Editing Winfield Township, New Jersey (section)

===Sociological research===
The residents of Winfield Park were participants during the mid-1940s in a study of [[social interactions]] and patterns within public housing projects. This was one of the first studies undertaken by [[Columbia University]] [[Bureau of Applied Social Research]] under the leadership of [[Sociology|sociologist]] [[Robert K. Merton]]. Merton would become one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century; he was known as the "Father of the [[focus group]]" and was the first sociologist to win a [[National Medal of Science]] (1994). During his career, Merton coined terms including "[[self-fulfilling prophecy]]" (in an article that dealt with Winfield) and "[[role model]]". Other sociologists involved in these studies included [[Paul Lazarsfeld]], Patricia Salter West, and [[Marie Jahoda]]. Winfield Park was presented in several published articles by these researchers under the pseudonym "Craftown" and was presented as a homogeneous white middle-income public housing project. In these articles, "Craftown" was often compared and contrasted with "Hilltown," a racially integrated lower-income public housing project. An aspect of this research beyond interviewing every adult resident of the community was the decision to observe and provide detailed analysis and reports on community organizational meetings taking place during the summer and fall of 1945. In addition to the articles, there was also an unpublished manuscript on this research entitled ''Patterns of Social Life: Explorations in the Sociology and Social Psychology of Housing''. When asked in 2002 why this manuscript had not been published, Merton described the period of its writing as being during the Red Scare of the post-war years and his fear, along with those of the other researchers, that the study could have negatively affected Winfield Park. {{citation needed|date=June 2018}}<ref>Kaledin, Eugenia. ''Daily Life in the US 1940–1959: Shifting Worlds.''  Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. 2000. p. 85</ref> Merton described the mutual housing projects as some of the closest examples of functioning socialist communities within the United States and as such, was one of the primary attractions for studying Winfield Park and its residents.