Jean Mercer

Career

From September 1967 to June 1969, Mercer held the position of assistant professor at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. From there, she moved to Buffalo, New York, to serve as assistant professor at State University College, a position she held for two years before taking an assistant professorship at Richard Stockton College (now Stockton University) in Pomona, New Jersey, in September 1974. Mercer remained at the college, attaining a full professorship in 1981, until her retirement in 2006. She is currently professor emerita of psychology at Stockton University.

Mercer is a developmental psychologist who has spent much of her career as an advocate for evidence-based therapy techniques, particularly for children who are adopted or come from the foster care system. She is an outspoken critic of RAD therapies (also known as attachment therapy, rebirthing, compression or coercive restraint therapy) which, she says, are "completely contrary to mainstream medical practice" and are used without empirical support for their efficacy. These therapies, according to Mercer, involve techniques such as restricting food, restraining children so they cannot move and forcing them to do meaningless, difficult chores as punishment, and are practiced by people who "mistakenly equate obedience with attachment." In 2003, Mercer co-wrote Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker, with Larry W. Sarner and Linda A. Rosa. The book is an in-depth exploration into the suffocation of Candace Newmaker, a 10-year-old Colorado girl, during one such session.

Mercer was a consulting reader for articles that appeared in the journal Infants and Young Children (1992–2000), editor for the New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health's newsletter, The Phoenix (1994–1999), and contributor and consulting editor for the Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, a journal published by the Center for Inquiry.

Major works

Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings

In Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings, published by SAGE, Mercer provides readers with 51 essays that challenge or dispel common misconceptions about child development, starting with infancy and moving through the teen years. Mercer makes a distinction among myths (stories we tell ourselves), mistakes (erroneous information) and misunderstandings (misinterpretation of information) that influence how people interpret research involving child development. Topics addressed in the book include: vaccination and autism, sugar and hyperactivity, punishment and changing children's behavior, high-self esteem and student achievement, sudden infant death syndrome, and violence in video games. Mercer also discusses research findings from psychology that were current at the time the book was published, as well as "major gaps in knowledge" that needed further study.

The book is intended to help readers (parents, college students) challenge assumptions rooted in their own childhood experiences and develop critical thinking skills for determining fact from conjecture. Discussion questions, provided after each exposed myth, help with this process.

In its 3rd edition, the book was re-titled Thinking critically about child development: examining myths and misunderstandings.

Understanding Attachment: Parenting, Child Care, and Emotional Development

In Understanding Attachment: Parenting, Child Care, and Emotional Development, published by Praeger, Mercer provides readers with an historical overview of attachment and makes a distinction between "the notion of attachment in many popular theories of parenting" and the "meaning of attachment in developmental psychology." Based on empirical research, Mercer offers insight into attachment issues for children of varying ages (e.g., secure-base behavior, separation anxiety, negotiation of separation) and makes recommendations for creating "attachment friendly" environments for parents (biological or adoptive) and day care providers.

Notable appearances

Television

• The US is becoming more and more supporters of "Attachment Therapy," OneTV, Moscow, Russia (March 3, 2013)
• Attachment Therapy & Russian Adoptees in the USA, Russian Television (February 21, 2013)

Presentations

• "Novel unsupported therapies: pseudoscientific and cult-like characteristics," with M. Pignotti and JD Herbert, International Cultic Studies Conference, Philadelphia, PA (2008)
• "Attachment theory, evidence-based practice, and rogue therapies: using and misusing the concept of attachment," with LA Rosa, RS Pennington, LW Sarner, Wisconsin School Psychology Association, La Crosse, Wisconsin (October 29, 2008)
• Testimony, US House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Human Resources (with LW Sarner), November 20, 2003
• "Unconventional Psychotherapies: Some Questions About Their History," Eastern Psychological Association, Cambridge, MA (2011)
• "Fetal Psychology in Psychohistory: Where it Came From, Where it Went," Eastern Psychological Association, New,(2013)
• "Jirina Prekopova's holding therapy: Scientifically founded or otherwise?," Conference of the International Working Group on Abuse in Child Psychotherapy, London (2013)

Professional societies

• American Psychological Association
• Institute for Science in Medicine (Founding member)
• New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health (1996–2009)
• New Jersey Better Baby Care Campaign Advisory Committee (2002–2003)
• Pennsylvania Association for Infant Mental Health
• Society for Research in Child Development