Baptiste Barbot, PhD

Dr. Barbot is Assistant Professor of Quantitative Methods in the Department of Psychology at Pace University, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Yale University, Child Study Center. His background is in both Developmental and Differential (Individual Differences) Psychology. He earned his Ph.D. from Paris Descartes University in 2008, after which he pursued his career in the U.S. as a Postdoc Fellow, associate Research Scientist, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Child Study Center. He is also an Associate Editor of APA’s Division 10 Journal, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, as well as Associate Editor of Wiley’s thematic journal, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. His research focuses on the study of development from early adolescence to emerging adulthood with a focus on cognitive (in particular, creative cognition), psychosocial (self and identity), and motivational dimensions that underline this development. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop age-appropriate interventions that support cognitive and psychosocial development of youth in the general community, as well as special needs youth including adolescents with externalizing and delinquency-related behaviors and children and adolescents with mental health needs. His recent research efforts in this direction (funded by the Imagination Institute) have led to the development of a Virtual Reality (VR) based intervention program that engage youth in unusual problem solving, embodied perspective taking, and unfamiliar experiences, to trigger change in their cognitive and psychosocial development. Other ongoing projects currently led by Dr. Barbot include the development of touch-screen based measures of creative cognition (funded by the American Psychological Foundation, David Wechsler Award for Innovative Work in Cognition), and a large longitudinal study on the relation between creative potential and identity challenges of adolescents, including a sub sample of adolescents involved with the juvenile justice system (funded by the Spencer Foundation). Author of several psychometric tests and assessment techniques, he has also strong interest in psychological and educational measurement, and the application of new methods for the study and modeling of change and development. Through his expertise in the matter, he is involved in numerous international projects focusing on mental health and psychosocial adjustment among adolescents and at-risks populations. He has taught developmental psychology, differential psychology, psychometrics, research methods and statistics in both France and the United States.