17. Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology

Anthropology, sociology, and some subdivisions of psychology are numbered among the social sciences. As the belief that God directly controlled and influenced human behavior weakened during the nineteenth century, philosophers tried to construct a science of society, or social science. Social scientists rejected the idea that human activities occur at random and affirmed instead that all human activities reveal observed regularities or patterns. Gradually, social scientists refined such concepts as social class and kinship to explain these patterns.

By the end of the nineteenth century, as knowledge became more technical and specialized, economists, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists each pursued different avenues of inquiry into social experience. Although social scientists in one field borrowed ideas from other fields, each field tended to develop its own specialized language, or jargon, and distinctive concepts. What began as an all-encompassing effort to identify a single science of society became an enterprise marked by diversity, specialization, and often fragmentation. Today, the usual list of social sciences includes anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology. In addition, some view history as a social science.

In this section, we have grouped together entries drawn from three social sciences: anthropology, psychology, and sociology. Sociology concerns itself with the behavior of humans in groups: with social relationships, social classes, social movements, and organizations. An economist might study a corporation to gauge its impact on production, and a political scientist might assess how corporations try to influence political campaigns. In contrast, a sociologist would explore the social relationships that develop among workers within a corporation.

Anthropologists also study social behavior, but with a difference. Where sociologists focus on groups in advanced societies of the present, anthropologists have traditionally paid more attention to social relationships among so-called primitive, preliterate peoples. In recent years, this distinction has broken down to a degree, for anthropologists now also study social behavior in advanced societies. Yet anthropologists are more likely to compare advanced societies with primitive societies. In this sense, anthropology encompasses a broader historical and geographical span than does sociology.

Psychology is basically the study of mental life. Some subdivisions of psychology have far more in common with natural sciences such as biology and chemistry than with the social sciences. For example, physiological psychologists study the role of the brain, glands, and other organs in mental processes and often experiment on animals, especially rats, rather than humans. Many other subdivisions of psychology, however, resemble the social sciences. For example, social psychologists investigate the role of the family and the peer group in the mental development of the individual. Both sociologists and anthropologists also concern themselves with mental processes, for all social relationships among humans have psychological dimensions. The difference is that psychologists start out with mental processes, whereas sociologists and anthropologists usually begin with social relationships and then speculate about mental processes.

—J.F.K.

Entries

aborigines	abortion	acculturation
acrophobia	alienation	alter ego
altruism	amnesia	anal personality
anal stage	angst	animism
anthropology	anxiety	aphrodisiac
archaeology	archetype	asexuality
assimilation	autism	beatniks
behavior modification	behaviorism	Benedict, Ruth
Bible Belt	bisexuality	blackball
blacklist	blue-collar	Boy Scouts of America
brainwashing	bureaucracy	bureaucrat
Bushmen	cadre	Cajun
Carnegie, Dale	caste	catharsis
charisma	Chicanos	class
class consciousness	class structure	class struggle
claustrophobia	cognitive development	collective unconscious
Coming of Age in Samoa	common-law marriage	compulsion
conditioned response	conformity	conjugal
conspicuous consumption	cosmology	counterculture
Cro-Magnon	cult	culture
defense mechanism	delusion	demography
developmental psychology	double standard of sexual behavior	dowry
ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph	ego	egocentric
egomania	egotism	empathy
empty nest	encounter group	Eskimos
ethnicity	ethnocentrism	ethnology
euthanasia	expatriation	extended family
extrasensory perception	extrovert	feminism
fetish	Freud, Sigmund	Freudian
Freudian slip	future shock	Gallup polls
gay	geisha	generation gap
genital stage	gerontocracy	gestalt psychology
ghettos	Girl Scouts of the United States of America	great man theory
group therapy	Haley, Alex	hallucination
heterogeneity	heterosexuality	hippies
Homo erectus	Homo sapiens	homogeneity
homosexuality	hunting and gathering societies	hypnosis
hysteria	id	illegitimacy
incest	inhibition	inner city
intellectual	intelligence quotient	intelligentsia
introvert	James, William	Jung, Carl
Kinsey, Alfred	kinship	kleptomania
latency period	Leakey	lesbian
libido	Lucy	mainstream
maladjustment	malpractice	Malthusianism
mania	masochism	matriarchy
matrilineal	McLuhan, (Herbert) Marshall	Mead, Margaret
The medium is the message	megalomania	megalopolis
melting pot	meritocracy	Middle America
middle class	mixed marriage	monogamy
mores	motor development	multiculturalism
narcissism	Native Americans	nature-nurture controversy
Neanderthal	nepotism	neurosis
nomadism	nonverbal communication	nuclear family
nymphomania	obscenity	obsession
Oedipus complex	old boy network	Olduvai Gorge
oral personality	oral stage	organization man
paranoia	paranoid schizophrenia	parapsychology
pariah	patriarchy	patrilineal
Pavlov’s dogs	peasant	pecking order
pederast	peeping Tom	peer group
peer pressure	penis envy	personality
Peter Principle	phallic symbol	phobia
the Pill	pleasure principle	polyandry
polygamy	pornography	Post, Emily
postindustrial society	posttraumatic stress disorder	prejudice
primogeniture	pseudoscience	psyche
psychedelic	psychiatry	psychic research
psychoanalysis	psychology	psychopath
psychosis	psychotherapy	Pygmy
pyromania	redneck	regression
rites of passage	role conflict	role model
Rorschach test	sadism	scapegoat
schizophrenia	sensory deprivation	sex roles/gender roles
sexism	sexual abuse	sexual orientation
sexual revolution	shock therapy	short-term memory
significant other	Skinner, B. F.	social Darwinism
social mobility	social science	socialization
socioeconomic status	sociology	sociopath
sodomy	Stanford-Binet scale	status
stereotype	stimulus	subconsciousness
subculture	sublimation	suburbanization
superego	survivor guilt	symbol
taboo	technocracy	telepathy
therapy	totemism	transvestite
type A personality	type B personality	unconscious
upward mobility	urban renewal	value judgment
voyeurism	Weber, Max	white-collar
Woodstock	working class	xenophobia
zero population growth

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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