Jeffrey Scott Tanaka (1958 November 3, 1992) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

and

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

, known for his work in educational psychology,

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...

and various fields of statistics including

structural equation modeling Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a label for a diverse set of methods used by scientists in both experimental and observational research across the sciences, business, and other fields. It is used most in the social and behavioral scienc ...

Biography

Tanaka was born in Los Angeles in 1958 to parents Margaret and Shoji Tanaka. In 1979, Tanaka received an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

) in

quantitative psychology Quantitative psychology is a field of scientific study that focuses on the mathematical modeling, research design and methodology, and statistical analysis of psychological processes. It includes tests and other devices for measuring cognitive ab ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, followed by an M.A. in psychology in 1980 and a PhD in psychometrics in 1984. His professional academic career began at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

(NYU), where he was assistant professor of psychology from 1983. In 1990, he joined the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as associate professor while continuing his career at NYU as visiting research associate professor. Tanaka applied himself in a wide range of fields. As a psychologist, he worked in social psychology, educational psychology and

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

. In statistics, his research interests included structural equation modeling, factor analysis and categorical data analysis. On November 3, 1992, Tanaka died in an automobile accident near Bondville, Illinois at the age of 34.

Legacy

Due to his work with the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

(APA) in raising awareness for ethnic minority issues in academia (Tanaka was an ethnic minority himself), the APA named their ''Jeffrey S. Tanaka Dissertation Award'' in his memory. In 1993, the Journal of Personality started to run a series of papers titled ''The Jeffrey S. Tanaka Occasional Papers in Quantitative Methods for Personality'' in Tanaka's memory. As of 2011, papers were still being written for the series. In 1994, the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology introduced the ''Tanaka Award for Best Article in Multivariate Behavioral Research'', given annually to the authors of the most outstanding paper in the ''

Multivariate Behavioral Research ''Multivariate Behavioral Research'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. The editor-in-chief is Peter Molenaar ( Pennsylvania State University). ...

'' journal.

Publications

Selected academic works

The works below are listed by number of times cited (descending), according to data from

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

(correct as of January 2017). * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Jeffrey S. 1958 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American psychologists New York University faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty