Interests
Genius, creativity, leadership, and aesthetics – the cognitive, dispositional, developmental, and sociocultural factors behind eminence, giftedness, and talent in science, philosophy, literature, music, art, cinema, politics, and war, with the greatest emphasis on scientific genius.
Archival data analysis – cross-cultural, transhistorical, biographical, and content analytical measures, with special stress on the historiometric analyses of eminent personalities, creative products, and notable events.
History of psychology – including analyses from the standpoint of the psychology of science, especially the psychology of distinguished scientists and eminent psychologists.
Publications
Published and forthcoming contributions include 14 books (11 sole authored, 1 edited, 1 co-edited, and 1 author-reprint collection):
165 book chapters in edited volumes (including 56 in handbooks),
56 entries in 30 different encyclopedias, and
356 contributions (179 full articles and 178 commentaries, replies, editorials, interviews, book and film reviews, etc.) in 136 journals, annuals, and other periodicals, among them (grouped approximately by discipline and subdiscipline):
Psychological Review (3), Psychological Bulletin (5), Psychological Methods (1), American Psychologist (3), Review of General Psychology (12), Annual Review of Psychology (1), Perspectives on Psychological Science (6), Psychological Science (1), Current Directions in Psychological Science (1), Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (1), Psychological Inquiry (6), International Journal of Psychology (2), American Journal of Psychology (3), The Psychologist (1), Pszichológia (2), Bulletin de Psychologie (1), New Ideas in Psychology (1), Frontiers in Psychology (2), Teaching of Psychology (2), Contemporary Psychology-PsycCRITIQUES (43), The General Psychologist (4), Monitor on Psychology (1), Observer (1), The National Psychologist (1), Psych-Talk (1), North American Journal of Psychology (1), Psychological Reports (2), Advances in Psychology Research (1), Scientific American Mind (2) / Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (21), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (1), Social and Personality Psychology Compass (2), Social Behavior and Personality (5), Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2), European Review of Social Psychology (1), Journal of Social Psychology (1), Journal of Applied Social Psychology (1), Psychology and Marketing (1), Journal of Personality (7) / Developmental Psychology (1), Developmental Review (2), Annals of Child Development (1), Psychology and Aging (1), International Journal of Aging and Human Development (3), Genetic Psychology Monographs (1), Gerontologist (1), Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging (1) / History of Psychology (2), Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (2) / Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (2) / Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (3) / Sex Roles (3), Social Forces (1), Social Science Quarterly (1), Behavior Science Research (1) / Political Psychology (6), Leadership Quarterly (3), Political Behavior (1), Presidential Studies Quarterly (1) / Intelligence (3), Journal of Intelligence (1) / Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (14), Creativity Research Journal (15), Journal of Creative Behavior (13), Thinking Skills and Creativity (1), International Journal of Creativity & Problem Solving (2), Creativity: Theories-Research-Applications (3), Journal of Genius and Eminence (3) / Gifted Child Quarterly (3), Roeper Review: A Journal on Gifted Education (3), Journal for the Education of the Gifted (1), High Ability Studies (2), Gifted and Talented International (2), Gifted Education International (1), Mensa Research Journal (1) / Scientometrics (4), Social Studies of Science (3), Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society (2), Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology (1), Kexue Xue Yu Kezue Jishu Guanli (1) / Empirical Studies of the Arts (11), Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts (2), Psychology of Popular Media Culture (1), The Amplifier (2), Poetics (2), Computers and the Humanities (1), Royal Academy of Arts Magazine (1) / Psychology of Music (2), Music Perception (1) / Perception (1) / Journal of Applied Psychology (1), Journal of Vocational Behavior (2), Administrative Science Quarterly (1), Management and Organization Review (1) / Psychiatric Times (2), Behaviour Research and Therapy (1), Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought (1), Clio’s Psyche (3), Los Angeles Psychologist (1), Applied & Preventive Psychology: Current Scientific Perspectives (1) / Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (1), Comparative Civilizations Review (1) / Research in Multi-Level Issues (1) / Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1) / Physics of Life Reviews (5), Czechoslovak Journal of Physics (1) / IEEE Potentials (1) / JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association (2), Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1), Quarterly Review of Biology (1), Behavioral and Brain Sciences (6), Politics and the Life Sciences (1), Journal of Social and Biological Structures (1), Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience (1) / Nature (1), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (1), The Scientist (1), Nautilus (1), Qeios (1) / Mosaic: Advancing Jewish Thought (1) / Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives (1), and Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) (1).
Recognition
Research Career Awards:
Ernest R. Hilgard Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for General Psychology, Division 1 – American Psychological Association (APA, 2023)[announcement];
Rudolf Arnheim Award for Outstanding Achievement, “for his path breaking use of archival and historiometric methods to elucidate the cognitive, developmental, and socio-cultural sources of creativity and genius,” Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, Division 10 – APA (1996);
Sir Francis Galton Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Study of Creativity, “contributed to the field of empirical aesthetics in his writings by referring to psychological theories of different areas, especially theories of creativity, personality and their related to the arts, their creation and reception,” International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (1996);
Henry A. Murray Award, for “distinguished contributions to the study of individual lives and whole persons,” Association for Research in Personality and the Society for Personology (2014) [citation];
Joseph B. Gittler Award for “the most scholarly contribution to the philosophical foundation of psychological knowledge,” American Psychological Foundation ($10,000 prize; 2013) [nomination];
E. Paul Torrance Award, Creativity Network, for significant contributions that facilitate “the enhancement and spread of creativity, especially among gifted children, and who are themselves creative thinkers,” National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC, 2010);
President’s Award (NAGC, 2007);
Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Media Psychology Award, Society for Media Psychology and Technology, Division 46 – APA (2013) [nomination];
Mensa Lifetime Achievement Award, “for contributions to the field of human intelligence,” Mensa Foundation (2019). [citation]
Research Publication Awards:
William James Book Award, Society for General Psychology, Division 1 – APA (2000);
George A. Miller Outstanding Article Award, Society for General Psychology, Division 1 – APA (1997);
Theoretical Innovation Prize, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Division 8 – APA (2004; since 2013 named after Daniel M. Wegner);
Mensa Award for Excellence in Research, Mensa Education & Research Foundation and Mensa International, Ltd. (with A. V. Song; 2011);
Mensa Award for Excellence in Research, Mensa Education & Research Foundation and Mensa International, Ltd. (2009);
Mensa Award for Excellence in Research, Mensa Education & Research Foundation (1986);
Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Honorable Mention, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Division 9 – APA (1997).
Scientific Society Presidencies:
Society for General Psychology, Division 1 – APA (2011-12);
Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, Division 10 – APA (1985-86);
Society for the History of Psychology, Division 26 – APA (2023);
International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (1998-2000).
Scientific Society Fellow Elections:
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998);
Fellow, APA (1983), 12 Divisions:
1 – Society for General Psychology (1995);
5 – Quantitative and Qualitative Methods (2002);
7 – Developmental Psychology (2000);
8 – Society for Personality and Social Psychology (1988);
9 – Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (1989);
10 – Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (1983);
20 – Adult Development and Aging (1994);
24 – Society for Philosophical and Theoretical Psychology (2006);
26 – Society for the History of Psychology (2015);
46 – Society for Media Psychology and Technology (2011);
52 – International Psychology (2013); see below for 2 – Society for the Teaching of Psychology;
Fellow, Association for Psychological Science (1990);
Fellow, International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (1998);
Fellow, Western Psychological Association (2010);
Charter Fellow, American Association of Applied and Preventative Psychology (1992).
Distinguished APA Convention Lectures:
Arthur W. Staats Lecture for Unifying Psychology, American Psychological Foundation (APF, 2017; cancelled due to family emergency);
Master Lecturer, Personality and Individual Differences, Board of Scientific Affairs, APA (2009);
Esther Katz Rosen Fund Lecture on Gifted Children and Adolescents, APF (1994).
Miscellaneous Research Honors:
Festschrift and Lifetime Achievement Award, Creativity Conference, Southern Oregon University, Ashland (2019);
UC Davis Prize for Teaching and Scholarly Achievement (1994; $25,000 award, now $60,000);
Member, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society (1987);
Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation (1970-1972).
Google Scholar Citations [site/errata]:
Total citations: 37,899* (single year max of 2405 in 2021); Total cited publications: > 470
h-index: 94 = the largest number h such that these h publications have h or more citations;
i10-index: 316 = the number of publications with 10 or more citations
(251 > 20; 86 > 100; 38 > 200; 12 > 500; 6 > 1000; 2 > 1500; most cited = 1909*).
N.B.: Given deficiencies in Google’s algorithms, their citation counts are not positive monotonic functions of time. Hence, those counts can sometimes illogically decrease since the last update of this webpage (above statistics from 4/2/2024).
*Both total citations and most cited had to be manually adjusted downward to remove thousands of incorrect attributions and merged citations (viz. neither 43,177 nor 6917, respectively). The former statistic is now an undercount by perhaps a thousand citations. Given that Google can’t figure out who wrote what even when there’s nothing more obvious from the online record, many citations represent analogs of AI “hallucinations.”
Membership
American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow);
American Psychological Association (Fellow in Divisions 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 24, 26, 46, and 52);
Association for Psychological Science (Fellow);
American Association of Applied and Preventative Psychology (Fellow);
Western Psychological Association (Fellow);
International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (Fellow);
International Society of Political Psychology;
Association for Research in Personality;
Sigma Xi.
Presentations
Associations/Societies – Council of Scientific Society Presidents, International Congress of Psychology, International Congress of Applied Psychology, International Centre for Innovation in Education, International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, International Society of Political Psychology, International Association of Empirical Aesthetics, International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology, Sociedad Interamericana de Psicología, International Leadership Association, International Society for Intelligence Research, Max Planck Society, History of Science Society, Association for Research in Personality, Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics, World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, Association for Psychological Science, Canadian Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, American Political Science Association, American Sociological Association, American Educational Research Association, Gerontological Society of America, National Association for Gifted Children, Society of Personality and Social Psychology, Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Association for Research in Personality, Western Psychological Association, Southwestern Psychological Association;
Colleges/Universities – Harvard (Business Administration, Education, Psychology), Yale, Pennsylvania, Stanford, California (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz), Michigan, Michigan State, Göttingen, British Columbia (Green College, Psychology), Pittsburgh, University of Southern California (Music, International Studies), New York University, Rice, National Defense, Iowa, Florida State, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada (Reno), Alabama, Mississippi State Alaska, Texas A&M International, San José State; Colleges – Occidental, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer; Medical College of Wisconsin;
Institutions/Events – Karolinska Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, National Academy of the Sciences, World Science Festival, National Bureau of Economic Research, Santa Fe Institute, European Science Days, 92 Y, Commonwealth Club, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milken Family Foundation, Belin(-Blank) National Center for Gifted Education, Center for Creative Leadership, Creative Education Foundation, Positive Psychology Center, Torrance Center, Delta Center, Southern Oregon Creativity Conference, Cleveland Clinic, Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab.