Search

The article presents a study of relationships among the Protestants and Catholics in the U.S. There is a current impression that this relationship is shifting in the direction of conflict. Bases for such impression is a best-seller book potraying the Catholic hierarchy as a threat to American freedom. This paper attempts to discover what empirical evidence exists to warrant such impression, if tensions do exists then in which area they are strongest and what factors appear to underlie such tensions. The term protestant in this paper refers to persons who are members of those religious bodies such as Episcopalian and Methodist. Catholics include members of the body known officially as the Roman Catholic Church. The term tension is of psychological origin and refers to degree of disharmony.

The article presents Soviet evaluation of the sociology of the U.S. It states that among sociologists in the U.S. the psychological conception of society is dominant. This conception is characterized by, first, putting forth the assertion of definite psychological qualities, proper so to speak to all peoples of all periods, which constantly activate emotions and form the content of the mass psyche and secondly, these so-called psychic traits and properties are put forward as impelling motives of the conduct of people, as the basis for emergent social movements, of historical events. Partisans of the "psychological conception" attempt on the one and to set forth the capitalist order as if it were the one which most corresponds to the "primordial properties of the human psyche," for example to the "feeling and instinct for property," on the other hand they attempt also to explain defects and ulcers of capitalism as properties of the human psyche. The conclusion is then drawn that only by the removal of these defects in the human psyche will come deliverance from all evils and afflictions.

This survey makes quite explicit the willingness of the social sciences and demography to initiate or expand teaching, research, and training on population policy. The disciplines now differ greatly in these activities. Of the 117 suggestions for research on policy, 41 are related to policy content; 16 to policy initiative and implementation; 47 to policy evaluation; and 13 to policy philosophy. The social scientists identified thirteen barriers which obstruct them from undertaking the needed research. Nine of the same barriers were named by the demographers. Barriers associated with the academic profession itself include expertise or technical competence, data limitations, ideology, professional identification, intellectual priorities, and role strains. The remaining barriers are associated with the organization of the university or the larger society rather than the academic profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]