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Scientific specialties have taken a part of human life and dissected it, such as in studies of childhood, adolescence, gerontology, and lately, even studies of adult life. In taking on the human life course as a unit, we must transcend the temporal division of life into different stages, and to combine the different role-set within the space of the society, to find the unique lives for their whole course. Biographies are humanistic expressions centering on the life course, using a definite set of rules of evidence. The large changes, which go beyond any definition of stability, can be analyzed by the principles of catastrophe theory: they may seem too obvious to need the mechanisms of such a heavy mathematical theory, but they can provide a framework in which to fit the public data which we are able to obtain.

The rise and decline of the encounter movement is the history of a technological innovation. Some followers of this movement may even call it the most important invention of the century. In 1947 two events of cultural significance occurred. One was the production of Tennessee Williams' play, "A Street car Named Desire," which started a postwar development in American drama. The other was the first session of the National Training Laboratory at Bethel, Maine which inagura-ted the successful rise of the movement of T-groups, sensitivity training and encounters. The National Training Laboratory, and the movement which sprang out of it, tries to teach people how to act with strangers, how to live in a world of high mobility and new events, how to deal successfully with these by modifying or even rejecting the interaction patterns of social convention. The original philosopher of the sensitivity training movement, Kenneth Benne, discussed the relationship of the individual and the group in contemporary literature.

Fashion is in many ways an extreme of cultural activity. Although fashion is almost synonymous with arbitrary, short-term changes, long-term trends can be discerned which are indications of cultural conditions. Fashion is therefore influenced strongly by all three factors: social norms, individual self-expression, and technology. Within the latitude given by these norms, fashion also gives a place for individual expression. Fashion in modernism depends on social norms, individual self-expression, technical opportunities, and the initiative of the fashion designer. The effort of modernism has been to break tradition, leading to claims of the priority of the individual over social norms. The use of labels for display is also an example of another aspect of modernism in fashion design the obliteration of the distinction between visual and verbal presentation. Social identity manifested in a wealth of messages corresponds better to the social conditions of modernism than the older sumptuary conditions based on social class.

However co-operative the subject, and however ingenious the experimenter, the difficulty of obtaining exact measures of emotional reactions remains one of the most trying problems in experimental psychology. This paper reports on the use of physiological measures in a standard psychological experiment as one way out of the difficulty.

Scientists are only human, and like other human beings, sometimes do battle over conflicting ideologies. Within the social sciences, there is developing an increasingly serious quarrel between the model makers, who emphasize rigorous control and precise definition, and the humanists, who go beyond the clearly denotable rules and principles to develop more intuitive and “transcendental” concepts. The author suggests that this estrangement is caused by a breakdown in communication; that members of the two factions, though using the same words, are actually speaking different languages. Here h e defines these two approaches, and argues that if social science is to progress, the scientists must learn to speak both languages.

(1995). Frankenstein and brave new world: Two cautionary myths on the boundaries of science. History of European Ideas: Vol. 20, No. 1-3, pp. 327-332.

Lewin's introduction of topological psychology was an exciting innovation as well as an object of ridicule. The reasons for its function as a fighting slogan for the Lewinian school and for its decline are analyzed. Topology provided a fruitful metaphor, but its mathematical use was insufficiently developed, partly because topology was an underdeveloped field of mathematics at the time. However, Lewin showed foresight in insisting on the need for a mathematics applicable to psychology. Modern developments in topology, especially catastrophe theory, are shown to be productive for psychological theory and its applications, thus justifying Lewin's intuition.

Memory about ourselves should be the simplest memory possible: If we do not know about ourselves, what can we know about? If we cannot remember about ourselves, what can we remember? Thus, we can be sure about our own past, but we are less certain about anything else.

Concepts of life-course analysis as developed by psychologists and sociologists are used to elaborate on the biographical studies of those families which were influential in English intellectual life during the 19th and 20th centuries. This discussion also tries to find a place for creativity and ideas in the study of the life course.

The biography of heroic figures depends on the nature of the heroic role as well as on actual life events; even biographies of current heroes and heroines are subject to this process. A typology of life stories according to content and purpose delineates the place of myth, biography and life course analysis. The life stories of the founding figures of the family planning movement are examined to show the modeling of the main life events of the biographies into the heroic model.

The importance of diet as a means of self-expression has yet to be examined closely enough in terms of a social phenomenon; instead, historians, sociologists and anthropologists tend to see food habits as being the natural and rational standards in society. Two groups, self-defined as gourmets or vegetarians, were examined through questionnaires administered by two magazines: the respondents were rated in terms of social background and mobility, psychological data, and current friendship networks, and the manner in which these various characteristics were linked to their eating preferences. The responses seem to indicate that in these particular groups, food becomes an analogical representation of the self: gourmets try to integrate a large, fluid, cosmopolitan middle-class culture, while vegetarians define themselves negatively and create strong boundaries against the general society.

An overview to this special issue on population control is presented. An examination of the psychological validity of the long-term goals of family planning and population control reveals that ambivalence lies at the heart of the definition of the rewards and costs of different population goals. The next section summarizes articles that advocate the value of variety and attempt to show how average family size can be achieved with maximum individual choice. The psychologist can contribute to such policies through defining the variability in individual motivation. The next section summarizes papers that illustrate the peculiar nature of the fertility process as b oth a symptom and a cause of social change as well as its long-range importance in individual lives. The next two sections review articles on the actual techniques and limitations of population control. The primary definition made is the difference between cognitive and behavorial theories-whether attitudes or behavior comes first. Thus one author insists that attitude change has been undersold as a policy means; and another analyst points to the failure of information campaigns. Nontheless the most developed area in psychology that is pertinent to population control is the implementation of the use of birth control methods. The wider issues of policy such as the questions of coercion versus voluntarism or the parameters of human adaptability are selectively neglected in current research acitivites.

Logically each of these systems can be taken as consistent and self-contained. One can work within each of them producing important data and interesting theories. A complete theory of demography however a theory which can predict as well as explain and be useful for social policy will have to integrate all three perspectives. However each particular scholar will feel most comfortable in one or the other kind of theory and the history of demography has followed the preferences and achievements of different leaders with such affinities to different levels of success. These historical accidents influence the prevalence of one or the other model. For better or worse Thomas Malthus determined the direction which the incipient science of demography would take. The conditions which led Malthus to write the Essay determined not only the realisation that overpopulation could be a problem but the manner of approach to this problem as well. The data which Malthus employed to strengthen his argument the manner of reasoning he employed looked at population as a practically self-propelled unit. We have the image of an expanding mass straining against the constraint of natural resources. What is missing from this picture is the characteristically human ability to plan to think and to organise. Demography has followed this path for a long time showing population trends neglecting an alternative route of building up demographic rates from individual decisions. The latter procedure is comparatively recent and has added new perspectives to demography leading to better founded theories. This paper will discuss the route taken from Malthuss work and the dimensions which were implied when new models of human nature were added to the work of demography. (excerpt)

The relation of fiction to society may be interpreted from several points of view. As any other medium of mass communication, fiction is a source of information and attitudes, and an indicator of popular perspectives. In addition, fiction responds to its own rules. Necessities and conventions of representation in a particular form lead to certain combinations that are attributable neither to reflections of the situation nor to the intention to influence. This paper examines the place of the aged in novels published in the United States during the years 1931‐1970. Because of the different ingredients that go into the creation of characters in novels, no simple relationship of contact with social conditions or attempted influence by an author can be discerned. A realistic picture of the presentation cannot concentrate on the status of old heroes and heroines, but on the manner in which old people become part of the general scene or setting within a whole presentation of a novel. One can contrast this approa...

Models of human nature are seldom clearly expressed by individuals; nevertheless, they are rooted deeply and may be crucial in the formulation and success of population policies. It appears that, for purposes of population policy, a few deep-rooted models can be distinguished and that these models are closely related to the developmental status of countries. Questions of political feasibility and program effectiveness could be analyzed within this framework and the classification proposed here could contribute to this goal.

The present study investigates changes in personal satisfaction over the whole life course by means of life graphs and their determinants. The life graphs were administered within a 4-year interval to 371 individuals (age 45-70). A modified version of the Holmes and Rahe life events scale, administered in the second interview, was used to ascertain the occurrence of four kinds of events: (1) children leaving home, (2) ill health, (3) death of family or friends, and (4) changes in work. Differences in height between the peak of the graph and the height at the current age is the measurement technique used with the life graphs. Events are found to play a different role at different stages of life and seem to be measured against an implicit schedule according to which the events are seen as traumatic or acceptable. Thus, the same event has different effects on perception of emotional state according to age.

Types of sensitivity training groups are distinguished according to their general orientations, practice and aims. Observations are made on the Esalen, Tavistock, and NTL approaches as well as on some sources of the different approaches and suggestions as to their advantages and disadvantages.

Three studies demostrate that role-playing can be used to obtain data in a regular survey. Most respondents can do it; it is easy to train interviewers to administer; it is quinckly and reliably scored; and it provides valid results. The data gathered by role-playing may prove better than traditional interview procedures where the inquiry is concerned with the respondent's behavior under stress, when he is strongly affected by his perception of other roles, the others' reactions, and personality variables.

The author, Associate Professor in Duke University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology, discusses the diverse approaches to decision theory. He holds that probabilistic, rational decision models are restricted to situations in the middle range of importance and cannot be generalized to life decisions. Irrational models, which take psychodynamic factors into account, remain insufficient to account for the whole range of decision process. A non-rational model is proposed, and its assumptions are shown to underlie a variety of decisions that have been studied. The author thanks David M. Shaw and Ida H. Simpson for many helpful suggestions.

Social Psychology is shown as having, in its rejection of grand theory, also abandoned many of its significant problems. The field of social psychology is defined in relation to sociology and psychology. The latter are each dealing with a complete logical system, which may or may not be in conflict or leave certain areas undefined. Social psychology is defined as an interstitial science covering the situations where actions of the individual and the forces of organized society interact. The need for full-range theory is shown and examples are given. ocial psychology started out with a conS cern for man's place in society. It has L achieved a detailed analysis of interpersonal relations. This, in a nutshell, has been the history of the science, its progress or constriction, depending on one's point of view. This development, of course, is not confined to social psychology. It seems that the general course of social science has been an escape from the searching questions which originally motivated its inception and a substitution of more exactly measurable problems. Probably the original questions were badly phrased and unanswerable as stated. Much has been gained by the introduction of operationally defined concepts and empirically verifiable problems. However, if a shift occurs and the subject matter changes, the price of scientific precision becomes a loss of importance. In one respect, however, the social psychologist is in a unique position. The problem of the scientist, of his shifting direction, his relation to the trends of the science and of society, and his assessment of his own efforts is itself a topic of social psychology. Social psychology is thus reflexive, and consideration of its own development is a prime example of a discussion of its own scope. In defining what social psychology should be, we can also understand how it has developed. We can include a social psychology of knowledge as a legitimnate division of social psychology.

and also entering into a period which is the last period of human life, both of which conditions have a definite meaning for individuals. We may call this the personal-philosophy aspect of aging. Like other aspects of personal philosophy, these facts seem obvious, and just because they are assumed and form the background of ex perience, it is hard for people to put their philosophy into words. Large-scale studies of aging people seldom take measures of this aspect of aging into account, but use other measures which are more easily ob tainable. Thus it is questionable how closely people really look at the course of their lives, how explicit the personal philosophy is, and it is difficult to get people to express ideas about their whole life course. This paper will investigate a method by which we can look at people's ideas about the course and the approaching end of their lives. The difficulty in devising measures of this kind lies in the fact that some answers are so obvious. If you ask people whether they are going to die, they say yes, and also agree that their life span is limited. In the same way, everybody accepts the fact that time passes, and that stages of life are different. Somewhat more subtle measures have to be used to see how aware people are of these facts during the normal course of their activities. It can be shown, for instance, that individuals are quite able to illustrate the course of their lives pictorially, and draw graphs corresponding to their lives (Back and Bourque, 1970; Bourque and