Robert Travis Osborne (October 20, 1913 – May 28, 2013) was an American psychologist. He was professor emeritus 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 ...

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, and director of the

Pioneer Fund Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences". The organization has been described as racist and white supremacist in nature. One of its first projects w ...

, an organization prominently described as

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...

in nature, from 2000 until his death.

Biography

Osborne began at University of Georgia in 1946 and was appointed director of the university's Counseling and Testing Center in 1947. He was interested in

psychometrics Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally refers to specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and ...

and counseling. When licensing laws for psychologists in Georgia were enacted, his license was number 15. Osborne is a grantee of the

to study

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

and

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

as well as physical characteristics in several hundred white and black

twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Osborne's large twin study showed that the weight of genes and culture are equally important among Blacks as among Whites. During the civil rights movement, he testified in court against school integration. In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories of ''

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 ...

'', 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 ...

and published in the ''

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 ...

'' as a response to what the authors viewed as the inaccurate and misleading reports made by the media regarding academic consensus on the results of intelligence research in the wake of the appearance of ''

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 b ...

'' earlier the same year.Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994).

. ''

'', p A18. Osborne became a Director of the Pioneer Fund in 2000 and continued in that role until his death at the age of 99 in 2013.

Bibliography

*Osborne, R. Travis, A. James Gregor, and Frank Miele. "Heritability of Numerical Facility." ''Perceptual and Motor Skills'' 24 (1967): 659–666. *Osborne, R. Travis, A. James Gregor, and Frank Miele. "Heritability of Factor V: Verbal Comprehension." ''Perceptual and Motor Skills'' 26 (1968): 191–202. *Osborne, R. Travis, and Frank Miele. "Racial Differences in Environmental Influences on Numerical Ability as Determined by Heritability Estimates." ''Perceptual and Motor Skills'' 28 (1969): 535–538. *Miele, Frank, and R. Travis Osborne. "Racial Differences in Heritability Ratios for Verbal Ability." ''Homo'' 24 (1973): 35–39. *Swan, Donald A., and Frank Miele (with the assistance of Dr. R. Travis Osborne). "A Factor Analysis of Oetteking's Ancient Egyptian Cranial Data." ''Homo'' 24 (1973): 188–204. *R Travis Osborne & Frank C.J. McGurk, ''The Testing of Negro Intelligence'', vol. 2, Athens, GA: Foundation for Human Understanding, 1982 *Osborne, R. Travis, Clyde E. Noble, and

Nathaniel Weyl Nathaniel Weyl (July 20, 1910 – April 13, 2005) was an American economist and author who wrote on a variety of social issues. A member of the Communist Party of the United States from 1933 until 1939, after leaving the party he became a con ...

, editors. ''Human Variation''. Orlando: Academic Press, 1978. *Osborne, R. Travis. ''Twins: Black and White''. Athens, Georgia: Foundation for Human Understanding, 1980.

References

External links

History of the University of Georgia Psychology Department
* via

Institute for the Study of Academic Racism The Institute for the Study of Academic Racism (ISAR) is an organization that monitors "changing intellectual trends in academic racism, biological determinism, and eugenics." ISAR states that in this capacity it "acts as a resource service for stu ...

Highlights of Pioneer Fund Research and Grantees
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, R. Travis 1913 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Intelligence researchers People from Cocoa, Florida Race and intelligence controversy University of Georgia faculty