Dr. Ford's work focuses on the psychological and social processes contributing to the development of competence in children, adolescents, and adults. He received his Bachelor's degree from Penn State's College of Human Development in 1975, and his Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1980.

Ford's current work addresses the motivational foundations of personality, intelligence, and competence development. He is the creator of Motivational Systems Theory (Motivating Humans: Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs, Sage, 1992), and has developed with co-author C.W. Nichols the Assessment of Personal Goals (www.implicitself.com) to facilitate basic and applied research on motivational processes in education, counseling, and business. He is also co-editor with his father, Donald Ford, of a volume designed to illustrate the utility of a living systems approach for human development researchers and professionals (Humans as Self-Constructing Living Systems: Putting the Framework to Work, Erlbaum, 1987).

During his 13 years at Stanford University Ford received the Division 15 Early Contribution Award (1983) and Division 7's McCandless Young Scientist Award (1987). In 1993 he moved to George Mason University to help facilitate the growth of its Graduate School of Education, where he applies motivational principles on a daily basis in his role as Senior Associate Dean.

• Motivation and competence development
• Social and practical intelligence
• Positive psychology
• Child and adolescent development

• Ford, M.E., & Maher, M.A. (1998). Self-awareness and social intelligence: Search engines, web pages, and navigational control. In M. Ferrari & R. Sternberg (Eds.), Self-Awareness: Its nature and development. New York: Guilford.
• Ford, M.E. (1997). Developmental psychology. In M. Ferrari & G.D. Haertel (Eds.), Educational psychology: Effective practices and policies. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.
• Ford, M.E. (1995). Advances in motivation theory and research: Implications for special education professionals. Intervention in School and Clinic, 31, 70-83.

• Dean's Office
• Educational Psychology

No courses taught this semester.

• Internship in Special Education (EDSE - 790)