Twins, families, and the psychology of individual differences: the legacy of Steven G. Vandenberg.

Abstract

To honor the retirement of Steven G. Vandenberg, his contributions to multivariate behavioral genetics are reviewed. During Professor Vandenberg's prolific career, he made substantial contributions to three general areas: twin research, family studies, and research on individual differences. In the area of twin research, two large-scale studies, the Hereditary Abilities Study and the Louisville Twin Study, are reviewed. His contributions to the analysis of twin data, with particular reference to the canonical generalization of Bartlett'sF ratio, are also noted. In the area of family studies, Professor Vandenberg was principal or coprincipal investigator of the Boulder Family Study, the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition, the Colorado Adoption Project, and a twin-family study of smoking behavior; his papers on ethnic comparisons, assortative marriage, and kinship analyses are reviewed. In his research on individual differences, Professor Vandenberg conducted studies of the cross-ethnic factorial invariance of primary mental abilities in Chinese and South American students and took an early interest in automated methods for factor analysis. Over the course of his career, Professor Vandenberg has made a variety of tangible and intangible contributions to behavioral genetics, and his personal humility and scientific outlook have provided an important role model for his colleagues and students.