Culture-and-personality studies apply the methods of psychology to the field of anthropology, including in-depth interviews, role playing, Rorschach tests, elaborate biographies, studies of family roles, and dream interpretation. Most popular in the 1930s and ’40s, psychological anthropology is exemplified by the works of American anthropologist
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Benedict and other proponents of culture-and-personality studies directed the attention of anthropologists to the symbolic meanings and emotional significance of cultural features that had hitherto been considered primarily through functional analysis; at the same time, they led psychologists to recognize the existence of an inevitable cultural component in all processes of perception, motivation, and learning.
