CULTURE-AND-PERSONALITY STUDIES

also called Psychological Anthropology, branch of anthropology that seeks to determine the nature of the interaction between the individual and his culture. It applies the methods of psychology to the field of anthropology in an effort to analyze the differing behaviour patterns of individuals who live in the same culture. Depth interviews, role playing, Rorschach tests, elaborate biographies, studies of family roles, and dream interpretation are among the methods used. Psychological anthropology, as it is sometimes called, has directed the attention of anthropologists to the symbolic meanings and emotional significance of cultural features that were hitherto treated only formally; at the same time, it has led psychologists to recognize the existence of an inevitable cultural component in all processes of perception, motivation, and learning.