Sandra Wood Scarr (1936–2021).

Abstract

Memorializes Sandra Wood Scarr (1936-2021). Developmental psychologist Sandra Scarr was born on August 8, 1936. After earning her AB from Vassar College in 1958 and her doctorate in psychology and social relations from Harvard University in 1965, she began her career as a developmental psychologist whose research informed fundamental questions about experience and development. Scarr used a variety of methods to assess experience and development, including studies of early childhood intervention, childcare effects, and genetic and environmental influences using behavior genetics studies with adopted children and adolescents. In several theoretical papers, she argued that genes and environments were correlated, thereby challenging all research on parent-child socialization. In her childcare studies, she and her colleagues controlled for family selection effects, a first at the time, and demonstrated small to moderate reliable effects on cognitive and social outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).