On January 28, 2019, the Department of Psychology lost a valued member of our community, Dr. Michael J. Chandler (1938-2019).

Dr. Chandler leaves a lasting legacy and will be remembered by colleagues and students as an intellectual force and valued advisor. His research interests included social-cognitive development in general, and, more particularly, the cross-cultural study of processes of identity formation and their impact on the health and wellbeing on Indigenous youth. His research lead to his twice being named a Distinguished Fellow of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. His widely cited program of research was widely circulated and featured in WHO’s global report on the Social Determinants of Health. These and other efforts earned Dr. Chandler the Killam Memorial Senior Research Prize, the Killam Teaching Prize, to his being named Canada’s only Distinguished Investigator of both the CIHR and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Most recently, he was honoured with APA’s 2018 International Mentorship Award.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to BCSPCA, St. John’s Hospice.

Dr. Chandler’s research involves an exploration of the role culture plays in constructing the course of identity development, shaping young people’s emerging sense of ownership of their personal and cultural past, and their commitment to their own and their community’s future well being.

These efforts have earned Dr. Chandler the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Senior Research Prize, led to his being awarded the Killam Teaching Prize, and resulted in his being named a Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Distinguished Scholar in Residence. His research and scholarly efforts have also resulted in his being appointed as Canada’s only Distinguished Investigator of both the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). Recently, Professor Chandler’s program of research dealing with identity development and suicide in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth was singled out for publication as an invited Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development. His research is funded by CIHR, MSFHR, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and by British Columbia’s Human Early Learning Partnership.

Chandler, M. J. & Lalonde, C. E. (2008). Cultural Continuity as a Protective Factor against Suicide in First Nations Youth. Horizons –A Special Issue on Aboriginal Youth, Hope or Heartbreak: Aboriginal Youth and Canada’s Future. 10 (1), 68-72.

Chandler, M. J., & Proulx, T. (2007). Identity in a Narrative Mode. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 28, (pp. 277-282). Elsevier.

Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J., & Lalonde, C. (2007). Aboriginal language knowledge and youth suicide. Cognitive Development, 22 (3) (pp. 392–399).

Chandler, M. J. (2000). Surviving time: The persistence of identity in this culture and that. Culture and Psychology, 6 (2), 209-231.

Chandler, M. J., & Lalonde, C. (2000). Cultural continuity as a protective factor against suicide in First Nations youth. Lifenotes: A Suicide Prevention and Community Health Newsletter, 5 (1), 10-11.

Chandler, M. J., Sokol, B. W., & Wainryb, C. (2000). Beliefs about truth and beliefs about rightness. Child Development, 71 (1), 91-97.

Monographs:

Chandler, M. J., Lalonde, C., Sokol, B., & Hallett, D. (2003). Personal persistence, identity development, and suicide: A study of native and non-native North American adolescents. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial no. 273, 68 (2).

Chapters:

Chandler, M. J. & Lalonde, C. (in press). Cultural continuity as a moderator of suicide risk among Canada’s First Nations. In L. Kirmayer & G. Valaskakis (Eds.), The Mental Health of Canadian Aboriginal Peoples: Transformations, Identity, and Community. University of British Columbia Press.

Chandler, M. J., & Proulx, T. (2008). Personal Persistence and Persistent Peoples: Continuities in the lives of individual and whole cultural communities. In Sani, F. (Ed.), Self-continuity: Individual and collective perspectives. New York: Psychology Press.

Chandler, M. J. & Proulx, T. (2006). Changing selves in changing worlds: Youth suicide on the fault-lines of colliding cultures, In Suicide among Indigenous Peoples: The Research. Antoon Leenaars, Marlene EchoHawk, David Lester, Lindsey Leenaars, & Elisabeth Haramic, (Eds.) Archives of Suicide Research.

Chandler, M. J. & Proulx, T. (2006). On Committing the Psychologist’s Fallacy and Getting Away With It: Bridging Personal and Cultural Identities. In P.K. Oles & H.J.M. Hermans (Eds.), The Dialogical Self: Theory and Research. Wydawnictwo KUL.

Chandler, M. J., & Lalonde, C. (2004). Transferring whose knowledge? Exchanging whose best practices?: On knowing about indigenous knowledge and aboriginal suicide. In J. White, P. Maxim, & D. Beavon (Eds.), Aboriginal Policy Research: Setting the Agenda for Change, Vol.II. (pp.111-123) Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing.

Chandler, M., Lalonde, C., & Teucher, U. (2004). Culture, continuity, and the limits of narrativity: A comparison of the self-narratives of Native and Non-Native youth. In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.), Narrative Analysis: Studying the Development of Individuals in Society (pp. 245-265). New York: Sage Publications.

Lalonde, C., & Chandler, M. J., (2004). Culture, selves, and time: Theories of personal persistence in Native and non-Native youth. In C. Lightfoot, C. Lalonde, & M. Chandler (Eds.), Changing Conceptions of Psychological Life: Vol. 30. Jean Piaget Symposium Series. (pp.207-229). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Sokol, B. & Chandler, M. (2004). A bridge too far: On the relations between moral and secular reasoning. In J. I. M. Carpendale & U. Müller (Eds.), Social interaction and the development of knowledge (pp. 154-174). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Sokol, B. W., Chandler, M. J., & Jones, C. (2004). From mechanical to autonomous agency: The Relationship Between Children’s Moral Judgments and Their Developing Theories of Mind. In J. A. Baird & B. W. Sokol (Eds.), New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development: Connections between theories of mind and socio-moral development, 103, (pp.19-36). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Chandler, M. J., & Sokol, B. W. (2003). Level this, level that: The place of culture in the construction of the self. In C. Raeff & J. B. Benson (Eds.), Social and cognitive development in the context of individual, social, and cultural processes (pp. 191-216). New York: Taylor & Francis.

Sameroff, A. J., & Chandler, M. J. (2003). Reproductive risk and the continuum of caretaking causality. Reprinted In W. E. Dixon, Twenty studies that revolutionized child psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Chandler, M. J. (2001). Perspective taking in the aftermath of theory-theory and the collapse of the social role-taking enterprise. In A. Tryphon & J. Voneche (Eds.), Working with Piaget: Essays in honour of Barbel Inhelder (pp. 39-63). London, UK: Psychology Press.

Chandler, M. J. (2001). The study of children’s theories of mind: Rehabilitating a Piagetian account of developmental changes in the understanding of mental life. In S. L. Fernande & J. A. Castorinia (Eds.), Jean Piaget: Homenaje Latino Americano. Buenos Aires, Argentina: University of Buenos Aires Press.

Chandler, M. J. (2001). The time of our lives: Self-continuity in Native and Non-Native youth. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (28, pp.175-221). New York: Academic Press.

Chandler, M. J., Sokol, B. W., & Hallett, D. (2001). Agency, responsibility and intentional action: The role of intentions in the casting of blame. In L. Moses, D. Baldwin, & A. Malle (Eds.), Intentions and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition (pp. 345-366). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chandler, M. J., Lalonde, C. E., & Sokol, B. W. (2000). Continuities of selfhood in the face of radical developmental and cultural change. In L. Nucci, G. Saxe, & E. Turiel (Eds.), Culture, thought, and development (pp. 65-84). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• American Psychological Association Mentor Award (2017)
• Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies – Distinguished Scholar in Residence (1999 & 2012)
• Killam Faculty Research Prize (1990)
• Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award (2001)