Assistant Professor Holli Tonyan, Ph.D.
Contact
- Office Phone: (818) 677-4970
Office Location: ST 321 - Email: Holli.Tonyan@csun.edu
- Website: http://www.csun.edu/~htonyan
Education
- Ph.D. 2001, UCLA. Psychological Studies in Education.
- B.A. 1996, Carleton College (MN). Psychology.
Courses Taught
- PSY 313
PSY 302
Selected Publications and Presentations
Tonyan, H. A. (2006). Considering the social nature of emotions. Every Child, 12, 9.
Tonyan, H. A. (2006). Using functionalist and sociocultural theories to examine coregulation of distress in mother-child interaction. New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 9, 105-114.
Tonyan, H. A. (2005). Coregulating distress: Mother-child interactions around children’s distress from 14 to 24 months. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 433–444.
Tonyan, H. A., & Howes, C. (2003). Exploring patterns in time children spend in a variety of child care activities: Associations with quality of care, ethnicity, and gender. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 192, 1-22.
Howes, C., & Tonyan, H. A. (2000). Links between adult and peer relationships across four developmental periods. In K. A. Kerns & A. M. Neal-Barnett (Eds.), Examining associations between parent-child and peer relationships (pp. 85-113). NY: Greenwood/Praeger.
Howes, C., & Tonyan, H. A. (1999). Peer relations. In L. Balter & C. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues (pp.143-157). Philadelphia: Psychology Press
Research Interests
My research interests are organized around understanding children's development as part of social and cultural contexts. My interests are quite broad, but my research has focused on infancy through early childhood (before starting school) and social and emotional aspects of development. I have particular expertise in attachment theory, socio-cultural historical activity theory (SCHAT, following Vygotsky's legacy), ethology (drawing on evolutionary biology), observational methods, and exploratory/graphic data analysis.
Several projects are available for student involvement, and examine parents’ responses to an internet survey of daily transitions between home and child day care settings (e.g., drop-off and pick-up times), a survey of child care providers to better understand the ecology of child day care settings in the San Fernando Valley, and mother-infant interaction among low-income Latino families (archival video or observational analysis).
In addition, I am very interested in working with students in developing topics of mutual interest. Recent student projects have examined the published literature in the following areas: comparing center-based and family-based child day care settings with regard to the quality and characteristics of children's experiences; long-term effects of child day care participation; socialization, parenting goals, and parenting practices among Latino and European-heritage families; the development of emotion regulation during infancy and toddlerhood.
For more information, please visit: http://www.csun.edu/~htonyan/CurrentProjects2009.htm