Topic Outlines

I. Origins of term

A. Roman etymology
B. Romantic expansion
C. Psychometric measurement
D. Historiometric assessment

A. Leadership
B. Creativity

IV. Critical questions

Greatness: pp. 3-6, 410-12 / Exam Questions 1,2,4

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I. Introduction

A. The problem: How to assess the magnitude of genius
B. A solution: Armchair evaluations
C. Some objections

A. Polls

1. Surveys of the experts: Reputation
2. Surveys of the masses: Popularity

B. Archives

1. Examples

a. Performance frequencies
b. Space measures
c. Citation indicators

2. Evaluation

A. Scales of measurement: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio
B. Adequacy of measurement: Reliability and Validity

Greatness: pp. 6-8, 339-40 / Exam Question 1,4

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I. The nature of the technique

A. The logic of causal inference
B. The asset of laboratory studies

A. Gestalt school

1. Insight experiments
2. Functional fixedness
3. Incubation periods
4. Optimal representations

B. Information-processing school

1. Reasoning processes

a. Deductive reasoning
b. Inductive reasoning

2. Problem-solving processes

a. Problem types
b. Tactics
c. Protocol analysis

A. Individual differences
B. Social processes

A. The optimistic implications
B. The pessimistic reality

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I. Early antecedents: Can machines emulate the mind?
 

A. From calculators to computers

1. Arithmetic machines: Abacus to Pascal
2. Programmable computers: Babbage & Ada to ENIAC

B. The emergence of the Artificial Intelligence movement

1. Information theory and cybernetics
2. General problem solvers

A. Expert systems

1. Examples: COOKER & MYCIN
2. Criticism

1. Rival approaches

a. Knowledge-based (expert) programming
b. Power (brute-force) programming

2. Specific manifestation: DEEP BLUE
3. Critique: Is DEEP BLUE a chess genius?

1. Basic assumption: Genius = Problem solving writ large
2. Examples: BACON, GLAUBER, STAHL, DALTON, etc.
3. Evaluation

Greatness: pp. 87-92 / Exam Question 1,4

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I. Goal of the technique

II. Documents and products

A. Documents
B. Products

1. Written works
2. Visual creations
3. Musical compositions

A. Subjective assessments: Human judges

1. Schemes inspired by standard psychometric instruments
2. Schemes devised specifically for content analysis

B. Objective counts: Computer programs

1. Verbal materials
2. Nonverbal materials

A. Cons

1. Application
2. Definition
3. Effort
4. Validity

B. Pros

1. Diversity
2. Uniqueness
3. Unobstrusiveness
4. Computerizability

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I. The nature of psychometrics

A. Test types

1. Individual vs. group tests
2. Single vs. multiple dimensions
3. Cognitive vs. personality measures

B. Test construction

1. Collecting items
2. Demonstrating their cohesion
3. Assessing reliability
4. Establishing validity

A. Historical origins: Whence came the IQ?

1. Francis Galton’s Anthropometric Laboratory
2. Alfred Binet’s test & the Stanford-Binet IQ
3. Subsequent developments

B. Current controversies: What does IQ mean?

1. Dimensionality: Single vs. multiple intelligences?
2. Etiology: Genetic vs. experiential causes?
3. Meaning: Technology vs. theory?
4. Implications: Scholastic vs. real-life success?

C. Recent developments: Where are IQ tests going?

A. Ethnocentric biases
B. Personal idiosyncrasies

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I. Advantages of approach
 

A. Developmental norms
B. Individual differences

A. Background
B. The series of inquiries

1. Method

a. The sample
b. The measures

2. Results

a. Volume 1: Gifted Children

i. Family background
ii. Physique and health
iii. Educational history
iv. Childhood interests & preoccupations
v. Character tests
vi. Trait ratings

b. Volume 3: The Promise of Youth
c. Volume 4: The Gifted Child Grows Up
d. Volume 5: The Gifted Group at Mid-life

3. Current status

A. Expense
B. Attrition
C. Measurement

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I. Antecedents: Quetelet, Galton, & Cattell

II. Definition: Frederick Woods

III. Classic example: Catharine Cox’s (1926) Early Mental Traits

A. Impetus for the inquiry

1. Terman’s (1917) IQ estimate for Galton
2. Terman’s longitudinal study & the missing volume

B. The measures

1. IQ measurement

a. Sample criteria
b. Data compilation
c. Score calculation

2. Character measurement

a. Sample truncation
b. Measures: 67 traits

C. Conclusions

1. IQ consequences

a. Contrasts among domains of achievement
b. Relation between IQ & eminence

2. Character consequences

a. Personality profiles across domains
b. The role of personality in attaining fame

Greatness: pp. 143-44, 223-27 / Exam Questions 1,2,3,4

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I. The mathematical sciences: The Pythagorean tradition
 

A. The importance of mathematics in the "exact" sciences
B. The historical origins of this idea

1. Ancient Greeks: Pythagoras, Euclid, & Ptolemy
2. Scientific revolution: Copernicus, Kepler, & Galileo

A. Isaac Newton’s 1687 Mathematical Principles

1. Celestial mechanics from terrestrial mechanics
2. Approach: Definitions, axioms, lemmas, theorems
3. Exemplar for the mathematical sciences

B. General procedure: 3 steps

1. Formulation
2. Solution
3. Application

C. Types of models: Deterministic vs. probabilistic

A. The problem: Relation between IQ and leadership/creativity
B. The model’s central assumptions
C. Four successive models

1. Intellectual superiority
2. Comprehension factor
3. Criticism factor
4. Intellectual stratification

Greatness: pp. 233-37 / Exam Question 2,4

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I. Goal: a "Creativity Quotient" or CQ

II. Types & examples

A. Cognitive style: How do creator’s think?

1. Verbal tests

a. Remote associates
b. Word associations
c. Fable endings
d. Consequences

2. Visual tests

a. Ingenuity
b. Unusual uses
c. Product improvement
d. Pattern meanings

B. Personality disposition: What makes creators tick?

1. Preference for complexity: Barron-Welsh Art Scale
2. Self-concept: The ACL CPS
3. Values & interests: How Do You Think Scale

C. Biographical background: Where are creators’ roots?

D. Creative achievement: By their fruits shall we know them?

A. Divergent validity
B. Convergent validity
C. Predictive validity
D. Construct validity

Greatness: pp. none (take a break from reading!) / Exam Questions 1,2,4

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I. The approach & its ambition

A. Sample contemporary celebrities
B. Subject them to extensive assessment, including:

1. Standard personality measures
2. Group & individual interviews
3. Observer-based ratings from multiple assessors
4. Biographical inventories & other miscellany

A. Solo inquiries: Anne Roe’s (1953) The Making of a Scientist

1. Selection
2. Interview & assessment
3. Specific results

a. Intelligence
b. Thinking habits
c. Projective measures
d. Life histories

4. General portrait

B. Institutional inquiries: The IPAR tradition at UCB

1. Frank Barron’s professional writers
2. Ravenna Helson’s women mathematicians
3. Donald MacKinnon’s illustrious architects

A. Richness of data
B. Resources
C. Applicability
D. Intrusiveness

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I. The information-processing perspective

A. Key to understanding genius: Learning how data are manipulated

1. Creativity:  work on problem solving
2. Leadership: work on integrative complexity

B. Two methodological approaches

1. The psychometric: Paragraph Completion Test
2. The content analytical adaptation of the PCT

A. Performance

1. Revolutionary success
2. Military prowess
3. Election victory

B. Decision making

1. Responding to crises
2. Anticipating crises

a. Groupthink
b. Surprise attacks

C. Ideology & policy

1. Isolationism
2. Ideologues

a. Elected officials
b. Supreme court justices
c. Soviet politicians

Greatness: pp. 78-81, 208, 326-28, 355-62 / Exam Question 2,4

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I. The Thematic Appercepton Test (TAT) revisited

A. Murray’s (1938) Explorations in Personality
B. TAT projective measure

1. Achievement motive (nAch)
2. Affiliation motive (nAff)
3. Power motive (nPower)

C. Application to content analysis of archival materials ®

1. Motivation in history
2. Two programs: Economic vs. political leadership

A. Economic leadership: Achievement motivation & prosperity

1. Classic theory: M. Weber’s "Protestant work ethic"
2. Modern revision: nAch and entrepreneurial capitalism
3. Tests: McClelland’s (1961) The Achieving Society

a. Cross-cultural: preliterate & industrial
b. Transhistorical: from Greece to the U.S.A.

B. Political leadership: Power motivation & performance

1. Winter’s (1973) Power Motive

a. The Don Juan theme in national literatures
b. Motive imagery in presidential inaugural addresses

2. Motivation & performance in the U.S. presidency
3. Further extensions of technique

Greatness: pp. 123-34, 136-38, 407-08 / Exam Questions 2,3,4

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I. The mad-genius controversy

A. History of the debate
B. Psychiatrists vs. humanistic psychologists

A. Historiometric studies

1. Lists
2. Percentages
3. Profiles

B. Psychometric studies

1. Personality: 16 PF, EPQ, & MMPI
2. Cognition

a. Increased allusive thought & overinclusion
b. Reduced latent inhibition

C. Psychiatric studies

1. Clinical diagnoses
2. Congenital disorders

A. How precise are the diagnostic categories?
B. Talking about half empty vs. half full?
C. What pathology is most strongly associated with genius?
D. How does the incidence vary across achievement domains?
E. What is the role of genetic inheritance?
F. How are the factors causally connected?

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I. Fundamental question: An optimal age for genius?

A. When does achievement begin?
B. When does achievement peak?
C. When does achievement end?

A. Creativity

1. History of research
2. Central results

a. Typical age curve
b. Interdisciplinary differences

B. Leadership

1. Measurement problem
2. Some characteristic results
3. Contrasts among leadership domains

a. Religious leaders
b. Political leaders

4. Parallel contrasts in life span

A. Quality not quantity?
B. Differential competition?
C. Aggregation errors?

V. Conclusion

Greatness: pp. 180-215 / Exam Questions 2,3

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I. Introduction: The Ortega hypothesis

II. The productive elite: Productivity as the hallmark of creative genius

A. The cross-sectional distribution

1. The Dennis percentages
2. The Lotka law
3. The Price law

B. Theoretical explanations

1. Upper tail of normal distribution?
2. Cumulative advantage?
3. Multiplicative functions?
4. Combinatory model?

A. Typology: Prolific, Silent, Perfectionists, and Mass-Producers
B. The facts and their implications

A. The three logical components

1. Precocity, longevity, & output rate
2. Their mathematical independence
3. Yet their empirical correlation

B. Theoretical interpretations

1. Cumulative advantage
2. Combinatorial process

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I. Historical antecedents

A. The foundation

1. Philosophical aesthetics from Plato to Kant
2. Experimental aesthetics: Fechner

a. Elements of Psychophysics (1860)
b. Study of the Golden Section (1865)
c. Study of Holbein’s Madonna (1871)
d. Elements of Aesthetics (1876)

B. Modern developments

1. Production
2. Perception
3. Judgment ->

A. The basic paradigm

1. The theory: hedonic value & arousal potential
2. The research: art-like stimuli & preferences

B. Three classic examples

1. Visual arts: Francès (1976)
2. Music: Steck & Machotka (1975)
3. Literature: Kamman (1966)

A. Accomplishments
B. Liabilities

Greatness: pp. 108-09 / Exam Question 2,4

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I. Compositional style: Paisley (1964)

A. Impetus: "minor encoding habits" and personal style

1. Renaissance artists: Ears, hands, & stones
2. Literary figures from Homer to Shakespeare

B. Application to music

1. Two-note transition probabilities for first 4 notes
2. Tests against unknown samples
3. The computer’s superiority to listeners, even experts

A. Sample: 15,618 themes by 479 composers
B. Measures

1. Repertoire melodic originality

a. Calculation by computer
b. Validation
c. Association with critical variables

i. Variation over time
ii. Correspondence with life events
iii. Effect on aesthetic success

2. Zeitgeist melodic originality

a. Relation to age
b. Relation to popularity

Greatness: pp. 110-14, 209-11 / Exam Question 2,4

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I. Child prodigies: The intimidating few

A. Examples: Historical and contemporary
B. Questions

1. What is a child prodigy?
2. Where do they originate?
3. What determines their domain of achievement?
4. Are prodigies geniuses?
5. Why don’t all prodigies become geniuses?

A. What is a gifted child?

1. Psychometric definitions
2. Behavioral definitions
3. Comprehensive definitions

B. What are gifted children like?

1. Getzels & Jackson’s (1962) classic study
2. Wallach & Kogan’s (1965) follow-up

C. How can giftedness be cultivated?

A. Examples: Mathematical, artistic, musical
B. Lessons

1. Neurological commonalities with prodigies
2. Modular nature of intellect
3. Integrative nature of creative genius

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I. Three broad circumstances

A. Birth order

1. Representative findings
2. Explanations

a. Intellectual development: Zajonc’s confluence model
b. Personality development:

i. Stewart’s Adlerian model
ii. Sulloway’s Darwinian model

B. Childhood stress

1. Parental loss & orphanhood

a. Anecdotal evidence
b. Empirical data
c. Interdisciplinary differences
d. Explanations

2. Other stressful events & conditions

C. Enriched environment

1. General profile

a. Socioeconomic class
b. Religious beliefs
c. Leisure activities

2. Contrasts among achievement domains

A. Nurture
B. Nature

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I. Introduction to the problem: Albert Einstein’s views

II. The facts of the case

A. Scholastic success

1. Attitudes

a. Towards school
b. Teachers towards them

2. Performance

a. Primary & secondary education
b. Higher education

B. Levels of formal training: Three historiometric inquiries

1. Cox’s (1926) 301 geniuses
2. 33 U.S. presidents
3. Goertzels’ (1978) 317 modern eminent

IV. Final note: The role of marginality

A. Three varieties of marginality

1. Cultural: Immigrants & minority groups vs. native born
2. Geographical: Provincials vs. cosmopolitans
3. Professional: Outsiders vs. insiders

B. The impact of professional marginality

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I. The clustering of genius

A. Two classic studies

1. Francis Galton’s 1869 Hereditary Genius
2. Alfred Kroeber’s 1944 Configurations of Culture Growth

B. Possible explanations

1. External
2. Internal

A. Aggregate analyses

1. The principles of generational time-series analysis

a. Slicing history into 20-year generations
b. Assigning persons according to floruits
c. Developmental, productive, and consolidative periods
d. Causal implications

2. Illustration: 10,160 geniuses of Chinese civilization

B. Individual analyses

1. Leaders: 342 European kings, queens, & sultans
2. Creators: 772 artists of Western civilization

A. Aggregate analyses
B. Individual analyses

Greatness: pp. 9-16, 171-72, 375-402 / Exam Questions 2,3

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I. Extrinsic forces: Externalist accounts

A. Materialistic reflections

1. Marxist theory
2. Empirical data: Social stratification & Greek art

B. Idealistic dialectic

1. Hegelian motive
2. Illustration: Sorokin’s (1937-41) magnum opus

a. Basic concepts

i. Culture mentalities
ii. Principle of limits
iii. Law of immanent change

b. Consequences for art: Ideational vs. visual styles

3. Implication: Cross-media artistic styles?

A. Progressive adaptation

1. The idea of artistic progress
2. Case: Photographic realism in art
3. Precautions

B. Evolutionary expression: Colin Martindale’s theory

Greatness: pp. 278-83 / Exam Question 2

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I. Theories of literary change: Are writers literary epiphenomena?

II. Martindale’s psychological theory of aesthetic evolution

A. The theory

1. Variation-selection model a la Darwin

a. Selection

i. Natural: adaptive success
ii. Sexual: hedonic value

b. Variation

i. Regression: Maximize primary process
ii. Elaboration: Minimize secondary process

2. Implications: Trends in

a. Arousal potential
b. Primary process
c. Stylistic change

B. The research: Literary change

1. Content analytical studies

a. Poetry
b. Short stories
c. Lyrics for popular songs
d. Literary criticism

2. Experimental simulation

C. Critique

Greatness: pp. 101-04 / Exam Question 2,4

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I. Intellectual history: Rival notions of etiology

A. The lone thinker meditating in an isolated retreat, or
B. The massive enertia of the intellectual tradition?

A. Generational analyses

1. Method

a. 2,012 philosophers from Western civilization
b. Generational time series: 540 B.C. to A.D. 1900
c. Philosophical positions

i. Experience vs. reason or faith
ii. Matter vs. spirit
iii. Being vs. becoming
iv. Universals vs. particulars
v. Individual vs. society
vi. Determinism vs. free will
vii. Pleasure vs. Charity

2. Results

a. Intellectual inertia
b. Hegelian thesis-antithesis
c. Active vs. receptive beliefs
d. Phenomenon of intellectual polarization

B. Individual-generational analysis

1. Hypotheses
2. Method
3. Results and Discussion

Greatness: pp. 260-65, 334-35, 362-70 / Exam Questions 1,2,3,4

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I. Sociocultural Determinism

A. The presumed proof: Multiple discovery and invention
B. The implications for studying creative genius

1. No latitude for chance: Whence serendipity?
2. No room for the person: Whence psychology?
3. No multiples in the arts: Whence scientific creativity?

A. Logical issues

1. Universals vs. particulars

a. Generic categories
b. Central messages
c. Adumbrationism

2. Independence vs. antecedence
3. Simultaneity vs. rediscovery
4. Inevitability vs. eventuality

a. Necessary vs. sufficient causes
b. Rediscovery as anomaly

B. Empirical issues

1. Multiple grades
2. Degree of simultaneity
3. Multiples participation
4. Necessary conditions

Greatness: pp. 115-22 / Exam Questions 1,2,4

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I. Three Test Cases

A. Military leaders: Victory on the battlefield

1. Single-case study: Napoleon
2. Multiple-case study: 326 land battles

B. Kings, queens, & sultans: Hereditary & absolute rulers

1. Frederick Woods (1906, 1913)
2. Pitirim Sorokin (1925, 1926): reign length & greatness
3. Two follow-up studies of 342 monarchs (Simonton, 1983, 1984)

C. U.S. presidents: Elected & constitutional executives

1. Election success

a. Personal attributes
b. Situational characteristics

2. Popularity in polls

a. Intranational influences
b. International influences

3. Objective performance

a. Foreign policy
b. Domestic policy

4. Historical greatness

Greatness: pp. 74-77, 81-83, 248-51, 257-60, 312-38, 339-55, 402-10 /

Exam Questions 1,2, 3

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I. Definition

A. Venn diagram: Genius, creativity, & leadership
B. Enigmas

1. Creativity/leadership subset of genius?
2. Creativity/leadership not contained in genius?
3. Genius that is neither creativity nor leadership?
4. Creativity that overlaps leadership?

A. Developmental antecedents?
B. Personality traits?
C. Objective behaviors?
D. Social context?

A. Considerations

1. Nature or nurture?
2. Genius or zeitgeist?

B. Evaluation

Greatness: pp. 370-74, 413-21 / Exam Questions 1,2,3,4

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