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Robert Epstein

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Robert Epstein, Ph.D., (born June 19, 1953) is an American psychologist, researcher, writer, and media professional whose primary contributions have been in the areas of creativity, artificial intelligence, peace, adolescence, and interpersonal relationships. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.

Epstein is a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind and the former Editor-in-Chief of Psychology Today, as well a Visiting Scholar at the University of California San Diego and the former host of Psyched! on Sirius Satellite Radio. A longtime professor and researcher, he is also the founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts. Through 2003, Epstein served as University Research Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology, and he has also taught at National University, Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of California San Diego, and the HAL College of Technology and Design (Japan). He received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1981 from Harvard University.

In connection with the magazine or his radio programs, Dr. Epstein has interviewed more than 200 notable individuals, including Laura Bush, Jimmy Carter, Tipper Gore, Ruth Westheimer, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, Christie Brinkley, Jamie Lee Curtis, Deepak Chopra, Fred Rogers, Sarah Ferguson, Steve Allen, and Susan Sarandon. He has published fourteen books (listed below) and more than 150 scholarly and popular articles, including scientific reports in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and his research has been featured in Time magazine, The New York Times, and Discover, as well as on national and international radio and television. His work on various topics in psychology is discussed on more than 100,000 Google pages.

During his graduate school years at Harvard, he worked closely with famed psychologist B. F. Skinner. Already in his 70s, Skinner had not conducted laboratory research in many years when Epstein arrived at Harvard. Despite that, the two of them soon began a controversial research program in which pigeons that had received various kinds of training were shown to be capable of exhibiting sophisticated human-like behaviors sometimes said to show abilities such as “self-awareness” and “insight.” This research program stimulated extensive media coverage, as well as the production of a film called Cognition, Creativity, and Behavior: The Columban Simulations (Research Press, 1982). This research is summarized in a collection of articles published by Dr. Epstein in 1996: Cognition, Creativity, and Behavior: Selected Essays, Praeger Publishing (see link below).

Epstein’s work with Skinner led to his decades long interest in novel behavior and creativity. In the early 1980s, Epstein developed a formal, predictive theory of creative behavior in individuals called Generativity Theory, which suggests that novel behavior is both orderly and predictable. Epstein also developed a competency test that measures an individual’s ability to express creativity, as well as a related test that measures the ability of a manager or teacher to elicit creativity in other people. Games and exercises that build such competencies are included in several of Epstein's books.

Epstein has also developed competency tests in the areas of motivation, stress management, interpersonal relationships, and parenting, and he has also written about or conducted research on sexual orientation, artificial intelligence, and adolescence. From 1990 to 1995, he directed the Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence, an annual contest in which human intelligence is pitted against machine intelligence. In various writings, Epstein has been a strong advocate of the view that people can deliberately learn to love each other (for example, Editor as guinea pig: Putting love to a real test. Psychology Today, May/June 2002, p. 5).

In 1990, in an article in The Washington Post entitled “How About One Day of Peace?,” Epstein proposed that the first day of the new millennium, January 1, 2000, be marked by a worldwide armistice. Eventually, more than 1,000 organizations and prominent individuals, including the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, and Pope John Paul II, called for an armistice on that day; it's not clear, however, that the armistice ever took place.

Epstein has been a commentator for NPR's Marketplace, the Voice of America, and Disney Online, and his popular writings have appeared in Reader’s Digest, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times (London), Good Housekeeping, Parenting, and other magazines and newspapers. An autobiographical essay documenting his long involvement with the media was published in 2006 in the academic journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.[1]

Books

  • Teen 2.0: Saving Our Children and Families from the Torment of Adolescence ISBN 1884995594
  • The Big Book of Motivation Games (with Jessica Rogers) ISBN 0071372342
  • The Big Book of Stress-Relief Games ISBN 0070218668
  • The Big Book of Creativity Games ISBN 0071361766
  • Creativity Games for Trainers ISBN 0070213631
  • Stress-Management and Relaxation Activities for Trainers ISBN 0070217629
  • Cognition, Creativity, and Behavior: Selected Essays ISBN 0275944522
  • The New Psychology Today Reader ISBN 078725617X
  • Pure Fitness: Body Meets Mind (with Lori Fetrick) ISBN 1570280878
  • Self-Help Without the Hype ISBN 0937100005
  • Irrelativity ISBN 1884470130
  • Notebooks: B. F. Skinner (editor) ISBN 0136241069
  • Skinner for the Classroom (editor) ISBN 0878222618
  • The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen ISBN 0787987379
  • Parsing the Turing Test: Philosophical and Methodological Issues in the Quest for the Thinking Computer (co-editor) ISBN 9781402067082

Notes

  1. ^ "Giving psychology away: A personal journey." Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2006, 1(4), 389-400)

Tests

  • ECCI-i: Epstein Creativity Competencies Inventory for Individuals[1]
  • ECCI-m: Epstein Creativity Competencies Inventory for Managers[2]
  • EMCI-i: Epstein Motivation Competencies Inventory for Individuals[3]
  • EMCI-m: Epstein Motivation Competencies Inventory for Managers[4]
  • ESMI-i: Epstein Stress Management Inventory for Individuals[5]
  • ESMI-m: Epstein Stress Management Inventory for Managers[6]
  • EDTA: Epstein-Dumas Test of Adultness[7]
  • EMHI: Epstein Mental Health Inventory[8]
  • ELCI: Epstein Love Competencies Inventory[9]
  • ESTI: Epstein Structured Thinking Inventory
  • EPCI: Epstein Parenting Competencies Inventory[10]
  • ESOI: Epstein Sexual Orientation Inventory[11]
  • ESOI-sp: Epstein Inventario de la Orientación Sexual[12]
  • ESOI-de: Epsteins Inventar der sexuellen Orientierung[13]
  • ESOI-fr: Epstein Inventaire d’Orientation Sexuel[14]
  • ESOI-jp: Epstein Sexual Orientation Inventory (Japanese)[15]
  • ESOI-hu: Epstein szexuális orientáció leltárja[16]
  • ECCI-i-sp: Inventario Epstein de Competencias de Creatividad para individuos[17]
  • ECCI-m-sp: Inventario Epstein de Competencias de Creatividad para gerentes[18]
  • EAMS: Epstein Arranged Marriage Survey[19]
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