Nijmegen, 13-17 August 2018

(early bird registration deadline: 1 April)

Peer Relations and Interactions in Childhood and Adolescence

Peers are powerful socialization agents, contributing well beyond the collective influences of family, school and neighborhood. This highly interactive course focuses on the importance of peers for child development. During this course you will have ample opportunity to learn about the past, present and future of peer relations research. You will also learn to use state of the art research measures and paradigms to assess peer relations and interactions. The course will be taught by the members of the Peer Relations Lab at Radboud University (peerlab). Course leader is Prof. dr. Toon Cillessen.

Early Programming: How Early Life Shapes Human Development

During the prenatal and early postnatal years neurobiological and behavioral development proceeds at a breathtaking pace and is highly sensitive to environmental influences. Early experience shapes early and long-term developmental outcomes.  This highly interactive course looks into exciting and recently discovered environmental factors and mechanisms that shape early and long-term human development; using evolutionary, biological, psychological and social perspectives. Course leader is Prof. dr. Carolina de Weerth.

Vici is one of the largest grants for individuals in the Netherlands and targets advanced researchers. The funding enables the scientists to set up their own innovative line of research and put together their own research group.

When Mommy and Daddy Get Under Your Skin…
Prof. G. (Geertjan) Overbeek (m), UvA – Pedagogics

This research examines whether parents can get under their children’s skins. By using effective parenting interventions for families at risk, the researchers aim to enrich parenting to such an extent that it leads to changes in gene expression. This potentially predicts improved stress reactivity and less disruptive behavior in children.

How gut bacteria and stress shape child development
Prof.dr. C. (Carolina) de Weerth (f), RU – Developmental Psychology

Intestinal bacteria are essential for health, and as recently shown in animals, probably also affect our brain and behavior. Researchers will find out how intestinal bacteria affect typical human development, from infancy till adolescence, by investigating how bacteria colonize the intestines, in situations with more or less early life stress.

last reminder:

The Paul van Geert award is a biennial prize that is granted to the best paper concerning a dynamic approach to psychological development, written by AIO’s or post-docs. The paper may be theoretical, methodological or empirical, as long as it addresses a dynamic approach to developmental processes in psychology. The winner should attend the VNOP (The Dutch organization on Developmental Psychology) conference, and that automatically implies VNOP membership for two years.
The award consists of a certificate and 250 euro.
The award is presented during the biennial VNOP conference. The papers have to be published during the period of two years between March 1st of the year of the previous conference to March 1st of the year of the actual VNOP conference. The authors should be AIO or post doc at the time of submission of the paper.

This is a reminder that the deadline of the 2018 VNOP dissertation award is approaching!

This biennial price is awarded to the best dissertation written by VNOP members, with at least one of the supervisors also being a VNOP member. Eligible are candidates who defended/are going to defend their dissertation between March 1, 2016 and March 1, 2018. The winner will receive a certificate and 250 euro.
The award will be presented during the 2018 VNOP conference, which takes place on May 15-16, 2018 at Hof van Wageningen (for more info, see 2018.vnop.nl).

Candidates should submit the following materials before March 1, 2018 by e-mail to the secretariat of the committee: t.a.klimstra@uvt.nl:
– A digital version of their dissertation
– A plea of one of their (co-) promotors of why the candidate deserves the award

Please visit the DissertationAward Page for more details on this award. We are looking forward to receiving your nominations!

Dear VNOP members,

After the retirement of prof. Paul van Geert from the Department of Developmental Psychology a new paper award is initiated by his successor, prof. Peter de Jonge.
The criteria can be found below.

 Criteria and regulations for the Paul van Geert award

The Paul van Geert award is a biennial prize that is granted to the best paper concerning a dynamic approach to psychological development, written  by AIO’s or post-docs. The paper may be theoretical, methodological or empirical, as long as it addresses a dynamic approach to developmental processes in psychology. The winner should attend the VNOP (The Dutch organization on Developmental Psychology)  conference, and that automatically implies  VNOP membership for two years.

The award consists of a certificate and 250 euro.

The award is presented during the biennial VNOP conference. The papers  have to be published during the period of two years between March 1^st of the year of the previous conference to March 1^st of the year of the actual VNOP conference. The authors should be AIO or post doc at the time of submission of the paper.

1. The jury for this award consists of (associate) professors of with expertise in both developmental psychology and in dynamic systems theory.
2. Announcement of the committee is the responsibility of the award committee.
3. The award committee consists the head of the department developmental psychology and the secretary.
4. The jury itself decides on the procedure they aim to follow to make a choice.
5. The jury is practically supported by the secretary of Developmental psychology in Groningen.
6. The award committee sends out a call to send the paper and aim for the price each January before the VNOP conference. The call is send out via the VNOP, the ICPE and other appropriate media. The candidate submits a digital version of the paper, together with a plea from one of his/her supervisors in which the supervisor argues why this paper deserves to receive the award. The paper and the plea are send to the secretary of developmental psychology in Groningen before the first of March following the call.

Mail address l.boer-bethlehem@rug.nl

1. The jury select three nominees and the winner before the first of May of each conference year. In the jury report the jury describes the procedure they followed, and the arguments they used for selection. Not nominated papers are not mentioned. This report is presented during the next VNOP board meeting.
2. The winner will be announced during the Business Meeting (ALV) of the VNOP meeting.
3. The award committee takes care that the award can be handed over by a member of the jury during the  ALV.

Saskia Kunnen

We invite all VNOP members and other PhD students, post docs an staff members interested in developmental psychology to our lab meeting, Tuesday the 23rd of January, in Groningen.

Click to find the program.

Program VNOP Lab meeting 23

The meeting will be at the Faculty of Social Schience, Hortus complex, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1 9712 TS in Groningen, the plenary room is  B.0126 (Gadourekzaal). After registering we send you details about the location, ettc.

Attendance is free, however, we ask you to register because of the lunch arrangement. Please send an email to  Lesley Braun-Medendorp, l.a.braun@rug.nl

For more information please contact Saskia Kunnen, e.s.kunnen@rug.nl