Chapter
The Psychology of Genius: Theory Across History
The Psychology of Genius: Historical Methods
2 The Psychobiography of Genius
3 Interviewing Highly Eminent Creators
Why Interview Eminent Creators?
Interview Research on Eminent Creators and Its Place in the Study of Creativity
Major Interview Studies of Eminent Creativity
Anne Roe: the making of a scientist (and artist)
Bernice Eiduson: The Scientist Project
The Institute of Personality Assessment and Research: highly creative persons
Harriet Zuckerman: scientific elite – Nobel laureates in the United States
Albert Rothenberg: studies in the creative process
Vera John-Steiner: Notebooks of the Mind
Nancy Andreasen: creativity and mental illness
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity in Later Life Study
Vera John-Steiner: creative collaborations
Other Interview Research on Creativity
Best Practices for Interviewing Eminent Creators
Getting ready for the interview
4 Psychometric Studies of Scientific Talent and Eminence
Scientific Talent and Eminence Defined
Psychometric Investigations of Scientific Talent and Eminence
Behavioral genetic studies
Developmental studies of scientific talent and eminence
Cognitive studies of scientific talent
Personality studies of scientific interest, talent, and eminence
Social–cultural studies of scientific talent
Summary and Future Directions
5 Historiometric Studies of Genius
Developmental studies of genius
Differential studies of genius
Cognitive studies of genius
Sociocultural studies of genius
6 The Neuroscience of Creative Genius
What Tools from Neuroscience Can Be Used to Study Creativity?
How Should a Neuroscientist Identify Subjects for Study?
What Kinds of Tasks Can Be Used to Assess Creativity Using Neuroimaging Tools?
What Have We Learned from Our Work So Far?
7 Artistic Genius and Creative Cognition
8 Case Studies of Genius: Ordinary Thinking, Extraordinary Outcomes
Extraordinary Thinking As the Basis for Genius-Level Creativity
Associative hierarchies and creativity
Genius-Level Creativity As the Expression of Ordinary Thought Processes
Components of ordinary thinking
Continuity with the Past in Creative Thinking
Learning to be creative: conclusions
Continuity with the past in creative thinking: antecedents to creative advances
Continuity with the past in creative thinking: incremental advances
Continuity in genius-level creativity: conclusions
Structure in the Creative Process
Structured thought in Picasso’s development of Guernica
Antecedents to the structure of Guernica
The psychological links between Minotauromachy and Guernica
Structure in creative thinking: conclusions
Cognitive Components of Creative Thinking: Edison’s Invention of the Light Bulb
Critical analysis and discontinuity in thinking
Cognitive processes in creative thinking: conclusions
External Triggers to Creativity
External triggers in science
Innovation and external events: conclusions
The Ordinary Basis for Creative Thinking: Conclusions and Several Remaining Questions
Implications of the present results for Mednick’s hierarchies
Questions about expertise as the basis for creativity and genius
A Final Question: What Then Is the Basis for Genius?
Computer Examples of Genius
Genius of analytical intelligence
Genius of practical intelligence
11 Cognitive Disinhibition, Creativity, and Psychopathology
Creativity and Creative Genius
Creativity and Mental Disorders Associated with Disinhibition
Creativity and psychosis proneness
Creativity and mood disorders
Creativity and alcohol abuse
The Shared Vulnerability Model of Creativity and Psychopathology
Cognitive disinhibition as a shared vulnerability factor
High IQ as a protective factor
Additional shared vulnerability factors
Additional cognitive protective factors
12 Openness to Experience
Openness and Personality Structure
Stability and developmental course
Case Studies of Personality and Genius
13 Political and Military Geniuses: Psychological Profiles and Responses to Stress
Measuring the Quality of Political and Military Leadership
Subject Selection in this Chapter
Measurement at a Distance
Methodology of the Current Chapter
Hypotheses of the Current Study
Selection and scoring of texts
14 Genetics of Intellectual and Personality Traits Associated with Creative Genius: Could Geniuses Be Cosmobian Dragon Kings?
Classical Quantitative Genetic Models in Humans
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence
Personality and Psychopathology
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Personality and Psychopatholgy
Genetic Influences on Miscellaneous Traits Relevant to Creative Genius
Specific measures of creative personality
The Barron–Welsh Art Scale
Molecular Genetics and Genius
An Aside on Distributions
The not-so-normal normal curve
Are Geniuses Black Swans, Dragon-Kings, or Hopeful Monsters?
The Relevance of Dragon-Kings and Hopeful Monsters to Our Understanding of the Emergence of Creative Genius
Geniuses as statistical dragon-kings
Geniuses as hopeful monsters
Geniuses as dragon-kings emerging through cosmobia?
15 Child Prodigies and Adult Genius: A Weak Link
What Does Giftedness in Visual Art and Music Look Like?
Interest in musical sounds
Musical generativity: ability to transpose, improvise, and compose
The Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Children
Implications for Education and Child Rearing
Childhood Giftedness and Adult Giftedness: No Straight Trajectory
16 Creative Genius: A View from the Expert-Performance Approach
The Traditional View of the Nature of Talent and Creative Genius
A Review of the Expert-Performance Approach
Representative tasks: capture of reproducibly superior expert performance
Analyzing the mechanisms mediating the superior performance
Toward detailed accounts of the development of mechanisms mediating expert performance
Developmental stages of expert performance and pre-existing knowledge
Proposed limits for accounts based on the expert-performance approach
Toward an Expert-Performance Account of Creative Contributions
Developmental trajectories for individuals making creative contributions in science and arts
Capturing the process of generating a particular creative product
Genius and the motivation and drive for sustained focused activity
17 Cognitive Processes and Development of Chess Genius: An Integrative Approach
Previous Attempts to Explain the Existence of Remarkable Achievements in Young Chess Players
Criticisms of the deliberate practice framework
Alternatives to deliberate practice
In Search of a New Model of the Development of Chess Expertise
Cognitive Processes Underlying Chess Expertise
PPP and two simpler models
Conclusions and Future Research
18 Diversifying Experiences in the Development of Genius and their Impact on Creative Cognition
Conclusion and Future Directions
19 The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth at Maturity: Insights into Elements of Genius
The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth
Conceptualizing Talent Development
Constellations of attributes
20 Age and Scientific Genius
Basic Life-Cycle Patterns and Classic Views
The middle and late life cycle
The New Literature: Variation over Time and Across Individuals
Variation across individuals
Field differences reconsidered
Scientific and technological progress
21 Musical Creativity over the Lifespan
Characterizations of Genius
A Qualitative Sketch of Musical Creativity over the Lifespan
Theoretical Perspectives on Lifespan Creativity
Blind variation and selective retention
Limitations of nomothetic models
Moving away from nomothetic explanations: a typological approach
Melodic originality as a lifespan variable
Some Unresolved Issues and Future Directions
The individual within the tradition and the fate of traditions
Conclusion: Wisdom Revisited
22 Literary Geniuses: Their Life, Work, and Death
The Study of Creative Writers
What Constitutes Literary Genius?
The Writer’s Personality, Flow, and Emotions
The Dark Side of Literary Genius
23 Lifetime Biopsychosocial Trajectories of the Terman Gifted Children: Health, Well-Being, and Longevity
Intelligence and School Performance: An Early Life Advantage?
Social skills, social support, and marriage
Mental adjustment and stressful life events
Retirement, health, and longevity
Conclusion: Lifelong Cumulative and Interactional Continuity
24 Evaluating Excellence in the Arts
Formation of a canon: How do artists (or works) attain canonical status?
Aggregating ratings or rankings produced by a jury
Aggregating ratings of properties
Aggregating ratings or rankings of properties produced by a jury
25 The Systems Model of Creativity and Its Applications
A Brief History of the Concept of Creativity
Creativity as a topic in psychology
Systems Model of Creativity
Systems Model of Creativity: Some Research Applications
Systems Model and Construction of Positive Psychology
26 Openness to Scientific Innovation
Planck’s Principle: Age and Receptivity
A Meta-Analytic Approach to Scientific Innovation
Initiators of Scientific Innovations
27 Prominent Modern Artists: Determinants of Creativity
Framework of Econometric Analysis
Location Matters: Peer Effects in the Artistic Clusters of Paris and New York
Artistic Styles and Implications for Creativity
28 Genius in World Civilization
Temporal and Geographic Distribution of Significant Figures and Events from 800 BCE to 1900
Are the inventories Eurocentric?
Testing for Eurocentrism in the STMM inventory
29 Does Genius Science Have a Future History?
Will Empirical and Theoretical Research Continue to Advance?
Issues still pending resolution
Methods still needing full exploitation
Theories still requiring complete development
Will the Phenomenon of Genius Continue to Exist?
Will the Science of Genius Ensure the Continued Existence of Genius?
The Wiley Handbook of Genius
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