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Avshalom Caspi

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Not to be confused with Avshalom Caspi (composer).
Avshalom Caspi
Born (1960-05-05) May 5, 1960 (age 64)
Jerusalem, Israel
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California at Santa Cruz
Cornell University
Known forSelf-control
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study
SpouseTerrie Moffitt
Awards(with Terrie Moffitt) 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsDuke University
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London
ThesisMoving against and moving away: life-course patterns of explosive and withdrawn children (1986)

Avshalom Caspi (born May 5, 1960) is an Israeli-American psychologist. He is the Edward M. Arnett Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University and Professor of Personality Development at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. His research has focused on mental health and human development, much of which was conducted with his wife and longtime research partner, Terrie Moffitt.[1]

Education[edit]

Caspi graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in psychology in 1981. He received his M.A. in 1983 and Ph.D. in 1986 in developmental psychology from the Department of Human Development at Cornell University.[2] His doctoral dissertation was titled "Moving Against and Moving Away: Life-course Patterns of Explosive and Withdrawn Children".[3]

Research[edit]

Caspi and Moffitt first met when they presented adjacent posters at a 1987 conference in St. Louis, Missouri on "Deviant Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood".[4][5] He and Moffitt have collaborated on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study since the 1980s.[4]

Among Caspi's discoveries was that of an association between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and clinical depression. This discovery, originally reported in a 2003 study, spurred a wave of subsequent research on the potential genetic roots of various psychiatric conditions.[6] However, a 2017 meta-analysis did not support the original finding,[7] nor did a large analysis with nearly 100% power to detect the original finding.[8] As a result, the general approach of candidate gene or candidate gene by environment interaction research in single small studies is no longer widely accepted.[8][9][10][11]

Another of Caspi's studies concerns the monoamine oxidase A gene variation and the risk of antisocial behavior in the presence of childhood abuse as a study of gene and environment interaction, which was supported by some follow up studies and not by others.[12]

Honors and awards[edit]

Caspi is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the British Academy.[1][13] He and Moffitt were co-recipients of the 2010 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize and Best Practice Award from the Jacobs Foundation,[1] and the 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology.[14] In 2013 Caspi was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.[15] In November 2022 Caspi was awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi's Rutherford Medal, along with the Dunedin Study team leader Richie Poulton and team members Murray Thomson and Moffitt.[16]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Husband and Wife Team Trace the Roots of Youth Violence". APS Observer. February 10, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  2. ^ "Biosketch" (PDF). Caspi Biosketch 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  3. ^ "Dissertation". MProquest. Retrieved June 2, 2021 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ a b Starr, Douglas (January 30, 2018). "Two psychologists followed 1000 New Zealanders for decades. Here's what they found about how childhood shapes later life". Science. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  5. ^ Green, Penelope (October 3, 2012). "One Shed Fits All: A Modernist Dogtrot Reborn". The New York Times. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  6. ^ Hamilton, Anita (June 17, 2009). "Study: 'Depression Gene' Doesn't Predict the Blues". Time. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  7. ^ Culverhouse, R. C.; Saccone, N. L.; Horton, A. C.; Ma, Y.; Anstey, K. J.; Banaschewski, T.; Burmeister, M.; Cohen-Woods, S.; Etain, B. (April 4, 2017). "Collaborative meta-analysis finds no evidence of a strong interaction between stress and 5-HTTLPR genotype contributing to the development of depression". Molecular Psychiatry. 23 (1): 133–142. doi:10.1038/mp.2017.44. PMC 5628077. PMID 28373689.
  8. ^ a b Border, Richard; Johnson, Emma C.; Evans, Luke M.; Smolen, Andrew; Berley, Noah; Sullivan, Patrick F.; Keller, Matthew C. (May 2019). "No Support for Historical Candidate Gene or Candidate Gene-by-Interaction Hypotheses for Major Depression Across Multiple Large Samples". American Journal of Psychiatry. 176 (5): 376–387. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.18070881. PMC 6548317. PMID 30845820.
  9. ^ Duncan LE, Keller MC (October 2011). "A critical review of the first 10 years of candidate gene-by-environment interaction research in psychiatry". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 168 (10): 1041–9. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11020191. PMC 3222234. PMID 21890791.
  10. ^ Hewitt, John K. (2011). "Editorial Policy on Candidate Gene Association and Candidate Gene-by-Environment Interaction Studies of Complex Traits". Behavior Genetics. 42 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1007/s10519-011-9504-z. PMID 21928046. S2CID 11492871.
  11. ^ Johnson, Emma C.; Border, Richard; Melroy-Greif, Whitney E.; de Leeuw, Christiaan A.; Ehringer, Marissa A.; Keller, Matthew C. (2017). "No Evidence That Schizophrenia Candidate Genes Are More Associated With Schizophrenia Than Noncandidate Genes". Biological Psychiatry. 82 (10): 702–708. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.06.033. PMC 5643230. PMID 28823710.
  12. ^ Frazier, Annabelle; Ferreira, Patricia A.; Gonzales, Joseph E. (October 23, 2019). "Born this way? A review of neurobiological and environmental evidence for the etiology of psychopathy". Personality Neuroscience. 2: e8. doi:10.1017/pen.2019.7. PMC 7219694. PMID 32435743.
  13. ^ "Professor Avshalom Caspi". British Academy. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  14. ^ "APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions". American Psychological Association. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  15. ^ "Avshalom Caspi Awards & Honors". Duke Moffitt & Caspi. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  16. ^ "The Dunedin Study wins Rutherford Medal and other Research Honours Aotearoa winners celebrated in Ōtepoti Dunedin". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved November 16, 2022.

External links[edit]

Scholia has an author profile for Avshalom Caspi.
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