Test Your Knowledge of Psychological Anthropology!

Psychological Anthropology: An Overview

• Psychological anthropology is an interdisciplinary subfield of anthropology that studies the interaction of cultural and mental processes.
• This subfield examines how human cognition, emotion, perception, motivation, and mental health are shaped by cultural enculturation and development.
• Psychological anthropology has been intertwined with anthropology since the beginning, and it has been influenced by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories.
• The schools within psychological anthropology have their own approach, such as psychoanalytic anthropology, culture and personality, configurationalist approach, national character, ethnopsychology, cognitive anthropology, and psychiatric anthropology.
• Psychoanalytic anthropology focuses on how cultural symbols, including myths, dreams, and rituals, can be interpreted using psychoanalytical theories and techniques.
• Culture and personality examines how personality is influenced by a person's culture, and how changing cultures can change one's personality.
• Configurationalist approach describes a culture as a personality, and leading figures include Ruth Benedict, A. Irving Hallowell, and Margaret Mead.
• National character focuses on the personality traits of a particular nation or culture, and leading figures include sociologist Alex Inkeles and anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn.
• Ethnopsychology studies the cultural variations of psychological processes, such as perception and categorization.
• Cognitive anthropology draws on cognitive science and focuses on how people think and process information.
• Psychiatric anthropology examines the interaction between culture and mental health or mental illness, and prominent psychological anthropologists have addressed the cultural construction of mental health as a profession.
• Psychological anthropology has been a relatively small but productive subfield, and few universities have active graduate training programs in psychological anthropology.