Thomas J. Bouchard Jr.

Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. (born October 3, 1937) is an American psychologist and geneticist. He is professor emeritus of psychology and director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research at the University of Minnesota. Bouchard received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.[1]

Thomas J. Bouchard Jr.
Born (1937-10-03) October 3, 1937
Manchester, New Hampshire
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forIntelligence, Behavior genetics, Personality
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsUniversity of Minnesota
Doctoral advisorDonald MacKinnon, Harrison G. Gough
Doctoral studentsMatt McGue

Research

Bouchard worked on twin study, particularly as part of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA). This work has included case studies, longitudinal studies, and large-scale quantitative analyses and meta-analyses. These studies attempt to determine to what role genes play medical and psychological outcomes, such as a personality or the heritability of IQ.[2]

One of Bouchard's case studies was Jim Springer and Jim Lewis (so-called Jim twins), twins who had been separated from birth and were reunited at age 39.[2] Bouchard arranged to study the pair, assembling a team and applying for a grant to the Pioneer Fund in 1981. According to The Washington Post, the twins "found they had each married and divorced a woman named Linda and remarried a Betty. They shared interests in mechanical drawing and carpentry; their favorite school subject had been math, their least favorite, spelling. They smoked and drank the same amount and got headaches at the same time of day."[2]

Bouchard has said that these two twins happened to be unusually alike, while most twins show more differences:

"There probably are genetic influences on almost all facets of human behavior, but the emphasis on the idiosyncratic characteristics is misleading. On average, identical twins raised separately are about 50 percent similar -- and that defeats the widespread belief that identical twins are carbon copies. Obviously, they are not. Each is a unique individual in his or her own right.[2]

In 1994, he was one of 52 signatories of Mainstream Science on Intelligence, a public statement written by Linda Gottfredson and published in The Wall Street Journal. This statement was a response to what the authors viewed as the inaccurate and misleading reports made by the media regarding academic consensus on the results of intelligence research in the wake of the appearance of The Bell Curve earlier the same year.[3] The following year, he was part of task force commissioned by the American Psychological Association which released a consensus statement on the state of intelligence research titled Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns.[4]

Bouchard served as Associate Editor for the journals Behavior Genetics and Journal of Applied Psychology.[5]

Bouchard is the author of more than 170 publications.[5] According to the Web of Science, Bouchard's works have been cited over 5500 times and he has an h-index of 33.[6]

Awards

Awards Bouchard has received include:

At the occasion of his retirement, a Festschrift was organized in his honor.[11]

Selected papers

According to the Web of Science, Bouchard's five most cited papers are:[6]

  1. Neisser U, Boodoo G, Bouchard TJ, Boykin AW, Brody N, Ceci SJ, Halpern DF, Loehlin JC, Perloff R, Sternberg RJ, Urbina S (February 1996). "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" (PDF). The American Psychologist. 51 (2): 77–101. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.2.77. (Cited >590 times)
  2. Tellegen A, Lykken DT, Bouchard TJ, Wilcox KJ, Segal NL, Rich S (June 1988). "Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 54 (6): 1031–1039. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.318.4777. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1031. PMID 3397862. (Cited >550 times)
  3. Bouchard TJ, Lykken DT, McGue M, Segal NL, Tellegen A (October 1990). "Sources of human psychological differences: the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart". Science. 250 (4978): 223–8. Bibcode:1990Sci...250..223B. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.225.1769. doi:10.1126/science.2218526. PMID 2218526. (cited >500 times)
  4. Bouchard TJ, McGue M (May 1981). "Familial studies of intelligence: a review". Science. 212 (4498): 1055–9. Bibcode:1981Sci...212.1055B. doi:10.1126/science.7195071. PMID 7195071. (Cited >350 times)
  5. McGue M, Bouchard TJ (July 1984). "Adjustment of twin data for the effects of age and sex". Behavior Genetics. 14 (4): 325–343. doi:10.1007/BF01080045. PMID 6542356. S2CID 45677867. (Cited >250 times)

References
  1. "Thomas J Bouchard Jr.: Psychology : University of Minnesota". psych.umn.edu. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  2. Allen, Arthur (1998-01-15). "Nature & Nurture When It Comes to Twins, Sometimes It's Hard To Tell the Two Apart". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  3. Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). Mainstream Science on Intelligence. Wall Street Journal, p A18.
  4. "Human Intelligence: The APA 1996 Intelligence Task Force Report". Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  5. "Foundation For the Future | Kistler Prize Recipient 2005: Thomas J. Bouchard Jr". Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  6. Web of Science, accessed July 27, 2009
  7. "BGA - Historical table of BGA Meetings". Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  8. "2010 Lifetime Achievement Award". isironline.org. December 12, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  9. "Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology". American Psychologist. 69 (5): 477–479. 2014. doi:10.1037/a0036917. ISSN 1935-990X. PMID 25046706.
  10. "Honoring lifetime accomplishments". apa.org. September 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  11. "THE NATURE, ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE IN BEHAVIOR: A FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOR OF THOMAS J. BOUCHARD JR. 16-17 JUNE 2009 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA". 2009. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
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