Elisheva Gross

Academic Coordinator
Senior Continuing Lecturer and Director, Applied Developmental Psychology Minor
Ph.D.: University of California, Los Angeles
Primary Area: Developmental Psychology
Address: 3552 Franz Hall
Email: egross@ucla.edu

Research and Teaching Interests:

Dr. Elisheva Gross directs the UCLA Minor in Applied Developmental Psychology. an intensive undergraduate program dedicated to supporting the development and education of young children and the adults who support them. Dr. Gross has conducted research on links between social environments and adolescent development, in contexts ranging from digital media to diverse junior high and high school settings and the broader cultural context. She has also worked in and with a variety of non-profit community organizations and schools since 1991 to engage people of all ages in creative expression and communication to nurture individual, interpersonal and community development.

Dr. Gross’s passion is to create nurturing and challenging communities of curious, collaborative and diverse learners who teach and learn together through active, authentic, and immersive engagement with the real world around them. She invites students to join her in practicing both rigorous science and respectful, responsive communication with children and adults alike.

Biography:

Dr. Gross received her B.A. in American Studies at Yale and her Ph.D. in Developmental and Social Psychology at UCLA. To complement her scientific training, Dr. Gross has completed ongoing communication training with Play Mountain Place’s Institute for Humanistic Parenting, Resetting the Table, and New Ground. She is currently a UCLA Dialogue across Difference Faculty Fellow. Elisheva’s teaching and curricula have been honored with the Psychology Department Distinguished Teaching Award (2013), the Out of the Box Faculty Fellowship (2020), the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award (2021), and the Life Sciences Excellence in Innovation Award (2023). Dr. Gross recently became the first faculty member in the Psychology department to be promoted to Senior Lecturer. She is also a visual artist and a grateful and  regularly humbled parent of two teenage daughters (and one dog).

Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn.

– Loris Malaguzzi, psychologist, educator, and co-founder of the renowned Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education 

Representative Publications:

Gross, E. F. (2009). Logging on, bouncing back: An experimental investigation of online communication following social exclusion.  Developmental Psychology, 45, 1787-1793.

Juvonen, J. & Gross, E.F. (2008). Extending the school grounds? Bullying experiences in cyberspace. Journal of School Health, 78, 496-505.

Gross, E. F., & Hardin, C.D. (2007).  Implicit and explicit stereotyping of adolescents. Social Justice Research.

Juvonen, J. & Gross, E.F. (2005). The rejected and bullied: Lessons about social misfits from developmental psychology. In Williams, K. D., Forgas, J. P., & von Hippel, W. (Eds.), The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying. London: Psychology Press.

Gross, E. F. (2004). Adolescent Internet use: What we expect, what they report. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 25, 633-649.

Gross, E. F., Juvonen, J. & Gable, S.E. (2002).  Internet use and well-being in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 75-90.