American psychologist and practitioner of psychophysics—the quantitative measurement of subjective psychological phenomena—exemplified by his studies of the relative affectiveness of colour, hue, brightness, and saturation for men and women.

Guilford taught at the Universities of Kansas (1927–28), Nebraska (1928–40), and Southern California (1940–67). A leading American exponent of factor analysis for a comprehensive assessment of personality, Guilford constructed for this purpose batteries of tests, or factor inventories. His comprehensive, systematic theory of intellectual abilities, known as the structure of intellect, was outlined in The Nature of Human Intelligence (1967).