Peggy J. Miller

Professor
Joint appointment in Psychology

Curriculum Vitae

Education: Ph.D., Columbia University

Research Interests: Variation in communication within and across cultures; early socialization; everyday discourse; cultural psychology; ethnographic methods.

Current Research: One strand in Professor Miller's current work examines everyday narrative practices: how they are defined and organized in different cultural groups, how they are acquired, and the role they play in self construction. This work is comparative in design, involving working-class and middle-class families in the U.S. as well as Chinese families in Taiwan. A related strand of research focuses on Americans' preoccupation with self-esteem. In an effort to understand the meanings and discourses associated with this cultural ideal, Professor Miller examines mothers' and grandmothers' folk theories of child rearing and self-esteem and compares them with Taiwanese folk theories.

Representative Recent Publications:

Alexander, K.J., Miller, P.J., & Hengst, J.A. (2001). Young children's emotional attachments to stories. Social Development, 10(3), 374-398.

Miller, P.J., Sandel, T., Liang, C-H, & Fung, H. (2001). Narrating transgressions in Longwood: the discourses, meanings, and paradoxes of an American socializing practice. Ethos, 29(2), 1-27.

Van Deusen Phillips, S.B., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Miller, P.J., (2001). Watching stories, seeing worlds: Similarities and differences in the cross-cultural narrative development of linguistically isolated deaf children. Human Development, 44, 311-336.

Burger, L. K., & Miller, P. J. (1999). Early talk about the past revisited: A comparison of working-class and middle-class families. Journal of Child Language, 26, 1-30.

Wiley, A.R., Rose, A. J., Burger, L. K., & Miller, P. J. (1998). The construction of autonomy through narrative practices: A comparative study. Child Development, 69, 833-847.