Program Director 

One of Dr. William Fabricius' areas of research focuses on children’s social cognitive development, in particular the development of children’s “theory of mind”. Another area of his research is father-child relationships, especially in divorced families.

 Dr. William Fabricius

 Research Labs

• Theory of Mind Lab                                  

  My students and I are working to solve a potentially serious but overlooked problem with the standard tasks used to assess young children's understanding of false beliefs.  These same tasks have recently also been used to study theory of mind in infants and chimpanzees.  The problem is that a confound in the tasks makes the interpretation of correct answers ambiguous, and obscures a developmentally intermediate way of reasoning about the mind.  The resolution of this problem will have theoretical implications for how children's theory of mind develops and for how theory of mind has evolved, and practical implications for interventions with autistic individuals.   Other theory of mind topics include young children’s early linguistic references to mental states, and school-age children’s and high schoolers’ understanding of the interpretative nature of mental processes and how that relates to their understanding of conflict and their aggressive behavior.  [click on Theory of Mind Lab for publications and manuscripts]

• Father & Divorce Lab

  We are in the second 5-year phase of an NIH-funded longitudinal study of the role of fathers and stepfathers in adolescent and emerging adult development,  http://devpsych.sfsu.edu/pays/index.htm.  We are particularly interested in the impact of father-child relationships on the long-term health of the children.  In other projects with divorced families, we also study the long-term effects of the father-child relationship, parent conflict, and visitation arrangements on children.  I am focused on the implications this research can have for social policy, and I am involved at the state level in shaping domestic relations policy,  http://www.azcourts.gov/cscommittees/AdHocCustodyWorkgroup.aspx. I am an Affiliated Faculty member with the Law and Psychology J.D / Ph.D. program.