John Clinton Loehlin (January 13, 1926 – August 9, 2020) was an American
behavior geneticist, computer scientist, and psychologist. Loehlin served as president of the
Behavior Genetics Association
The Behavior Genetics Association (BGA) is a learned society established in 1970 and which promotes research into the connections between heredity and behavior, both human and animal. Its members support education and training in behavior genetic ...
and of the
Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology
The Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (SMEP) is a small academic organization of research psychologists who have interests in multivariate statistical models for advancing psychological knowledge. It publishes a journal, '' Multivari ...
. He was an
ISIR lifetime achievement awardee.
He received an A.B. in English from
Harvard in 1947, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1957. He was on active service in the
United States Naval Reserve
The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...
in 1951-53 during the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. He taught at the
University of Nebraska
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
from 1957 to 1964, then took a position at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
, where he remained the rest of his life.
Even after retirement, he remained active in research and publishing. His book on Latent variable models (now in its fourth edition) remains very popular. He was a keen poet. His son is the American author and scholar
James Loehlin.
Loehlin's research chiefly focused on the genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in normal human personality traits and abilities; he was also concerned with racial differences and with computer modeling. He was involved in several twin family, and adoption studies, notably the Texas Adoption Project with
Joseph M. Horn and
Lee Willerman.
He wrote on the
race and intelligence controversy
The history of the race and intelligence controversy concerns the historical development of a debate about possible explanations of group differences encountered in the study of race and intelligence. Since the beginning of IQ testing around the ...
. He was a Director of the
American Eugenics Society
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
from 1968 to 1974. In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "
Mainstream Science on Intelligence
"Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was a public statement issued by a group of researchers of topics associated with intelligence testing. It was published originally in ''The Wall Street Journal'' on December 13, 1994, as a response to criticis ...
",
[Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). ]Mainstream Science on Intelligence
"Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was a public statement issued by a group of researchers of topics associated with intelligence testing. It was published originally in ''The Wall Street Journal'' on December 13, 1994, as a response to criticis ...
. ''Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', p A18. a public statement written by
Linda Gottfredson
Linda Susanne Gottfredson (née Howarth; born 1947) is an American psychologist and writer. She is professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of I ...
, published in response to popular criticism of the conclusions presented in
Richard J. Herrnstein and
Charles Murray Charles Murray may refer to:
Politicians
*Charles Murray, 1st Earl of Dunmore (1661–1710), British peer
*Charles Murray (author and diplomat) (1806–1895), British author and diplomat
*Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore (1841–1907), Scotti ...
's controversial book ''
The Bell Curve
''The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life'' is a 1994 book by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray, in which the authors argue that human intelligence is substantially influenced by ...
'' (1994). One of his PhD students was
Eric Turkheimer
Eric Nathan Turkheimer is the Hugh Scott Hamilton Professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.
Early life and education
Turkheimer is the son of Nathan Turkheimer, the former board chairman of the public relations law firm Turkheimer & ...
.
In 1995, he took part in 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 ...
task force writing a consensus statement on the state of intelligence research in response to the claims being advanced amid the ''
Bell Curve'' controversy, titled "
Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns."
Selected publications
*Loehlin, J. C. (1968). Computer models of personality. New York: Random House.
*Loehlin, J. C., Lindzey, G., & Spuhler, J. N. (1975). Race differences in intelligence. San Francisco: Freeman.
*Loehlin, J. C., & Nichols, R. C. (1976). Heredity, environment, and personality: A study of 850 sets of twins. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
*Loehlin, J. C. (1987). Latent variable models: An introduction to factor, path, and structural analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
*
Loehlin, J. C. (1992). Genes and environment in personality development. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
* Loehlin, J.C. (2004). ''Latent Variable Models: An Introduction to Factor, Path, and Structural Equation Analysis''. Psychology Press.
References
External links
John C. Loehlin sitevia University of Texas at Austin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loehlin, John C.
1926 births
2020 deaths
American computer scientists
20th-century American psychologists
Behavior geneticists
Harvard University alumni
Intelligence researchers
Race and intelligence controversy
University of California, Berkeley alumni
United States Navy personnel of the Korean War
United States Navy reservists