ABSTRACT
One of the more dramatic phenomena in social science during the past decade has been the tremendous development of interest in the field of research and theory concerning the relationships between personality and social systems. Although sociologists like G. H. Mead, E. W. Burgess, and C. H. Cooley, to mention only a few, made significant contributions in this field, it was not until recent years that interest in it became general. The main theoretical and empirical issues within it are not easy to determine and the fact that a great many sociologists as well as anthropologists and psychologists are concerned with this area does not mean that they are all focused on the same issues. Probably the main sub-area is what has come to be known as the culture and personality field. This field has been mainly dominated by anthropologists and by studies of national character and of modal personality in nonliterate societies (47, 58, 41). Both sociologists and psychologists, however, have recognized its relevance for their problems and have not only applauded from the sidelines, but have integrated its empirical findings and conceptions into their own theories and teaching. However, the culture and personality area does not encompass the whole field. Since sociologists have tended to define the term personality rather broadly, frequently as being synonymous with the individual, and there has been little clear consensus as to the meaning of social structure, the writings under the heading of personality and social structure have ranged widely, going from such broad problems as the relationship of the individual to society to more narrow ones involving specific kinds of behavior and small-group structure. One result is a considerable amount of misunderstanding and faulty communication, especially when the parties to the discussion are from different disciplines.
From Joseph Gittler (Ed.), Review of Sociology: Analysis of a Decade. Copyright © 1957 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Publishers. Reprinted by permission of the publisher and the author. Bert Kaplan is Professor of Psychology, Rice University.
