Laura Baker
Expert on the psychology of human differences, specializing in twin studies, gender roles and the nature versus nurture debate
Professor of Psychology
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Member, USC Program in Neural, Informational and Behavioral Sciences
Expertise
- genetic and environmental factors in personality traits and cognitive ability
- genetic correlations with criminal behavior and mental illness
- gender roles and personality traits in children and adults
- transmission of attitudes in families
- lifespan developmental psychology
- behavioral genetics
- sex differences, genetics and crime
- juvenile delinquency and psychophysiological correlates
- identical and fraternal twins
- risk factors for aggression in adolescent twins
- heredity and environment (nature and nurture) in human behavior, including intelligence, personality traits and antisocial (criminal) behavior
- genetics of educational attainment
- psychology of human differences – why people respond in different ways to the same situation
- twin studies
Additional Information
- Member, Behavior Genetics Association; American Psychological Association; American Psychological Society; Society for Psychophysiological Research; and American Society of Human Genetics;
- Elected member, Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychologists
- Ad hoc reviewer for Behavior Genetics; Child Development; Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; and other journals
- Editorial board member, Scribner’s Encyclopedia of Violence in the United States (1999)
