The 2004 Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology is awarded to Janet Taylor Spence. She is recognized for her outstanding scientific contributions that have had a profound theoretical and empirical impact on two areas of inquiry: Her early seminal research on the motivational properties of trait anxiety led the way to the study of the influence of other personality traits on learning and performance. From the 1970s forward, her innovative theoretical work was instrumental in launching the new field of sex roles and gender.