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Statistical Correlations, Nomothetic Principles, and Exceptions to the Rule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Dean Keith Simonton
Dean Keith Simonton*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, USA
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Extract

At the outset I should admit that I am more positively disposed toward Sulloway's (1996) magnum opus than is the author of the target article (see Simonton, 1997). My positive disposition stems from three sources—substantive, theoretical, and methodological. Concerning the first source, I am more receptive to the notion that birth order may bear some relation to various forms of exceptional achievement. Galton (1874) was the first behavioral scientist to report such an empirical linkage, and his findings have been replicated and extended many times (Simonton, 1994). Indeed, I am among those who have discovered some of the relationships.

Type
Roundtable Commentaries
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , September 2000 , pp. 173 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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References

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