Kimball Young

Research in a Changing Society

Trends in sociological research will doubtless be influenced by many problems arising in the postwar world and by improvements in method. In methodology we may expect the emergence of more suitable working concepts and better techniques for discovering pertinent social facts, both quantitative and qualitative. The overwhelming demands of business, organized labor, and government for quick and practical answers to social problems may result in marked pressures upon our universities to neglect research which is less immediate in aim but perhaps more important in its ultimate bearing on society and culture.

Topical Summaries of Current Literature: Personality Studies

For convenience we may say that there are two types of investigation of personality. One is structural, or cross-sectional, viewing personality as a combination of given traits which may be studied statistically. The other is historico-genetic, or functional, viewing personality from the angle of its genesis and with particular reference to its social setting. In order to state concisely the essential features of this dual treatment, we may subdivide our discussion into three sections: the first the structural, which is largely statistical, the second the historical, and the third the general question of methodology in personality study.