People & DepartmentsWashington Collegetia-murphy

Tia Murphy

Faculty
Psychology
  • Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology; Pre-Nursing Program Advisor

Tia Murphy

Professor Tia Murphy is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on how children’s attachment to their caregivers affects many aspects of their emotional and social lives.

Education

  • Ph.D., Lehigh University, 2011
  • M.S., Lehigh University, 2008
  • B.A., Widener University, 2005

Research

My research focuses on the social and emotional development of preschool-aged children.  I’m especially interested in how the quality of the parent-child bond can influence many aspects of a child’s life, including how empathic they are when someone is hurt or how jealousy they become when they lose their parent’s attention.  I’m also interested in investigating the many individual and social factors that lead caregivers to approach parenting in different ways.

Areas of interest:

  • Attachment
  • Jealousy, empathy, guilt, forgiveness
  • Cognitive biases of relationships
  • “Helicopter” parenting
  • Mother-child conflict

Publications (Italics* denotes a student co-author):

Murphy, T., McCurdy, K.,* Jehl, B.,* Rowan, M.,* & Larrimore, K.* (2019). Jealousy behaviors in early childhood: Associations with attachment and temperament. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 1-7. doi: 10.1177/0165025419877974

Murphy, T., Jehl, B.,* Hamel, K.,* McCurdy, K.,* & Halt, A.* (2017). The influences of attachment and gender on children’s recall of storybook events. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 63, 543-560.

Murphy, T., Laible., D., & Augustine, M. (2017). Parent versus peer attachment in predicting roles during bullying, Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 1388-1397. doi: 10.1007/s10826-017-0663-2

Raiffe, D.,* & Murphy, T. P. (2016). The role of attachment on adult attitudes toward interacting with children. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 21, 162-169.

Murphy, T. P., Laible, D., Augustine, M., & Robeson, L.* (2015). Attachment’s links with adolescents’ social emotions: The roles of negative emotionality and emotion regulation. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 176, 315-329. doi: 10.1080/00221325.2015.1072082

Laible, D., Carlo, G., Murphy, T., Augustine, M., & Roesch, S. (2014). Predicting children’s prosocial and co-operative behavior from their temperamental profiles: A person-centered approach. Social Development, 23, 734-752. doi: 10.111/sode.12072

Laible, D., & Murphy, T. (2014).  Constructing moral, emotional, and relational understanding in the context of mother-child reminiscing. In Weinraub, C. & Recchia, H. (Eds), Talking about right and wrong: Parent-child conversations as contexts for moral development (pp. 98-121). New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Laible, D., Murphy, T. P., & Augustine, M. (2014). Adolescents’ aggressive and prosocial behavior: Links with social information processing, negative emotionality, moral affect, and moral cognition. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 175, 270-286. doi: 10.1080/00221325.2014.885878

Laible, D., McGinley, M., Carlo, G., Augustine, M., & Murphy, T. (2014). Does engaging in prosocial behavior make you see the world through rose colored glasses? The links between social information processing and prosocial behavior. Developmental Psychology, 50, 872-880. doi: 10.1037/a0033905

Murphy, T. P., & Laible, D. J. (2013). The influence of attachment security on preschool children’s empathic concern. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37, 436-440. doi:10.1177/0165025413487502

Laible, D., Murphy, T. P., & Augustine, M. (2013). Constructing emotional and relational understanding:  The role of mother-child reminiscing about negatively-valenced events. Social Development, 22, 300-318. doi: 10.1111/sode.12022

Laible, D., Murphy, T. P., & Augustine, M. (2013). Predicting the quality of mother-child reminiscing surrounding negative emotional events at 42- and 48-months. Journal of Cognition and Development, 14, 270-291. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2011.645972

Panfile, T. M., & Laible, D. J. (2012). Attachment security and child’s empathy:  The mediating role of emotion regulation. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 58, 1-21. doi: 10.1353/mpq.2012.0003

Panfile, T. M., Laible, D. J., & Eye, J. L. (2012). Conflict frequency within mother-child dyads across contexts:  Links with attachment security and gender. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27, 147-155. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.06.001

Laible, D., Carlo, G., Panfile, T., Eye, J., & Parker, J. (2010). Negative emotionality and Emotion Regulation:  A person-centered approach to predicting socioemotional behavior in young adolescents. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 621-629. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2010.08.003

Laible, D., & Panfile, T. (2009). Mother-child reminiscing in the context of secure attachment relationships:  Lessons in understanding and coping with negative emotion. In J. Quas & R. Fivush (Eds). Emotion and memory in development: Biological, cognitive, and social considerations (pp. 166-195). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326932.003.0007

Laible, D., Panfile, T., & Makariev, D. (2008). The quality and frequency of mother-toddler conflict:  Links with attachment and temperament. Child Development, 79, 426-443. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01134.x

Teaching

  • PSY 112: General Psychology
  • PSY 202: Life-Span Development
  • PSY 209: Statistics & Research Design w/ Lab
  • PSY 294: Special Topics: Prosocial and Moral Behavior
  • PSY 302: Advanced Topics in Developmental Psychology w/ Lab:  Social and Personality Development
  • PSY 302: Advanced Topics in Developmental Psychology w/ Lab:  Attachment Theory & Research
  • FYS 101: Childhood Around the World