ED TRONICK

PhD, Developmental Psychology and Neurophysiology

University of Wisconsin, (APA Approved), 1968

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for Cognitive Studies, Harvard University, 1968-1969

etronick@fielding.edu

 

 

 

Internship: Children's Hospital, Boston, MA (APA Approved), 1974-1975

 

Licensure: MA

 

Current Professional Appointment:

 

Faculty (unranked)

School of Psychology

Fielding Graduate University

 

Areas of Instruction:

 

Developmental Psychology

Infancy

Biological Bases of Behavior

Social-Emotional Development

Infant-Parent Mental Health

Parenting and Affective Disorders

Cross-cultural Studies of Parenting and Child Development

Systems Theory and Psychology

 

Research Interests:

 

Regulation of Affect and Arousal

Neurobehavioral Development

Risk Factors and Development

Stress, Trauma and Development

Meaning Making Processes in Development and Psychoanalytic Treatment

Affects of Parental Affective Disorders on Children's Development

Cultural Affects on Children's Development and Parenting

Development of African-American Children

Effects of In Utero Drug Effects on Development

 

Practice Interests:

 

Infant and Parent-Infant Mental Health

Postpartum Depression and Anxiety

Neurobehavioral Assessment of Infants

 

Professional Memberships:

 

American Psychological Association (F7)

International Society for Infant Studies

National Center for Clinical Infant Programs

Society for Behavioral Pediatrics

Society for Chaos Theory

Society for Research in Child Development

The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

World Association of Infant Mental Health

New York Academy of Sciences

 

 

Honors and Awards:

 

1984: Fellow, American Psychological Association, Division 7

 

2002: Boston Institute for the Development of Infants and Parents Lifetime Contribution Award

 

 

Professional Activities in Last Seven Years

 

Publications:

 

Fetters, L., Tucker, C. A., Cheng-Chi, T., Saltzman, E., & Tronick, E. Z. (2001). Perception/action coupling of limb, head and rattle movements of infants exposed to cocaine. Infant Behavior and Development, 23, 375-389.

 

Linares, L. O., Heren, T., Bronfman, E., Zuckerman, B., Augustyn, M., & Tronick, E. Z. (2001). A mediational model for the impact of exposure to community violence on early problematic child behaviors. Child Development, 72, 639-652.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2001). Emotional connections and dyadic consciousness in infant-mother and patient-therapist interactions. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 11, 187-194.

 

Weinberg, M. K., Tronick, E. Z., Beeghly, M., Olson, K. L., Kernan, H., & Riley, J. A.. (2001). Subsyndromal depressive symptoms and major depression in postpartum women. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 71, 87-97.

 

Beeghly, M., Weinberg, M. K., Olson, K., Kernan, H., Riley, J., & Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Stability and change in level of maternal repressive symptomatology during the first postpartum year. Journal of Affective Disorders, 71, 169-180.

 

Boston Change Process Study Group (Harrison, A. M., Lyons-Ruth, K., Morgan, A. C., Bruschweiler-Stern, N., Naham, J. P., Stern, D. N., Sander, L. W., & Tronick, E. Z.). (2002). Explicating the implicit: The local level of microprocess of change in the analytic situation. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 83, 105-1062.

 

Lester, B. M., Tronick, E. Z., LaGasse, L. L., Seifer, R., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S, Bada, H. S., Wright, L. L., Smeriglio, V. L., Lu, E., Finnegan, L. P., & Maza, P. L. (2002). The Maternal Lifestyles Study (MLS): Effects of substance exposure during pregnancy on neurodevelopmental outcome in 1-month olds. Pediatrics, 110, 1182-1192.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). The increasing differentiation and non-transferability of ways of being together: The primary attachment is specific, not prototypical. Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 2(4), 47-60.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). A model of infant mood states: Long lasting organizing affective states and emotional representational processes without language or symbols. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 12(1), 73-99.

 

Beeghly, M., Frank, D., Rose-Jacobs, R., Cabral, H., & Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Level of prenatal cocaine exposure and infant-caregiver attachment behavior. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 25(1), 23-38.

 

Beeghly, M., Olson, K., Weinberg, M. K., Pierre, S. C., Downey, N., Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Prevalence, stability, and socio-demographic correlates of depressive symptoms in Black mothers during the first 18 months postpartum. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 7(3), 157-168.

 

Bell, L., Sylvestre, A., St-Cyr Tribble, D., Goulet, C., & Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Modele d'evaluation et d'intervention sur la relation parents-enfant. Deuxieme partie: Principes d'evaluation et d'intervention. Perspective Infirmiere, 1(6), 32-36.

 

LaGasse, L., Messinger, D., Lester, B. M., Seifer, R., Tronick, E. Z., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S., Bada, H. S., Wright, L. L., Smeriglio, V. L., Finnegan, L. P., Maza, P. L., & Liu, J. (2003). Prenatal drug exposure and maternal and infant feeding behavior. Archives Diseases of Child Fetal Neonatalogy, 88, 391-399.

 

Lester, B. M., LaGasse, L., Seifer, R., Tronick, E. Z., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S., Bada, H. S., Wright, L. L., Smeriglio, V. L., Liu, J., Finnegan, L. P., & Maza, P. L. (2003) The Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS): Effects of prenatal cocaine and/or opiate exposure on auditory brain response at one month, Journal of Pediatrics, 142(3), 279-285.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Infant moods and the chronicity of depressive symptoms: The co-creation of unique ways of being together for good or ill. Paper 1: The normal process of development and the formation of moods. Zeitschrift fur Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, 4, 408-425.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Of course all relationships are unique: How co-creative processes generate unique mother-infant and patient-therapist relationships and change other relationships. Psychological Inquiry, 23(3), 473-491.

 

Fetters, L., Chen, Y., Jonsdottir, J., Tronick, E. Z. (2004). Kicking coordination captures differences between full-term and premature infants with white matter disorder, Human Movement Sciences, 22(6), 729-748.

 

Lester, B., & Tronick, E. (2004). The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS). Pediatrics, 112(3), 631-699.

 

Lester, B. M., Tronick, E. Z., LaGasse, L., Seifer, R., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S., Bada, H. S., Wright, L. L., Smeriglio, V. L., & Liu, J. (2004). Summary statistics of NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale Scores from the Maternal Lifestyles Study (MLS). Pediatrics, 112(3), 668-675.

 

Reck, C., Hunt, A., Weiss, R., Noon, A., Moehler, E., Downing, G., Mundt, C., & Tronick, E. Z. (2004). Interactive regulation of affect in post partum depressed mothers and their infants: An overview. Psychopathology, 37, 272-280.

 

Tronick, E. (2004, July). Depression maternelle et etats mentaux dyadiques: le "still-face" procedure du visage impassible. Psychiatrie Francasise, XXXVI, 111-136.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2004). Infant moods and the chronicity of depressive symptoms: The co-creation of unique ways of being together for good or ill. Paper 2: The formation of negative moods in infants and children of depressed mothers. Zeitschrift fur Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, 2, 153-170.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2004). Things still to be done on the still-face effect. Infancy, 4, 475-483.

 

Tronick, E. Z., Fetters, L., Chen, Y., & Olson, K. L. (2004). Similar and functionally typical kinematic reaching parameters in 7 and 15 month old in utero exposed and unexposed infant, Developmental Psychobiology, 44(3), 168-175.

 

Tronick, E. Z., Olson, K., Rosenberg, R., Bohne, L., Lu, J., & Lester, B. M. (2004). Normative neurobehavioral performance of healthy infants. Pediatrics, 112(3), 676-679.

 

Henry, P. I., Morelli, G. A., & Tronick, E. Z. (2005). Child caretakers among the Efe foragers of the Ituri Forest. In B. Hewlett & M. Lamb (Eds.), Hunter-gatherer childhoods (pp. 191-214). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2005). Why is connection with others so critical? The formation of dyadic states of consciousness: Coherence governed selection and the co-creation of meaning out of messy meaning making. In J. Nadel & D. Muir (Eds.), Emotional development (pp. 293-315). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

 

Tronick E. Z., Messinger, D., Weinberg, M. K., Lester, B. M., LaGasse, L., Seifer, R., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S., Bada, H. S., Wright, L. L., Smeriglio, V. L., & Liu, J. (2005). Cocaine exposure compromises infant and caregiver social emotional behavior and dyadic interactive features in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Developmental Psychology, 1(5), 711-722.

 

Fuertes, M., Dos Santos, P. L., Beeghly, M., Tronick, E. (2006). More than maternal sensitivity shapes attachment: Infant coping and temperament. In B. Lester, A. Masten, & B. McEwen (Eds.), Resilience in children (pp. 292-296). Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 1094.

 

Ham, J., Tronick, E. (2006). Infant resilience to the stress of the still-face: Infant and maternal psychophysiology are related. In B. Lester, A. Masten, & B. McEwen (Eds.), Resilience in children (pp. 297-302), Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 1094

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2006). Lo sviluppo e la variazione della resilence come variabili dipendenti dal normale stress dello dello sviluppo e dell'interazione. Ricerca Psicoanalitica, Anno XVII(3), 265-294.

 

Tronick, E. (2006). Self and dyadic expansion of consciousness, meaning-making, open systems and the experience of pleasure. In G. B. La Sala, V. Lori, F. Monti, & I. Blicksten (Eds.), Coming into the world: A dialogue between medical and human sciences (pp. 13-25). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

 

Tronick, E. (2006). The stress of normal development and interaction leads to the development of resilience and variation. In B. Lester, A. Masten, B. & McEwen (Eds.), Resilience in children (pp. 83-104), Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 1094.

 

Tronick, E. (2006). Sviluppo personale e diadico di coscienza: formazione di significati, sistemi aperti e il piacere. In G.B. La Sala, V. Lori, F. Monti, & P. Fagandini (Eds.), La "Normale" complessita del venire al mondo. Incontrol tra sciencze mediche e scienze umane (pp. 51-64). Milano, Andelo Guerini e Associati SpA.

 

Weinberg, M. K., Olson, K. L., Beeghly, M., & Tronick, E. Z. (2006). Making up is hard to do, especially for mothers with high levels of depressive symptoms and their infant sons. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 47(7), 670-683.

 

Bell, L., Goulet, C., St-Cyr Tribble, D., Paul, D., Tronick, E. Z. (2007). Mothers' and fathers' view of the interdependence of their relationship with their infant: A system's perspective on early family relationships. Journal of Family Nursing, 13, 179-200.

 

Montirosso, R., Premoli, B., Cozzi, P., Borgatti, R., Tronick, E. Z. (2007). Regolazione emozionale in bambini tra i 3 e i 6 mesi: applicazione del paradigma still-face. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 1, 193-219.

 

Bell, L., St-Cyr Tribble, D., Goulet, C., Paul, D., Tronick, E. Z. (in press). Mothers' and fathers' early relationship with their infant: Similar yet temporally discordant themes. Canadian Journal of Midwifery Research and Practice.

 

Harrison, A., Tronick, E. (in press). Contributions to understanding therapeutic change: Now we have a playground. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

 

Weinberg, M. K., Olson, K., Beeghly, M., Tronick, E. Z. (in press). Effects of maternal depression and panic disorder on mother-infant interactive behavior in the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm. Infant Mental Health Journal.

 

 

Presentations:

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2000). Asthma management. Paper presented at the National Conference of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners, Atlanta, GA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2000). Dyadic states of consciousness. Keynote address presented at the Freudian Society, New York, NY.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2000). Infant emotional development. Paper presented at Child Psychiatry Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical School, New York, NY.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2000). Infant emotional development and attachment. Paper presented at the Department of Psychology, Adelphi University, New York, NY.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2000). Social-emotional development and mother-infant interaction. Paper presented at the American Psychoanalytic Association, New York, NY.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2001). Depression during pregnancy and postpartum. Paper presented at the National Summit on Safe Motherhood: Investing in the Health of Women, Division of Reproductive Health National Center for Chronic Disease, Atlanta, GA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2001). Infant states of brain organization and emotional development. Keynote address presented at the Hopital Salipatriere, Paris, France.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Change process in therapy. Something more than insight - the work of the Boston Change Process Study Group and a Child Case. Paper presented at the Conference on the Irreducible Needs of Children, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Infancy and Fonagy's perspective on mentalization. Paper presented at the Boston Society and Institute for Psychoanalysis, Boston, MA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Infant moods and the chronicity of depressive symptoms: The co-creation of unique ways of being together for good or ill. Inaugural Channi Kumar Lecture presented at the Marce' Society International Biennial Scientific Meeting, Sydney, Australia.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Maternal depression and infant development. Keynote address presented at Medical Grand Rounds, University of Heidleberg, Heidleberg, Germany.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Normal developmental disorganization. Paper presented at the World Association for Infant Mental Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). The co-creation of dyadic states of consciousness: Moving away from entropy. Keynote address presented at the International Conference on the Irreducible Needs of Children, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). The co-creation of relationship: Contact and embodiment in development and therapeutic. Transformation relationships are unique. Keynote address presented at the Body Psychotherapy Conference, Baltimore MD.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). The dyadically expanded consciousness in moments of meeting. Paper presented at the 7^th European Conference of Gestalt Therapy, Stockholm, Sweden.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). The specificity of relationships and attachment. Keynote address presented at the Freudian Society, New York, NY.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Themes of love and liberation. Paper presented at the Birth of Pleasure Conference, New York University, New York.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2002). Touchpoints: A macro and micro view of depression. Paper presented at the World Association of Infant Mental Health and Allied Professions, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

 

Harrison, A. M., & Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Now we have a playground: Emerging new ideas of therapeutic action. Keynote address presented at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society, Berlin, Germany, and at the American Psychoanalytic Association Meetings, Boston, MA.

 

Harrison, A., & Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Trauma and the coherence of consciousness. Paper presented at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, Boston, MA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Attachment and the mutual regulation model. Paper presented at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy, Boston, MA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Getting less attached to attachment. Co-creative mutual regulation, relational activation patterns, and the uniqueness of relationships. New developments in attachment theory: Application to clinical practice. Paper presented at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Mutual regulation, dyadic states of consciousness and separation and individuation. Paper presented at the Mahler Symposium, University of Padova, Italy.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2003). Thoughts on attachment and the specificity of relationships. Paper presented at the Child Psychiatry Fellowship Program, Judge Baker Guidance Center, Boston, MA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2004). Dyadic states of primary consciousness. Development, intersubjectivity and dynamical systems. Paper presented at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2004). The dyadic expansion consciousness model of therapeutic action. Keynote address presented at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, New York, NY.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2005). Closing the circle: Regulation and the expansion of meaning in infant-mother dyads. The therapeutic action of psychodynamic psychotherapy: Current concepts of cure. Paper presented at the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston, MA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2005). Already set up for trauma: Infants' copng with stress, memory and automoic reactivity. The embodied mind. Paper presented at the Lifespan Learning Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2005). The development of resilience in infants. Resilience in children. Paper presented at the New York Academy of Sciences, Arlington, VA.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2005). Trauma and infants' body. Paper presented at the 7^th Congresso Internatcional de Psicoterpia Corporal, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2006, October). The co-creation of unique ways of being together. Presented at the Department of Psychology in Bologna, Cesena.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2006, October). The birth of intersubjectivity. The "normal" complexities of coming into the world. Keynote address for the International Congress, Modena.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2006, October). The Still-face:  Infants and toddlers, stress and physiologic reactivity. Presented at the Department of Psychology, University of Milano. Milano.

 

Tronick, E.Z. (2006, November). Dyadic expansion of consciousness: Messy play and making connections. Play Therapy, AB Penman, Chair. Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard University Medical School, Boston.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (2007, March). Mutual regulation as a theoretical frame. The Analytic Field, J. Stechler, Chair. Massachusetts Institute for Psychotherapy.

 

Tronick, E. Z. (n.d.). Closing the circle: Regulation and the expansion of meaning in infant-mother dyads. The therapeutic action of psychodynamic psychotherapy: Current concepts of the cure. Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.

 

 

Funded Grants/Contracts:

 

1995-2001: Principal Investigator, Rehabilitation, Brain Lesion, and Movement in Infants, National Institutes of Child Health and Development.

 

1999-2000: Principal Investigator, Child and Family Asthma Management Program, Merck & Co., Inc.

 

1999-2003: Principal Investigator, Standardization of the NRN-Neurobehavioral Scale, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

 

2000-2001: Principal Investigator, Socio-Communicative Patterns in Early Learning: Home-School Cultural Discontinuity, Spencer Foundation.

 

2000-2003: Co-Principal Investigator, Follow-Up Early Development of African American Children, Spencer Foundation.

 

2001-2004: Co-Investigator, Mutual Regulation Between Mothers and Preschoolers, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

 

2002-2004: Co-Investigator, Mutual Regulation in Very Low Birthweight Infants, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

 

2002-2004: Principal Investigator, Social-Emotional Development Between the University of Buenos Aires and the Harvard Medical School, Harvard University: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

 

2004-2007: Co-Investigator, Mutual regulation in very low birthweight preschoolers, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

 

2006-2008: Co-Investigator, Mutual regulatory processes in Black mother-infant dyads, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

 

2007-2012: Principal Investigator, Stability of Coping and Memory for Social Stress, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

 

2007-2010: Principal Investigator, Infant Memory for the Face-to-face Still-Face, National Science Foundation.

 

Other Professional Activities:

 

1985-2000: Board of Directors, Boston Institute for the Development of Infants and Parents, Boston, MA.

 

1988-present: Consulting Editor, Infant Mental Health Journal.

 

1992-present: Member, Board of Directors, Touch Research Institute, Miami, FL.

 

1995-2000: Permanent Member. Review Committee, Child/Adolescent Development, Risk and Prevention, National Institute of Mental Health.

 

1996-2000: Consultant, Child Development Issues for the Harris Training Institute, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA.

 

1996-2001: Consultant, National Institute of Mental Health. The Effects of Community Violence on Women and Children.

 

1998-2001: Advisory Board, Brazelton Foundation, Boston, MA.

 

1998-present: Member, Board of Directors, Boston Institute for Psychotherapy, Boston, MA.

 

1998-present: Panel Member, Expert Advisory Panel, The Wellcome Trust, London, UK.

 

1998-present: Reviewer, Medical Research Councils, London, UK.

 

2000-present: Advisory Board, Boston Institute for the Development of Infants and Parents, Boston, MA.

 

2000-present: Advisory Board, International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, New York, NY.

 

2000-present: Scientific Review Committee, Canadian Maternal Science Foundation.

 

2002-2003: Member, Division of General Pediatrics Research Committee, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA.

 

2002-present: Panel Member, Social Development International Conference on Infant Studies.

 

Journal Reviewer: American Journal of Diseases of Children, Child Development, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, Developmental Psychology, Evolution and Human Behavior, Infancy Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Infant Behavior and Development, Infant Mental Health Journal, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Journal of Family Psychology, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Motivation and Emotion, Pediatrics, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Social Development, Psychological Bulletin.