On Peculiarities of Culturally Conditioned Psychological Universals

The paper builds on settlements of psychology, especially of experimental social psychology, and refers to sociology and cultural anthropology as well. It outlines and illustrates by selected examples the peculiarities of psychological universals without biological foundations. It is argued that they are the results of usefulness of psychological attributes/mechanisms in cultural adaptations to natural environment. The universals of cultural genesis do not have the equivalents in the nomothetical sciences. They usually appear in various cultural/historical contexts with varying frequency and intensity, and sometimes perform there diverse functions. Accordingly, the social psychology theories that focus on such universals unavoidably differ from the theories typical of natural sciences, which are perceived by social psychologists as the matchless ideal. Adapted from the source document.