David B. Cohen was an American psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 professor.

Born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, Cohen received his bachelor's degree in 1963 from Columbia College of Columbia University

Columbia College of Columbia University

Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...

, and his doctorate in clinical psychology from University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in 1968. He went on to teach clinical psychology

Clinical psychology

Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...

 and individual differences/evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional...

 at the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

.

His early work focused on dream

Dream

Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...

s. His later work examined the biological mechanisms and risk factors in psychopathology

Psychopathology

Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...

. In 1989, he co-authored Psychopathology with Lee Willerman

Lee Willerman

Lee Willerman was an American psychologist known for his work on twin studies.He was born and grew up in Chicago. Willerman received BA and MA degrees from Roosevelt University in 1961 and 1964 respectively, and his Ph.D. from Wayne State University in 1967...

.

Throughout the 1990s, Cohen wrote about the biological and evolutionary influences of depression.

In 1995, he was a signatory of a collective statement titled "Mainstream Science on Intelligence

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

Mainstream Science on Intelligence was a public statement issued by a group of academic researchers in fields allied to intelligence testing that claimed to present those findings widely accepted in the expert community...

", written by Linda Gottfredson

Linda Gottfredson

Linda Susanne Gottfredson is a professor of educational psychology at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of Intelligence and Society. Gottfredson's work has been influential in shaping U.S...

 and published in the Wall Street Journal.

Cohen also wrote two books on children for both academic and lay readers, framed by the nature versus nurture

Nature versus nurture

The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...

 debate. In these books, he argued that parental influence over a child's development was much less powerful than biological and evolutionary influences. His work suggests that much parental influence is not only weak or transitory but also illusory.

Publications

• Cohen DB (1999). Stranger in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality, Intelligence, or Character? Wiley ISBN 0-471-31922-8.
• Cohen DB (1995). Out of the Blue: Depression and Human Nature. W.W. Norton & Company; New Ed edition ISBN 0-393-31299-2.
• Cohen DB (1981). Sleep and Dreaming: Origins, Nature and Functions (International Series in Experimental Psychology; V. 23) Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-027400-5.
• Cohen DB (2003). Where Did That Child Come From?: Why Some of Our Children Turn Out So Different from Us & What the Answers Reveal About Our Parenting and Ourselves. Templegate. ISBN 0-87243-258-0.
• Willerman L, Cohen DB (1989). Psychopathology. McGraw-Hill College. ISBN 0-07-070311-6.

External links

• David B. Cohen website via University of Texas at Austin
  University of Texas at Austin
  The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...