Psychological anthropology

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The Psychological Anthropology is part of the empirical anthropology , that is the experience-based doctrine of man.

Concept history

The word combination "psychic anthropology" appears at the beginning of the 19th century as the title of the textbooks by Gottlob Ernst Schulze ( Psychische Anthropologie , 1816) and Jakob Friedrich Fries ( Handbuch der Psychischen Anthropologie or der Wissenschaft von der Natur des Menschen Geist , 1820/21, 2nd ed. 1837/38) and here means something like empirical human knowledge.

The double task of psychological anthropology

Within a comprehensive, interdisciplinary anthropology, psychology has two complementary tasks: the general psychology of humans and the psychology of human images .

General human psychology

According to the view of psychological anthropology, a purely philosophical , humanities or theological anthropology would have little content in central areas if psychology, social science and human biology were not included. All sub-areas of psychology are considered relevant here: general psychology , developmental psychology and social psychology , applied psychology , but differential psychology and personality research have a prominent role . There is a huge variety of heterogeneous, more or less developed personality theories . Psychological anthropology does not succeed in developing a comprehensive view of developing a metatheory of the different personality theories.

Psychology of human images

The psychology of human images has several perspectives. On the one hand, it asks what basic assumptions about people can be found in individuals or in the population, and on the other hand, which scientific theories can be found in psychology textbooks. The special contents of the textbooks provide another perspective, because the authors would inevitably reveal their own convictions when they select and present certain theories. Finally, the biographies, in particular the autobiographies of psychologists, psychotherapists or philosophers, can be evaluated in terms of content to see whether they give any clues to the image of man. In principle, this perspective also extends to attempts at biographical and ( ideological ) critical interpretations of the images of man by individual philosophers and philosophical directions. - In addition to Arthur Schopenhauer's and Friedrich Nietzsche's psychologizing, the self-critical motto of Johann Gottlieb Fichte from his theory of science can also be quoted: "What kind of philosophy you choose depends on what kind of person you are" (1797, p. 195) .

When asked about the conception of man by psychologists and philosophers, it was mostly a question of whether the author was more or less based on Christianity or the Jewish religion. Psychological anthropology assumes that for psychotherapists such as Viktor Frankl , Carl Gustav Jung and Carl Rogers it was probably irrelevant for them to provide more precise information about their religious creed, since they did not understand their concept of man to be directly based on theology . Psychological anthropology aims to make these inarticulate confessions visible.

In his book, The God of the philosophers has William Weischedel illustrated history of ideas, developed as the great philosophers their thinking in terms of central content of Christian dogma as it relates to the problem of God and the proofs of God apart translated, and with the theodicy employed.

Psychological anthropology demands that all philosophical thinking about people is interpreted against the background of religious belief or atheism or agnosticism . From some philosophical side such attempts at interpretation, as well as the connection with the biography of the author, are criticized as an expression of psychologism .

The clear diversity of personality theories and images of man in psychology counts towards recognizing one-sided assumptions about man in many contributions in psychology and also in philosophical anthropology .

literature

  • Psychological Anthropology = Volume 5 of the New Anthropology , ed. by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Vogler. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart ( ISBN 3-13-476501-2 ) and Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich ( ISBN 3-423-04073-4 ). 1973
  • Jens Asendorpf : Psychology of Personality . Springer, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-71684-6
  • Jochen Fahrenberg: Assumptions about people. Images of people from a psychological, biological, religious and intercultural point of view . Asanger, Heidelberg 2004. ISBN 3-89334-416-0
  • Jochen Fahrenberg: The scientific conception of psychology in Kant and Wundt . http://www.jp.philo.at/texte/FahrenbergJ2.pdf (199 kB).
  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Attempt a new representation of the science theory . Complete edition B. I, 4 (edited by R. Lauth & H. Gliwitzky). Frommann, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1797/1970.
  • Hermann-Josef Fisseni: Personality Psychology. An overview of theories . Hogrefe, Göttingen 2003. (5th edition) ISBN 3-8017-0981-7
  • Norbert Groeben (Ed.): On the program of a social science psychology . Volume 1-3. Aschendorff, Münster 1997. ISBN 3-402-04604-0
  • Gerd Jüttemann (Ed.): Psychology as human science. A manual . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004. ISBN 3-525-46215-8
  • Lawrence A. Pervin: Personality Theories . Munich, Reinhardt 1981. (4th edition) ISBN 3-8252-8035-7
  • Ludwig J. Pongratz (Ed.): Psychotherapy in self-portrayals . Huber, Bern 1973.
  • Wolfgang Schönpflug : History and Systematics of Psychologi e. Beltz Psychologie Verlags Union, Weinheim 2004. ISBN 3-621-27559-2
  • Hannes Stubbe: Lexicon of Psychological Anthropology. Psychosocial, Giessen 2012
  • Wilhelm Weischedel: The god of the philosophers. Foundation of a Philosophical Theology in the Age of Nihilism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1998. ISBN 3-485-03537-8
  • Lawrence S. Wrightsman: Assumptions about human nature . Sage, Newbury Park CA 1992. ISBN 0-8039-2774-6
  • Christoph Wulf: Anthropology. History, culture, philosophy . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004. ISBN 3-499-55664-2
  • Christoph Wulf (Ed.): From people. Handbook of Historical Anthropology . Beltz, Weinheim 1997. ISBN 3-407-83136-6