Assistant Professor

Developmental Science

Office: 320/321 Hobbs
Phone: 615-343-4879
Fax: 615-343-9494
Email: 

Curriculum Vitae

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Degrees

• Ph.D. (University of California at San Diego, 2004)

Research Area

• Developmental psychology
• Social cognition
• Legal psychology

Current Positions

• Assistant Professor of Psychology, Peabody College

Representative Publications

• Giles, J.W., Gopnik, A., & Heyman. G.D. (2002). Source monitoring reduces the suggestibility of preschool children. Psychological Science, 13, 288-291.
• Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2003). Preschoolers' beliefs about the stability of antisocial behavior: Implications for navigating social challenges. Social Development, 12, 182-197.
• Giles, J.W. (2003). Children's essentialist beliefs about aggression. Developmental Review, 23, 413-443.
• Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2005). Young children's beliefs about the relationship between gender and aggressive behavior. Child Development, 76, 107-121.

Biography

Dr. Giles' developmental research focuses on social cognition, particularly on the development of reasoning about people and social behavior. She has a particular interest in understanding children's reasoning about aggression and seeks to understand the emergence and consequences of early, theorylike patterns of beliefs about human violence. This work is anchored in larger debates concerning children's developing understanding of mind, including their conceptions of mental state, intention, and emotion. Related areas of interest include gender development, violence prevention, and children's involvement in the legal system.

Recently Dr. Giles has begun bridging her developmental work with research examining the nature and implications of adults' reasoning about violence. Of particular interest in this inquiry is whether legal professionals, such as prosecutors, police investigators and judges, might have particular patterns of beliefs about violence that influence the ways in which they make legal decisions. For example, recent evidence suggests that viewing violence as innately driven is associated with an increased tendency to support a range of punitive legal sanctions, including capital punishment and three strikes laws. A major goal of this work is to gain a more nuanced understanding of the broader sociocognitive context of juvenile justice.

When she is not being a social scientist, Dr. Giles is trying to wrap her mind around Zen Buddhism, quantum physics, and the African drum.