Genetic Studies of Genius

Between 1925 and 1959, Lewis M. Terman edited five volumes under the series title Genetic Studies of Genius (GSoG). Terman was also author or coauthor on every book except the second, a volume that constitutes the doctoral dissertation of his graduate student Catharine Cox. Also with the exception of this second volume, GSoG represents one of the most ambitious longitudinal investigations ever conducted. It has also become a classic contribution to the field of intellectual giftedness.

However, the series title is misleading in two ways. First, Terman used the term genetic in its older and secondary sense of “developmental” rather than the more modern and primary sense of “concerning genes or genetics.” None of the volumes explicitly deal with genetics in the latter meaning. Second, his ...