CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Tom Ostrom

American psychologist (1936–1994)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 23, 2025
Entity authorityQ7817133 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Marshall Ostrom (March 1, 1936 – May 16, 1994) was a psychologist who helped further the study of social psychology. 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. He received a bachelor's degree from Wabash College in 1958 and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1964. He joined the faculty of the Ohio State University that same year, and remained there the rest of his life.

Ostrom was noted for his work advancing attitude 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.

Editorial summary

“Tom Ostrom” enters the record as american psychologist (1936–1994). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ostrom, American and psychologist can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1936, 1994, 1958, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1936-03-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Ostrom, American and psychologist.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Tom Ostrom” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ostrom, American and psychologist provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7817133. VIAF identifies the subject as 110525386. The Library of Congress control number is n80138158. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 1994, 1958 and 1964.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tom Ostrom”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tom Ostrom primary sources, Tom Ostrom archive and Ostrom research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tom Ostrom”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tom Ostrom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.