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(1939). Projective Methods for the Study of Personality. The Journal of Psychology: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 389-413.

Contemporary individual and social maladjustments may be regarded as different symptoms of cultural disintegration. This interpretation differs from the belief that individual misconduct interferes with the operation of underlying social, economic, and political "forces" that, if left alone, would solve our social problems. The conception of personality and culture is urged as a more fruitful formulation of the situation, with the implication of the need for cultural reorganization for the sake both of the individual and of society.

The inviolability of the person and of things is a basic factor in culture. Its observance is highly differentiated according to age, sex, mental status, physical characteristics, religion, position or rank or caste, occupational class, and property of the individual; also, it varies according to season and location. Each person must respect these inviolabilities in others and defend himself against others, using the group sanctioned institutional practices for approaching otherwise inviolable persons and property. The analysis of culture in terms of inviolabilities and related institutional practices is urged as a promising approach to comparative culture, law, and other social studies and for the study of personality development.

In the study of personality, various methods of examination are used for essentially the same purpose: to determine the subject's position relative to actual or theoretical norms for each different characteristics examined. This paper urges use of actual measurements in place of ratings and clinical judgments, and it stresses need for ascertaining the subject's rank order in empirically derived frequency distributions as contrasted with assigning him positions in conceptual rating scales. It is also suggested that the current interest in non-measurable characteristics, such as attitudes, opinions, and beliefs, be subordinated, since these non-measurable factors may be approached as concommitants of the characteristics capable of measurement. An individual's rank orders will yield clues to the way he faces situations and therefore to his mental and emotional set toward those situations. Furthermore, study of the interrelations among the various rank orders of an individual will give insights into his perso...

Social order has long been conceived as an organization or mechanism which exists as a part of the cosmos and operates through large-scale forces acting at a distance. Social theory has taught man that he must learn to submit to these assumed forces and accept this cosmic organization as necessary to social order, while social research has attempted to measure these assumed forces. Recent studies of culture and personality indicate that social order is not given but historically developed ideas, beliefs, and patterns of conduct and of feeling which each culture has evolved as the guides to human conduct and the management of group activities. Moreover, recent studies indicate that social disorders and conflicts arise from the distorted personalites fostered by those cultural traditions. This newer conception of social order offers an escape from the defeatist beliefs so long accepted and suggests a reformulation of the tasks of social order and of the problems of social research.