1st Edition
Scientific Inquiry into Human Potential Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Across Disciplines
Scientific Inquiry into Human Potential explores the intellectual legacy and contemporary understanding of scientific research on human intelligence, performance, and productivity. Across nineteen chapters, some of the most eminent scholars of learning and psychology recount how they originated, distinguished, measured, challenged, and adapted their theories on the nature and nurture of human potential over decades of scientific research. These accessible, autobiographical accounts cover a spectrum of issues, from the biological underpinnings and developmental nature of human potential to the roles of community, social interaction, and systematic individual differences in cognitive and motivational functioning. Researchers, instructors, and graduate students of education, psychology, sociology, and biology will find this book not only historically informative but inspiring to their own ongoing research journeys, as well.
Introduction: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Human Potential by David Yun Dai (University at Albany, SUNY, USA; East China Normal University, China) & Robert J. Sternberg (Cornell University, USA) Part 1: Evolutionary and Differential Perspectives on Human Potential Chapter 1. A Journey from Behavioral Ecology to Sex Differences to Mitochondria and Intelligence by David C. Geary (University of Missouri, USA) Chapter 2. A Long “Intellectual” Journey Phillip L. Ackerman (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) Chapter 3. Partnership: A Tale by the Tail of the Kite by Nancy M. Robinson Chapter 4. Of Human Potential: A Forty Year Saga by Howard Gardner (Harvard University, USA) Part 2: Cognitive and Developmental Perspectives Chapter 5. Unleashing Clio: Tracing the Roots of My Journey in Cognition by Stephen J. Ceci (Cornell University, USA) Chapter 6. Ignoring Boundaries between Disciplines by Fernand Gobet (University of Liverpool, UK) Chapter 7. Optimal Expression of Human Potential as the Central Goal of Human Development by David Henry Feldman (Tufts University, USA) Chapter 8. Capitalizing on Chance Opportunities by Rena Subotnik (American Psychological Association, USA) Chapter 9. My Journey from the Humanities to Psychology by Ellen Winner (Boston College, USA) Part 3: Perspectives on Human Creativity Chapter 10. Human Potential at the Achievement Pinnacle: A Lifelong Preoccupation with History-Making Genius by Dean Keith Simonton (University of California-Davis, USA) Chapter 11. A Contrarian’s Apology and the Changing Contexts of Creativity Research by Mark A. Runco (University of Georgia, USA) Chapter 12. Female Teacher/Researcher: My Work in Talent Development Education and in Creativity Education by Jane Piirto (Ashland University, USA) Chapter 13. Business as Unusual: From the Psychology of Giftedness to Changing the World via Innovation by Larisa Shavinina (University of Quebec, Canada) Chapter 14. Creativity and Cities: A Personal and Intellectual Journey by Richard Florida (University of Toronto, Canada) Part 4: Educational and Social Perspectives Chapter 15. Everything I Needed to Know about Human Intelligence I Learned Before I Even Went to Collegeby Robert J. Sternberg (Cornell University, USA) Chapter 16. Reflections on My Work: The Identification and Development of Creative/Productive Giftedness by Joseph S. Renzulli (University of Connecticut, USA) Chapter 17. Academic Achievement, Identity, and Hope: Investing in and Over Time by Frank Worrell (University of California at Berkeley, USA) Chapter 18. Intellectual Roots and Paths by Sally M. Reis (University of Connecticut, USA) Chapter 19. Learning from Life: How I Became a Wisdom Researcher by Judith Glück (Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Austria) Epilogue: The Past, Present, and Future of (Research on) Human Potential by David Yun Dai (University at Albany, SUNY, USA)
Biography
David Yun Dai is Professor of Educational Psychology and Methodology in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, USA.
Robert J. Sternberg is Professor in the Department of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, USA, and Honorary Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany.
"David Yun Dai and Robert J. Sternberg have gathered a collection of nineteen articles that offer a rich variety of the scientific inquiry into human potential. This book will likely be of interest to seasoned colleagues and students as well as intellectually curious adults."
—Frances Degen Horowitz, Professor, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA
"Writing from their lifetime experiences as researchers, the contributors to this volume offer rich conceptions of human potential going beyond any single number or lucky gene."
—David Perkins, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA
"The study of human potential and related concepts is critically important to all areas of human endeavor, from education to business, from the arts to medicine, and everything in between. Dai and Sternberg have assembled a fascinating set of reflections in this volume, representing the work and thoughts of many of the top thinkers on human potential over the past several decades."
—Jonathan A. Plucker, Julian C. Stanley Professor of Talent Development, Johns Hopkins University, USA
