Toddlers, and Children From 59 Nations” was recently published in Developmental Psychology. He earned his bachelor of science degree in psychology at the University of Iowa and then went on to Pennsylvania State University for his master’s and doctorate, both in human development and family studies.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

PhD, Pennsylvania State University, 1999
MS, Pennsylvania State University, 1996
BS, University of Iowa, 1992

Psychology

Samuel Putnam

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Education