Thalia Goldstein

Dr. Thalia R. Goldstein is Associate Professor and Director of Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University. Her work focuses on children's developing social and emotional skills, particularly theory of mind, empathy, and emotional control and regulation, and how such skills intersect with children's engagement in pretend play, theatre, drama, and other imaginative activities. She directs the PLAY Lab (Play, Learning, Arts, and Youth Lab), which conducts research that looks both at the effects of engaging in pretend play and theatre on children's social-emotional skills, and how children understand and learn social information in fictional worlds. She is also the co-director of the National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab, the Mason Arts Research Center (MasonARC) and the co-editor of the APA Division 10 Journal, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity & The Arts. Her work has been funded by NSF, NEA, and The John Templeton Foundation amongst others and published in the journal Developmental Psychology, Child Development, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, and Developmental Review. Her work on theatre, acting, and children's understanding of fictional characters such as Santa Claus has been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine, and others.