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, and Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. 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.
Education.
Killen obtained her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a NIMH Predoctoral trainee. Her PhD advisor was Elliot Turiel. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Clark University, where she was awarded a New England Psychological Association undergraduate Honorary Fellow.
Research.
Killen, along with Adam Rutland, developed the Social Reasoning Developmental (SRD) model which identifies three factors, morality, group identity, and psychological knowledge, that bear on how individuals make social decisions, evaluate intergroup contexts, and display social biases when judging acts to be right or wrong. 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 knowledge includes attributions of intentions and mental state knowledge.
Killen has received funding from the NSF and the NICHD for a randomized control trial (RCT) of a program developed by her team designed to reduce prejudice and bias and promote positive intergroup friendships in childhood. The program is called Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) and has a teaching component called Teaching Inclusive Youth (TIY). The long term goal is to implement the program in school districts interested in addressing prejudice and bias in childhood. 
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 brain trust initiative in the education unit for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
Research Areas and Topics of Interest.
Moral Development
Social Cognitive Development
Social exclusion and inclusion in social decision-making
The origins of prejudice, bias, and discrimination
Intergroup attitudes in childhood and adolescence
Moral reasoning and group dynamics
Peer relationships
Children's understanding of social inequalities and social mobility
Honors and CV.
For complete list of honors and CV, see faculty website 