J. P. Guilford

Joy Paul Guilford was an American psychologist, born in 1897 and died in 1987, best known for his psychometric study of human intelligence, including the distinction between convergent and divergent production. Developing the views of L. L. Thurstone, he rejected Charles Spearman's view that intelligence can be described by a single number and proposed that three dimensions were needed: operations, content and products. He later named his work the Structure of Intellect theory. He graduated from the University of Nebraska and studied under Edward Titchener at Cornell. During the Second World War he directed aircrew selection research for the United States Army Air Forces, including the Stanine project of 1943, and after the war he joined the University of Southern California. In 1938 he became the third president of the Psychometric Society.