Gisela Labouvie-Vief of Royal Oak has received a Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award from Wayne State University, where she is a professor in the psychology department.

The honor, which includes a $2,500 cash award, goes to faculty members whose research, scholarship and teaching have brought distinction to Wayne State University's graduate programs.

Labouvie-Vief, an expert in the study of life-span development, is the author of a book, Psyche and Eros. Her pioneering work in the effects of intellectual training for the elderly and in the relationships of cognitive and emotional development have shaped the way psychologists think about adult development.

She joined the WSU faculty as an associate professor in 1976. Prior to that she taught at Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago.

She holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Saarland in Germany and a doctoral degree in developmental psychology from West Virginia University.