Avshalom Caspi (born May 5, 1960) is an Israeli-American psychologist. He is the

Edward M. Arnett Edward McCollin Arnett (September 25, 1922 – May 11, 2022) was an American chemist. Early life Born in Philadelphia, to John Hancock Arnett, a physician, and Katherine Williams McCollin, a singer and composer, Arnett was a Quaker and conscient ...

Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences The Trinity College of Arts and Sciences is the undergraduate liberal arts college of Duke University. Founded in 1838, it is the original school of the university. Currently, Trinity is one of five undergraduate degree programs at Duke, the othe ...

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and Professor of Personality Development at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a centre for mental health and neuroscience research, education and training in Europe. It is dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness, neurological co ...

. His research has focused on

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

and

human development Human development may refer to: * Development of the human body ** This includes physical developments such as growth, and also development of the brain * Developmental psychology * Development theory * Human development (economics) * Human Develo ...

, much of which was conducted with his wife and longtime research partner,

Terrie Moffitt Terrie Edith Moffitt (born March 9, 1955) is an American-British clinical psychologist who is best known for her pioneering research on the development of antisocial behavior and for her collaboration with colleague and partner Avshalom Caspi i ...

. He is a co-editor of the '' Annual Review of Developmental Psychology''.

Education

Caspi graduated from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in psychology in 1981. He received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in 1983 and Ph.D. in 1986 in developmental psychology from the Department of Human Development at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. His doctoral dissertation was titled "Moving Against and Moving Away: Life-course Patterns of Explosive and Withdrawn Children".

Research

Caspi and Moffitt first met when they presented adjacent posters at a 1987 conference in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

on "Deviant Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood". He and Moffitt have collaborated on the

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (also known as the Dunedin Study) is a detailed study of human health, development and behaviour. Based at the University of Otago in New Zealand, the Dunedin Study has followed the live ...

since the 1980s. Among Caspi's discoveries was that of an association between the

5-HTTLPR 5-HTTLPR (serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region) is a degenerate repeat (redundancy in the genetic code) polymorphic region in '' SLC6A4'', the gene that codes for the serotonin transporter. Since the polymorphism was identified in th ...

polymorphism and

clinical depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

. This discovery, originally reported in a 2003 study, spurred a wave of subsequent research on the potential genetic roots of various psychiatric conditions. However, a 2017 meta-analysis did not support the original finding, nor did a large analysis with nearly 100% power to detect the original finding. As a result, the general approach of candidate gene or candidate gene by environment interaction research in single small studies is no longer widely accepted. Another of Caspi's studies concerns the

monoamine oxidase A Monoamine oxidase A, also known as MAO-A, is an enzyme ( E.C. 1.4.3.4) that in humans is encoded by the ''MAOA'' gene. This gene is one of two neighboring gene family members that encode mitochondrial enzymes which catalyze the oxidative dea ...

gene variation and the risk of antisocial behavior in the presence of childhood abuse as a study of gene and environment interaction, which was supported by some follow up studies and not by others.

Honors and awards

Caspi is a fellow of the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in r ...

and the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

. He and Moffitt were co-recipients of the 2010 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize and Best Practice Award from the Jacobs Foundation, and the 2016

APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology The APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology is an award of the American Psychological Association that "honors psychologists who have made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychol ...

. In 2013 Caspi was awarded an honorary doctorate from

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a Catholic research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg, Netherlands. Tilburg has a student population of about 19,1 ...

in the Netherlands. In November 2022 Caspi was awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi's Rutherford Medal, along with the Dunedin Study team leader

Richie Poulton Richie Graham Poulton (1962 – 29 September 2023) was a New Zealand psychologist and the director of the University of Otago's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, which runs the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and De ...

and team members Murray Thomson and Moffitt. As of 2024, he became a co-editor of the '' Annual Review of Developmental Psychology''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caspi, Avshalom 21st-century American psychologists 1960 births Living people Duke University faculty Israeli emigrants to the United States Health professionals from Jerusalem University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Cornell University alumni American epidemiologists Academics of King's College London Fellows of the Association for Psychological Science Fellows of the British Academy 20th-century American psychologists Annual Reviews (publisher) editors APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients