Sandra Wood Scarr (born August 1936) is an American psychology professor.
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Born in Maryland, her family followed her father, who was stationed at the United States Army's largest chemical weapon facility through much of her childhood. Scarr earned her Ph.D. in psychology in 1965 from Harvard University, where she majored in deveopmental psychology and behavior genetics.
Though she initially had a difficult time finding a job because she had a child, she eventually taught at the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Minnesota, and Yale University. In 1983 she accepted a position as chair of the psychology department at the University of Virginia, where she remained until retirement. O'Connell AN (2001). [1]
In the 1960's, Scarr studied identical and fraternal twins' aptitude and school achievement scores. The study revealed that intellectual development was heavily influenced by genetic ability, especially among more advantaged children. It also showed that on average, black children demonstrated less genetic and more environmental influence on their intelligence than white children. Scarr also collaborated with Margaret Williams on a clinical study which demonstrated that premature birth infants who receive stimulation gain weight faster and recover faster than babies left in isolation (the practice at that time).
After moving to Minnesota, Scarr started working with a colleague, Richard A. Weinberg, on the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study. This study concluded that black and interracial children adopted early into white homes had IQ and school achievement scores similar to white children and far above those of black children in the same area of the country. This work is frequently cited in debates about race and intelligence.
In the Adolescent Adoption Study, Scarr & Weinberg showed that adolescents, adopted in the first few months of life, did not resemble their adoptive parents or other children adopted into the same family. "Rather than the home environment having a cumulative impact across development, its influence wanes from early childhood to adolescence." Given good rearing environments, genetic differences among people develop more fully.
Scarr served as President of the Society for Research in Child Development, Association for Psychological Science, Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology,and theBehavior Genetics Association. She was elected to the American Psychological Association's Board of Directors in 1988, but resigned in 1990. Scarr was also a founding member of the American Psychological Society and was chief executive officer of KinderCare Learning Centers from 1994 to 1997.
Scarr was honored by her colleagues with research awards: Distinguished Contributions to Research on Public Policy (American Psychological Association), James McKeen Cattell Award (Association for Psychological Science), and the Dobzhansky Award for Lifetime Achievement (Behavior Genetics Association). She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and other scientific societies.
In 1995, she was a signatory of a collective statement titled "Mainstream Science on Intelligence", written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal. [2] She also wrote a favorable review of The Bell Curve. [3]
Scarr retired to Hawaii where she grows Kona coffee, quilts and raises Labrador Retrievers.
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