Abstract: . . .  The programme has undergone a major much-needed restructuring. These impressive advances indicate excellent management of the developmental section and the depart- ment. Unfortunately, though, there still appear to be two separate programmes (social-emotional development and cognitive development) and the cohesion between them is not as good as one might like. The social-emotional sub- programme is well considered, focuses on both normal and abnormal development, studies basic and applied problems and is unique among developmental pro- grammes in focusing on adolescence. The quality of publi- cations in learning and cognitive development was raised as an issue in the previous report. That remains a con- cern. The cognitive development component appears to be largely outside the mainstream of cognitive develop- ment in most psychology departments (as opposed to education departments) and too small (much smaller than the socioemotional component). Recently, the scope and international prominence of the developmental pro- gramme was significantly augmented by incorporating expertise in neuroscientific techniques for developmental research. Two new researchers have strong links to cogni- Page 21 R ESEARCH A SSESSMENT P SYCHOLOGY 19 tive and clinical research that should . . .
. . .  Psychology is steadily moving in the direction of the biological and medical sciences. The Committee describes the department as a beta department within an alpha faculty. The department has a number of internationally recognized senior staff members, talented young researchers, excellent PhD supervision and training via participation in the national graduate schools, a prom- ising research master curriculum, and excellent laboratory facilities. Therefore, the department has great potential for further growth and development, especially in the beta direction. To realize this growth each of the four substan- tive programmes needs more expertise in the biological and medical areas of psychology (including perhaps adding a genetics component), and the Multivariate Analysis programme needs more expertise in the advanced statistical methods for the analysis of psychophysiological and neuroimaging data. Therefore, the Committee recom- mends enlarging the beta funding of the department to a level where it can be competitive with similar departments in the Netherlands and abroad. More of a proportion of the department’s funds needs to be available for research a . . .
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