Biography: Lene Arnett Jensen

Lene Arnett Jensen is a Senior Research Scientist at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. She received her Ph.D. from the Committee on Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, and did a year of postdoctoral work in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2005-06, she was a Research Fellow with the Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark. She joined the Department of Psychology at Clark University in 2006. In 2010-11, she held the Nehru Distinguished Chair at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in India. In recent years, she has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (2016-17), the University of Bordeaux, France (2017-18), and Tufts University (currently).

The aim of Dr. Jensen’s scholarship and professional collaborations is to move research on human development toward a focus on both what is universal and what is cultural. She is the originator of the “cultural-developmental” theoretical approach to research on human psychology. Unlike one-size-fits-all psychological theories of the 20th century, the cultural-developmental approach provides a flexible and dynamic way to think about psychological development in today’s global world. In Dr. Jensen’s book, Moral Development in a Global World: Research from a Cultural-Developmental Perspective, she argues that humans are born with a shared moral heritage and that, as we develop from childhood into adulthood, we branch off in diverse directions shaped by culture. This results in both novelty and contention (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Dr. Jensen’s other books include The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, which provides an overview of theory and research on human development, with more than 40 chapters drawing together findings from cultures around the world (Oxford University Press, 2016). In The Oxford Handbook of Moral Development: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Dr. Jensen, more than 90 leading authors deliver an international, up-to-date, and comprehensive tour of the field (Oxford University Press, 2020). Dr. Jensen also authors college textbooks on child and lifespan development together with Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Her most recent textbooks are Child Development: A Cultural Approach, 3e (Pearson, 2020), Human Development: A Cultural Approach, 3e (Pearson, 2019) and Child Development Worldwide: A Cultural Approach, 1e (Pearson, 2018).

Dr. Jensen and her colleagues have conducted research with diverse religious, ethnic, and socio-economic groups in countries such as Denmark, India, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. Her current research projects address moral development and cultural identity formation.

From 2004 to 2015, Dr. Jensen was Editor-in-Chief of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. She chaired the 2012 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence in Vancouver, Canada. Currently, she is on the editorial board of Applied Developmental Science and Journal of Adolescent Research.

A native of Denmark, Dr. Jensen has also resided in Belgium, France, and India. She speaks Danish, English and French. She lives in Massachusetts, USA.

For more information: www.LeneArnettJensen.com