| Abstract: | Crutchfield was born in Pittsburgh on June 20, 1912. He received his BA in civil engineering from the California Institute of Technology and his PhD in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1938-1939 he was a research associate at Swarthmore College, where he worked with Wolfgang Kohler. The next year he was an instructor at Mount Holyoke College. From 1940 to 1946 he held research and administrative appointments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Office of War Information, and the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey in Germany. In several of these posts he contributed to the developing methodology of opinion surveys, and for distinguished service in the last position he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the U.S. Department of War. In 1946 he returned to Swarthmore, where he later served as Chairman of the Psychology Department. After several visiting appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, he came permanently as professor of psychology in 1953. He was one of the original team of research psychologists at the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research (IPAR) in Berkeley, and in 1970 he succeeded Donald W. MacKinnon as Director. Failing health forced him to resign this position in 1973. Crutchfield passed away on July 19, 1977. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
