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. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

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, United States. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. It enrolled approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students as ...

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 system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

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. Originally, IQ was a score obtained by dividing a person's mental age score, obtained by administering ...

infant In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of ...

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 regarding claims of differences in intelligence along racial lines—have appeared in both popular science and academic research since the modern concept of race was first introduced. With th ...

, 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 college, public Community colleges in the United States, community college in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Founded in 1963, it is the oldest and largest public community college within the state. Not unti ...

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 ...

, 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 in the United States American intelligence researchers