John Clemans Flanagan was an American psychologist most known for developing the Critical Incident Technique, which identifies and classifies behaviors associated with the success or failure of human activity. In 1946, he founded the American Institutes for Research, a not-for-profit behavioral and social research organization that applied the Critical Incident Technique to education and other fields. In 1960, Flanagan initiated Project Talent, a massive survey of more than 400,000 high school students throughout the United States.
Among the honors Flanagan received were: Legion of Merit by the Army Air Corps; Raymond F. Longacre Award of the Aero-Medical Association, Edward Lee Thorndike Award of the APA Division of Educational Psychology, 1976 Distinguished Professional Contribution Award of APA, Phi Delta Kappa Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education, Development and Research, ETS Award for Distinguished Service to Measurement; Professional Practice Award of APA’s Division of Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
