Ph.D., Psychology, UCLA
B.A., Psychology, Princeton University
Melissa Hines specialises in human gender development and is a Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Hormones and Behaviour Research Lab at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include hormonal influences on human neural and behavioral development across the lifespan, and interactions between hormones, prenatally, and experience, postnatally, in shaping behaviour. Specific questions being addressed in her lab include how hormone levels during foetal development influence children’s sex-typed toy, playmate and activity preferences; whether children’s cognitive understanding of gender mediates hormonal influences on behavior; how to optimise psychological well being in individuals exposed to atypical hormone environments prenatally, because they have disorders of sex development (DSD).