World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Award Badge
Psychology
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Psychology

D-Index
130
Citations
98259
World Ranking
169
National Ranking
107

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Psychology in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Psychology in United States Leader Award
  • 2014 - Oskar Pfister Award, American Psychiatric Association (APA)
  • 1995 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 1989 - Member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM)

Overview

C. Robert Cloninger is affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis in the United States. Their research primarily focuses on psychology, with notable contributions across several specialized subfields, including clinical psychology, experimental and cognitive psychology, social psychology, genetics, and psychiatry and mental health.

Their work addresses multiple key topics, such as child and adolescent psychosocial and emotional development, personality disorders and psychopathology, personality traits and psychology, mental health research topics, genetic associations and epidemiology, psychosomatic disorders and their treatments, and schizophrenia research and treatment.

Cloninger has published extensively in various scientific venues. Frequent publication venues include:

  • Molecular Psychiatry
  • Scientific Reports
  • PeerJ
  • Biological Psychiatry
  • The International Journal of Person Centered Medicine

Among their recent papers are:

  • "A Comparison of Ten Polygenic Score Methods for Psychiatric Disorders Applied Across Multiple Cohorts," 2021, Biological Psychiatry
  • "Evolution of genetic networks for human creativity," 2021, Molecular Psychiatry
  • "Interaction Testing and Polygenic Risk Scoring to Estimate the Association of Common Genetic Variants With Treatment Resistance in Schizophrenia," 2022, JAMA Psychiatry
  • "Virtues in action are related to the integration of both temperament and character: Comparing the VIA classification of virtues and Cloninger's biopsychosocial model of personality," 2021, The Journal of Positive Psychology
  • "Student engagement with school and personality: a biopsychosocial and person-centred approach," 2020, British Journal of Educational Psychology

Frequent co-authors in Cloninger's research collaborations include:

  • Paulo Moreira
  • Richard A. Inman
  • Terho Lehtimäki
  • Kevin M. Cloninger
  • Igor Zwir

Cloninger has received several awards, including the Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2014, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995, and membership in the National Academy of Medicine since 1989.

Best Publications

  • Biological insights from 108 schizophrenia-associated genetic loci

    Stephan Ripke;Stephan Ripke;Benjamin M. Neale;Benjamin M. Neale;Aiden Corvin;James T. R. Walters

  • A Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character

    C. Robert Cloninger;Dragan M. Svrakic;Thomas R. Przybeck

  • The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures ☆

    Lewis R. Goldberg;John A. Johnson;Herbert W. Eber;Robert Hogan

  • The temperament and character inventory (TCI) : a guide to its development and use

    C. Robert Cloninger

  • Inheritance of alcohol abuse. Cross-fostering analysis of adopted men

    C. Robert Cloninger;Michael Bohman;Sören Sigvardsson

  • Genome-wide association study identifies five new schizophrenia loci

    Stephan Ripke;Alan R. Sanders;Kenneth S. Kendler;Douglas F. Levinson

  • Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs

    S. Hong Lee;Stephan Ripke;Stephan Ripke;Benjamin M. Neale;Benjamin M. Neale;Stephen V. Faraone

  • A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. A proposal.

    Unknown

  • Neurogenetic adaptive mechanisms in alcoholism.

    Unknown

  • A new, semi-structured psychiatric interview for use in genetic linkage studies: a report on the reliability of the SSAGA.

    K. K. Bucholz;R. Cadoret;C. R. Cloninger;S. H. Dinwiddie

  • Modeling Linkage Disequilibrium Increases Accuracy of Polygenic Risk Scores

    Bjarni J. Vilhjálmsson;Jian Yang;Hilary K. Finucane;Alexander Gusev

  • Genome Scan Meta-Analysis of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, Part II: Schizophrenia

    Cathryn M. Lewis;Douglas F. Levinson;Lesley H. Wise;Lynn E. DeLisi

  • The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: U.S. normative data.

    C. Robert Cloninger;Thomas R. Przybeck;Dragan M. Svrakic

  • Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification

    C. Robert Cloninger

  • Common variants on chromosome 6p22.1 are associated with schizophrenia

    Jianxin Shi;Douglas F. Levinson;Jubao Duan;Alan R. Sanders

  • Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

    Phil H. Lee;Verneri Anttila;Hyejung Won;Yen-Chen A. Feng

  • Identification of loci associated with schizophrenia by genome-wide association and follow-up

    Michael C. O'Donovan;Nicholas Craddock;Nadine Norton;Hywel Williams

  • Childhood personality predicts alcohol abuse in young adults.

    C. Robert Cloninger;Sören Sigvardsson;Michael Bohman

  • Differential Diagnosis of Personality Disorders by the Seven-Factor Model of Temperament and Character

    Dragan M. Svrakic;Cynthia Whitehead;Thomas R. Przybeck;C. Robert Cloninger

  • Genome‐wide search for genes affecting the risk for alcohol dependence

    Theodore Reich;Howard J. Edenberg;Alison Goate;Jeff T. Williams

  • Contribution of copy number variants to schizophrenia from a genome-wide study of 41,321 subjects

    Christian R Marshall;Daniel P Howrigan;Daniel P Howrigan;Daniele Merico;Bhooma Thiruvahindrapuram

  • Comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders

    Jack D. Maser;C. Robert Cloninger

  • Variants in nicotinic receptors and risk for nicotine dependence

    Laura Jean Bierut;Jerry A. Stitzel;Jen C. Wang;Anthony L. Hinrichs

Frequent Co-Authors

Pablo V. Gejman
Pablo V. Gejman NorthShore University HealthSystem
Jubao Duan
Jubao Duan University of Chicago
Alan R. Sanders
Alan R. Sanders NorthShore University HealthSystem
Danielle Posthuma
Danielle Posthuma Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Stephan Ripke
Stephan Ripke Massachusetts General Hospital
William Byerley
William Byerley University of California, San Francisco
Thomas G. Schulze
Thomas G. Schulze Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Patrick F. Sullivan
Patrick F. Sullivan University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Douglas F. Levinson
Douglas F. Levinson Stanford University
Aarno Palotie
Aarno Palotie University of Helsinki

If you think any of the details on this page are incorrect, let us know.

Report an issue

We appreciate your kind effort to assist us to improve this page, it would be helpful providing us with as much detail as possible in the text box below:

Related Online Degrees & Career Pathways

Considering a career in Psychology opens up varied opportunities, especially as demand for mental health professionals rises. Many students are choosing online degrees to balance academics with work and personal life. These flexible programs can help you earn a bachelor’s or master’s in Psychology without being tied to a campus.

If you wish to become a licensed therapist, requirements will differ depending on your location. For example, you can find specific guidance on becoming a licensed therapist in Buffalo, as well as licensed therapist requirements in Chandler. Requirements typically include earning a graduate degree, completing supervised clinical hours, and passing a licensing exam.

Interested in other regions? Explore the steps for becoming a licensed therapist in Charlotte or learn how to become a licensed therapist in Chesapeake. As you plan your academic pathway, review local licensing requirements to ensure your online degree aligns with your career goals.

Best Scientists Citing C. Robert Cloninger

Trending Scientists

Recently Published Articles