TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama psychology department will host the annual Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture on Friday, May 5 featuring guest speaker Dr. Dean Keith Simonton who will discuss “Great Psychologists: The Scientific Analysis of Psychology’s Past and Present to Predict Its Future” at 7 p.m. in 208 Gordon Palmer on campus.
Simonton is a distinguished professor in the department of psychology at the University of California-Davis. He received his doctoral degree in social psychology from Harvard University in 1975.
Simonton’s research focuses on genius, creativity, leadership, talent and esthetics. He uses a variety of research methods, including mathematical models, computer simulation and laboratory experiments.
Most of his studies are historiometric in that they apply advanced statistics to biographical, historical and content analytical data about eminent creators and leaders. Using this approach, he has examined: the relation between age and achievement; the personality traits and societal context behind presidential leadership; the developmental and career factors underlying scientific creativity; determinants of military genius; and, the factors responsible for multiple discoveries.
Simonton is a member of the editorial boards of the Creativity Research Journal, Empirical Studies of the Arts, Review of General Psychology, Political Psychology, Journal of Creative Behavior, Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts, and Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving.
The Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the UA department of psychology in memory of Harold Basowitz who came to UA in 1940 and remained until called into military service. Basowitz returned to Tuscaloosa in 1946 and received his undergraduate degree from UA in 1947.
The lecture is open to the public.
Contact
Beth Stephenson or Linda Hill, UA Media Relations, 205/348-8325, lhill@ur.ua.edu