Alan Elms

Education

• B. A., The Pennsylvania State University, 1960.
• Ph. D., psychology, Yale University, 1965.

Research Focus

Dr. Elms is primarily concerned with the development of psychobiography as a valid research approach in personality psychology. He has done or is doing individual case studies of distinguished individuals in politics (e.g., Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig), psychology (e.g., Freud, Jung, Skinner, Allport, Murray), and the creative arts (e.g., Nabokov, Asimov, Cordwainer Smith, Elvis Presley). He is also interested in the theory and methodology of psychobiography and in personality variables in political extremism.