Psychologistic definition of Psychologistic in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Psychologism

a sociological methodology characteristic of several trends in bourgeois sociology, beginning with G. Tarde, L. Ward, W. MacDougall, and C. Cooley. Psychologism is associated with the contemporary schools of symbolic interactionism (G. Mead and his followers) and neo-Freudian-ism, as well as phenomenological sociology (H. Becker and E. Goffman, for example) and ethnological methodology. All of the varieties of psychologism try to explain social relations and structures in terms of psychological data.

The earliest, crudest, and most primitive forms of psychologism stressed the importance of hereditary factors and deduced the forms of social behavior from the supposedly primordial characteristics of the human psyche—for example, sexuality, aggressiveness, affect, and the death wish. Psychologism attempted to use personality traits (or national character) to explain social phenomena such as war and racial and class conflicts.

Later, psychologism evolved toward a repudiation of the idea of the genetic predetermination of human behavior, but it continued to reject the reality of such phenomena as society, social systems, and organizations. According to the proponents of psychologism, such concepts are metaphysical. The adherents of psychologism confine themselves to analyzing the immediate interactions of individuals and depend primarily on concepts such as “directly observable behavior” and responses to a situation. The methods of psychological analysis are important for the study of small groups, but they are unsound when applied to the study of broader social problems.

Contemporary bourgeois sociology has tried to overcome the limitations of the principles and aims of psychologism by combining it with the analysis of large social systems. T. Parsons, A. Etzioni, P. Blau, and P. Selznick are among those who have experimented with this approach, which is known as structural-functional analysis. However, most of the premises of the new approach are psychological.

Marxist sociology, which has demonstrated the limited character of psychologism, establishes the real relationship between the social and the psychological—that is, the determination of the psychological by the social.

REFERENCES

Zamoshkin, Iu. A. Pskihologicheskoe napravlenie v sovremennoi burzhuaznoi sotsiologii. Moscow, 1958.
Zamoshkin, Iu. A. Krizis burzhuaznogo individualizma i lichnost’. Moscow, 1966.
Kon, I. S. Pozitivizm v sotsiologii. Leningrad, 1964.
Parygin, B. D. Osnovy sotsial’no-psikhologicheskoi teorii. Moscow, 1971.
Bogardus, E. S. The Development of Social Thought, 4th ed. New York [1960].
The Behavioral Sciences Today. Edited by B. Berelson. New York, 1964. Merton, R. On Theoretical Sociology. New York, 1967.

L. A. SEDOV

Mentioned in	?		References in periodicals archive	?		Encyclopedia browser	?		Full browser	?
No references found	VIII, "The Psychologistic Prejudices" [section] 46 (28) cf. Manlio Sgalambro, Giorgio Agamben: on metaphysical suspension of ... by Presutti, Fabio / Italica The poet in question is Petrarch, and the classical monolith into which he painfully collided is Ovid, whose poem of change, the Metamorphoses, is made relentlessly stable by "its visual and rhetorical clarity, its calm impersonality, its security within nature, its accommodations with suffering, its refusal of psychologistic paradox, and its capacity for repose" (131). Shakespeare, the classics, and the forms of authorship by James, Heather / Shakespeare Studies Down and Out in Paris and London was the opposite to the psychologistic, character-driven novels typical of the lost generation lodged in Paris--the concern with the concrete details of poverty, and the material conditions which made 'Paris' possible more or less effaces the narrator entirely. Orwell, whose Orwell? On the centenary of his birth, the complexities ... by Rundle, Guy / Arena Magazine	psycho-acoustic model Psycho-Lamarckism psychoacoustics psychoactive Psychoanalysis psychoanalytic group therapy psychobiology Psychodidae psychodynamics psychogalvanic reflex psychogalvanometer psychogenic Psychogenic Disorders psychointegroammeter psychokinesis Psycholinguistics psychological development Psychological School Psychological School of Law psychological test psychological testing Psychological Theory of the Business Cycle psychological warfare Psychologism psychologist Psychologistic Psychology Psychology Congresses, International Psychology Education Psychology Journals Psychology of Sex, The Psychology Societies and Organizations Psychology, Industrial Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Sports Psychology, Topological psychometrics psychomotor psychomotor excitement psychomotor performance psychomotor task Psychoneuroimmunology psychopath psychopathic personality psychopathology Psychopathy Psychopharmacology Psychophysical methods Psychophysical Problem Psychophysics psychophysiologic nervous system reaction	Psychological Well-Being Scale psychologically psychologically psychologically psychologically abnormal Psychologically addictive Psychologically addictive Psychologically addictive Psychologically addictive Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award psychologically induced colitis psychologically induced colitis psychologically induced colitis Psychologie Cognitive et Ergonomique psychologies psychologies psychologies psychologise psychologise psychologised psychologised psychologises psychologises psychologising psychologising psychologism psychologism psychologist psychologist psychologist Psychologistic Psychologists Psychologists Psychologists Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Psychologists of Northwest Arkansas Psychologists Registration Board of Queensland Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria Psychologists' Association of Alberta Psychologists' Neuropsychotropic Drug Reference psychologize psychologize psychologized psychologized psychologizer psychologizer psychologizes psychologizes psychologizing psychologizing Psychologue psychology psychology psychology psychology Psychology and Human Development Psychology and Social Justice Conference Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Encyclopedia browser

Full browser

No references found

VIII, "The Psychologistic Prejudices" [section] 46 (28) cf.

Manlio Sgalambro, Giorgio Agamben: on metaphysical suspension of ... by Presutti, Fabio / Italica

The poet in question is Petrarch, and the classical monolith into which he painfully collided is Ovid, whose poem of change, the Metamorphoses, is made relentlessly stable by "its visual and rhetorical clarity, its calm impersonality, its security within nature, its accommodations with suffering, its refusal of psychologistic paradox, and its capacity for repose" (131).

Shakespeare, the classics, and the forms of authorship by James, Heather / Shakespeare Studies

Down and Out in Paris and London was the opposite to the psychologistic, character-driven novels typical of the lost generation lodged in Paris--the concern with the concrete details of poverty, and the material conditions which made 'Paris' possible more or less effaces the narrator entirely.

Orwell, whose Orwell? On the centenary of his birth, the complexities ... by Rundle, Guy / Arena Magazine

psycho-acoustic model

psychoanalytic group therapy

psychobiology

Psychodidae

psychodynamics

psychogalvanic reflex

psychogalvanometer