Lewis Terman in Context: An Analysis of Citations of Genetic Studies of Genius Inside and Outside the Field of Gifted Education

Abstract

Scholars do not dispute that Lewis Terman is an influential figure in the field of gifted education. What is less well understood is the extent of that influence within the field and outside the field of gifted education. Citation analysis provides one method to quantify and analyze a scholar’s influence. In our analysis, we use citation analysis to categorize and analyze a sample (n= 213) of scholarly works which cite one of Lewis Terman’s Genetic Studies of Genius or successive works produced by his students. Our analysis provided evidence that nearly half of all citations of Terman’s work are considered incidental and do not directly reference his work or legacy. Furthermore, we found that negative citations of Terman’s work were in the minority compared with positive and neutral citations.