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Analysis of the Psychological Reality of American‐English Kin Terms in an Urban Poverty Environment 1
Author(s) -
SANDAY PEGGY R.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1971.73.3.02a00030
Subject(s) - poverty , variation (astronomy) , kinship , experiential learning , social psychology , sociology , social reality , psychology , social science , anthropology , economic growth , economics , pedagogy , physics , astrophysics
The purpose of this paper is (1) to describe and explain variation in the psychological reality of American‐English kinship terms; and, (2) to examine the relationship between results obtained by two approaches which have been used to find psychologically real definitions of American‐English kinship terms. A general hypothesis is proposed which accounts for variation in psychological reality in terms of life cycle and certain social role variables, as well as the individual's experiential knowledge of the domain under study. This hypothesis was accepted after it was revised to include the mediating influence of the content of what is stored in memory. The data for this study were collected in a U.S. urban poverty environment.