Sociology/Talk

Removing these two paragraphs because (1) If I don't understand what they mean, there's no chance in hell an average layman will; and (2) they look a lot more personal than neutral reportage of the field. Mr. Clihor, please note that it is Wikipedia's policy not to include "original research", or to support unconventional theories except to report on their existence. We are an encyclopedia. The purpose of an article here is to give a layman a basic understanding of present knowledge in the field. If you want to write commentary, speculation, and original research, you should clearly mark it as such and keep it on second pages (for example "H. W. Clihor on Time") --LDC

However, in deference to Mr. Comte, Social Psychology, yet another discipline has embarked upon the study of how society's structure influences individuals and groups. Perhaps one of its founders, W.I. Thomas' definition of situational dynamics best describes how these varied disciplines might be related: He wrote: "If you define a situation as real, it is real to you in its consequences...however, your definition of a situation may be influenced by how others define the same situation."

This simple paradigm calls into question the four disciplines of Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Social Psychology and Traditional psychology and how they relate to each other and to their various definitions of society. Perhaps they should be grouped into a single discipline called Cultural Sociology. (Which would include all four disciplines and certain studies within Economics, History, Political Science, Statistics and Chaos Theory.)

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The topic Situational Dynamics sounds interesting. Tell us more. --Ed Poor

From the rest of the text submitted by Mr. Clihor over the day, he seems to be what we old hands on the net call a "mild psychoceramic"--i.e., a crackpot. I seriously doubt that anyone could learn anything useful from him. Let's not encourage him. --LDC

I'm not sure to whom I am speaking. But as an "old hand" on the internet as well, crackpot seems derisive, deleterious and more than overtly limited in its most demonstrative attempt at true crtiticism. I guess name-calling is the last bastion of the uninformed. LDC overlooks the fact that multi-disciplinary studies of social dynamics and situational dynamics have been conducted for over a half century. Perhaps if LDC took at look at the collected topics of Social Psychology, Aggression Theory, Studies in Emotional Arousal, Cognitive Dissonance, Propoganda and for that matter a host of articles too numerous to mention the light of illumination might burn away an indifferent veneer. Please, if deletions are to occur at least have them available for peer review...by at least someone somewhere capable of making an intelligent decision. Further, the ceramic nature of pscychology is an interesting concept. (LOL). I hope we can continue this discourse with LDC and maybe come to some agreement upon which material is fodder for further dicussion, inclusion and who indeed may not be psychoceramic, but an "unschooled, or biolgically silent burro" of which other minds might glean a fitting demonstrative conclusion to LDC's interesting "criticisms".