From Chemistry to Genius: Psychologist Who Studies Greatness to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Dean Keith Simonton, who will receive an award that puts him in the company of the world’s most pre-eminent psychologists, would have studied chemistry if not for the textbook in his very first undergraduate psychology course. 

Introduction to Psychology (4th ed.), was published in 1967 when Simonton, a distinguished professor emeritus in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, was an undergraduate at Occidental College in Los Angeles. The book was authored by Stanford University psychologists Ernest R. Hilgard and Richard C. Atkinson.  

What made this textbook different was that instead of the typical fare for an introductory course, Hilgard and Atkinson included entire sections on more specialized topics. One section covered creativity, another genius. A whole section was dedicated to studies of the ages of famous leaders and creators when they made their greatest contributions.  

“One of the things that really stood out about Hilgard and Atkinson’s book was that they covered a lot of topics that were not mainstream topics in psychology,” said Simonton. “A lot of my later research came from topics they included in that textbook.” 

From that unique introduction would spring connections that have defined Simonton’s life as a psychologist. Atkinson would go on to become president of the University of California, where Simonton spent almost his entire career conducting research and teaching. Hilgard would become the namesake of the American Psychological Association’s Ernest R. Hilgard Lifetime Achievement Award, which Simonton has just learned he will receive next year for his life’s work. 

Studying achievement and genius 

Simonton is a general psychologist, and the range of subjects he has studied reflects an insatiable curiosity from the days he spent reading encyclopedias in elementary school. As the world’s leading expert on creativity, genius and leadership, Simonton has nearly 600 publications, including 14 books. He has studied American presidents, European monarchs, scientists and artistic geniuses from almost every major world civilization as well as from various diverse groups and cultures. 

“That’s the nice thing about creativity, genius and leadership,” said Simonton. “In many ways I’m not specialized at all. If I get bored with a topic, I can just move on to something else.” 

So what defines the very highest achievers across history? Simonton has found three general characteristics. 

The first thing, said Simonton, is finding something you can really commit your whole life to.  

“Having a passion, a love for what you’re doing, is absolutely essential,” said Simonton. “One of the things a lot of people don’t realize is how much work is involved in achievement.” 

This leads to another characteristic, which is persistence. While we think of people like Albert Einstein or Vincent van Gogh only in terms of their successes, Simonton has found that failure is just as central to their stories. 

“All these great achievers, they work very, very hard,” said Simonton. “What we don’t see is that lots of times things didn’t work out. They don’t broadcast all their failures. At a museum you see all these great artworks. You don’t see their bad artworks. Those are in the basement.”  

A third key characteristic is openness to experience. Very high achievers usually also have very broad interests. Albert Einstein, for example, would sometimes take a break from his passion for physics to play the violin or to take his boat sailing. 

“The best predictor of achievement is openness to experience,” said Simonton. “People who are creative like to explore new ideas, new foods, travel to exotic places, are more likely to have lived abroad, to study different languages.” 

A complete theory of creativity  

So what exactly is creativity? This is a question Simonton has explored for more than 40 years. 

“Creativity is coming up with something original, effective and surprising,” said Simonton. “How you get there, that’s more complicated.”  

It’s more complicated in part because of just how long it takes to make a truly creative contribution to anything.  

“There is a rough rule of thumb that it takes about a decade to get enough knowledge and skill before you start making creative contributions to your field,” said Simonton. “It gets back to doing a lot of work. You must do your problem sets and your practice exercises. That’s also true for sports, chess, games, anything.” 

These ideas about creativity seem simple enough, but they come from a lifetime of study and work. For 40 years, Simonton struggled to develop a complete theory of creativity and has only recently published what he considers to be a final, accurate version.  

“I just wished I had come up with a final version at the beginning,” said Simonton. “No big deal. Everyone must do it. If your first version is the only thing you come up with, you’re doing something wrong. You’re not growing intellectually.” 

A lifetime of achievement 

Next year, Simonton will receive the Ernest R. Hilgard Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Psychological Association Convention in Seattle. The 2024 award ceremony will mark 50 years exactly from when he turned in his Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University. 

To a roomful of colleagues, Simonton will tell the story of how it all began with a textbook that changed the course of his life and defined so much of his career. He still has that very edition from 1967 and plans to include excerpts from it in his remarks. 

“To me, this award marks kind of a culmination of my career, and what’s amazing is that if you look at a list of some of the past recipients these are some of the major figures in the field,” said Simonton. “I can finally say that I’ve made it. I can now officially rest on my laurels.” 

But he hasn’t. Simonton has several works in progress, including research papers, chapters in edited volumes and even a book charting the psychology of civilization. 

“I suppose, sometime in the near or far future, my intense curiosity about all these diverse phenomena will cease. At that point, my own creativity will dry up as well. But that hasn’t happened yet.”