Dr. Raha Hassan C.Psych.

  Curriculum Vitae /  (PDF file) Click Here to View > (opens in new window) 

Biography: 

Dr. Raha Hassan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), a registered clinical psychologist in Ontario, and the director of the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEW) lab. Prior to joining TMU, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western University from 2023 to 2026. Dr. Hassan received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from McMaster University under the mentorship of Dr. Louis Schmidt and completed her predoctoral residency at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.

Dr. Hassan and her research team examine children’s social and emotional development, with a particular focus on temperamental shyness, self-regulation, and interpersonal dynamics, and whether and how relations depend on contextual factors on a small and large scale. One stream of her program, for example, uses a strengths-based approach to understand first-generation immigrant children’s friendship formation and positive social adjustment. Dr. Hassan typically integrates a multimethod approach to addressing these questions, but emphasizes naturalistic observation of behavior in her research. Dr. Hassan’s research program has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Recent Publications:

Lacroix, P. J., Sangha, R., Poole, K. L., Schmidt, L. A., Hassan, R. (2025). What do we think of shy adults? Influence of one’s own shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.70020.

Hassan, R., & Schmidt, L. A. (2024). A dyadic investigation of shy children's behavioral and affective responses to delivering a speech. Developmental Science, e13558. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13558

Hassan, R. & Schmidt, L.A. (2024). Shyness and inhibitory control in preschool dyads: An actor partner model of social behavior. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001663

Hassan, R. & Schmidt, L.A. (2024). How biology shapes the development of shyness within specific contexts: A longitudinal, cross-lagged investigation. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001656

Hassan, R., Smith, C.L., Schmidt, L.A., Brook, C.A., & Bell, M.A. (2023). Developmental patterns of shyness from two to six years: Relations with children’s physiological, emotional, and regulatory responses to unfair treatment. Child Development, 94, 1745–1761. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13961

Hassan, R., & Schmidt, L. A. (2023). Shyness, inhibitory control, and social support seeking in preschoolers: Role of familiar and unfamiliar contexts. Emotion, 23, 1373–1384. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001166

Poole, K.L., Hassan, R., Schmidt, L.A. (2022). Two-factor structure of social-evaluative fear in children: Distinguishing fear of negative and positive evaluation in social anxiety. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 44, 800–810. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-022-09968-6

Hassan, R. & Schmidt, L.A. (2022). Inhibitory control, dyadic social behavior, and mental health difficulties in preschoolers. Child Development, 93, e251–e265. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13725

Hassan, R. & Schmidt, L.A. (2021). Trajectories of behavioral avoidance in real time: Associations with temperament and physiological dysregulation in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209, 105177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105177 [PDF]

Hassan, R., Willoughby, T., & Schmidt, L.A. (2021). Shyness and prosocial tendencies during adolescence: Prospective influence of two types of self-regulation. Emotion, 21, 1721–1730. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000986

Poole, K.L., Hassan, R., & Schmidt, L.A. (2021). Temperamental shyness, frontal EEG theta/beta ratio, and social anxiety in children. Child Development, 92, 2006–2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13564

Hassan, R., Willoughby, T., & Schmidt, L.A. (2021). Development of shyness across adolescence: Reactivity, regulation, or both? Developmental Psychology, 57, 421–431. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001159