Joseph F. Fagan III (September 7, 1941 – August 10, 2013) was an American psychologist and the Lucy Adams Leffingwell Professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

from 1990 until his death in 2013.

Education

Fagan received his B.A. from the

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The university and it ...

in 1963 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

in 1965 and 1967, respectively.

Career

Fagan joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University in 1968, and became a full professor there ten years later. In 1990, he received the endowed Leffingwell professorship at Case Western, and from 1990 to 1995 he chaired the Department of Psychological Sciences there.

Research

Fagan was known for his research into

intelligence testing An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. The abbreviation "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term ''Intelligenzqu ...

infant An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

s, and he developed one such test that can predict how successful an infant will be when he or she begins taking classes, as well as another test that he said could predict the likelihood of an infant developing a mental disability by age 3. He also conducted research on the relationship between

race and intelligence Discussions of race and intelligence – specifically, claims of differences in intelligence along racial lines – have appeared in both popular science and academic research since the modern concept of Race (human categorization), race was fi ...

, and concluded from this research that the black-white IQ gap was due to environmental factors. He also published a number of studies in the early 1980s that found a correlation between novelty preference among infants and their later cognitive test scores. His research has also found a link between infant IQ test scores and academic achievement by age 21. He conducted much of his research along with his wife, Cynthia Holland, a professor of psychology at

Cuyahoga Community College Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) is a public community college in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Founded in 1963, it is the oldest and largest public community college within the state. Tri-C schedules on the semester basis, and offers over 1,000 co ...

Death

Fagan died on August 10, 2013 of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

, at the age of 71. In his honor, Case Western created the Joseph F. Fagan, III Award for Research Excellence, which is awarded annually to "a graduate student in the Department of Psychological Sciences who demonstrates a passion and commitment to research excellence."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fagan, Joseph F., III 2013 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Case Western Reserve University faculty University of Hartford alumni University of Connecticut alumni 1941 births Educators from Hartford, Connecticut Deaths from pancreatic cancer Intelligence researchers