Thomas Marshall Ostrom (March 1, 1936 – May 16, 1994) was a
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
who helped further the study of
social psychology
Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...
. Prior to Ostrom, the field explored and identified the cognitive foundations of social activity. Ostrom pushed the field to studying the social foundations of cognitive activity.
Career
Ostrom was born in
Mishawaka, Indiana
Mishawaka () is a city on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Misha ...
. He received a bachelor's degree from
Wabash College
Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832, by a group of Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, the institution was originally named "The Wabash Teachers Seminary an ...
in 1958 and a
Ph.D. from the
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...
in 1964. He joined the faculty of the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
that same year, and remained there the rest of his life.
Ostrom was noted for his work advancing
attitude
Attitude or Attitude may refer to:
Philosophy and psychology
* Attitude (psychology), a disposition or state of mind
** Attitude change
* Propositional attitude, a mental state held towards a proposition
Science and technology
* Orientation ...
theory and methodology. His work helped further the "ABC" tripartite model of attitudes (affect, behavior, cognition). He also furthered the field of attitude measurement with more valid and reliable rating scales. His research program on impression formation demonstrated the role of memory in social judgment.
In addition to his own work in the field, Ostrom was a talented administrator. In his thirty years at Ohio State, Ostrom helped develop the program into one of the premier graduate training programs in social psychology. He was the organizer of "social cognition week" at the Nags Head Conference Center and founder of the
Person Memory Interest Group, developing both events into among of the key conferences in the field of social psychology. From 1980 to 1987 he served as editor of the ''
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
The ''Journal of Experimental Social Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering social psychology. It is published by Elsevier on behalf of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP). According to the ''Journal Citation Re ...
'', developing it into one of the most innovative journals in the field.
Thomas M. Ostrom Award
The Person Memory Interest Group honored Ostrom following his death by giving their highest annual award in his honor.
Ostrom Award winnersOstrom award: Previous winners
/ref>
*2015 -
Yaacov Trope
*2014 -
Patricia Devine
*2013 - Jim Uleman
*2012 - Reid Hastie
*2011 -
John Bargh
John A. Bargh (; born 1955) is a social psychologist currently working at Yale University, where he has formed the Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Evaluation (ACME) Laboratory. Bargh's work focuses on automaticity and unconscious proc ...
*2010 - Charles (Chick) Judd & Bernadette Park
*2009 - Donal E. Carlston
*2008 - Mick Rothbart
*2007 -
Marilynn Brewer
*2006 -
Russell Fazio
Russell Fazio is Harold E. Burtt Professor of Social Psychology at Ohio State University, where he heads Russ's Attitude and Social Cognition Lab (RASCL).Fazio, R. H. "Russ' Attitude and Social Cognition Lab page." http://faculty.psy.ohio-state.e ...
*2005 -
Norbert Schwarz
Norbert Schwarz is Provost Professor in the Department of Psychology and the USC Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a co-director of the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center.
Education
He received a Ph.D. in ...
& Fritz Strack
*2004 - Eliot R. Smith
*2003 -
Susan Fiske
Susan Tufts Fiske (born August 19, 1952) is an American psychologist who served as the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University. She is a social psychologist known for her wo ...
&
Shelley Taylor
*2002 - Steven J. Sherman
*2001 -
Anthony Greenwald
Anthony Galt Greenwald is a social psychologist who, since 1986, has been a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
In 1959, Greenwald received a B.A. from Yale University. In 1961, he received a M.A. from Harvard University, a ...
*2000 - David L. Hamilton
*1999 -
E. Tory Higgins
*1998 -
Robert S. Wyer
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostrom, Tom
1936 births
20th-century American psychologists
American social psychologists
Wabash College alumni
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
1994 deaths
People from Mishawaka, Indiana