Typology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The word typology literally means the study of types. Beyond this simple definition, the term has at least six distinct uses in the fields listed below:
- Typology (archaeology). Typology in archaeology is the classification of things according to their characteristics.
- Typology (anthropology). Typology in anthropology is the division of culture by race.
- Typology (creation biology): Concept that life is created in a number of separate “kinds” (or “types”).
- Typology (theology). Typology in Christian theology interprets some characters and stories of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) as allegories foreshadowing the New Testament.
- Linguistics. See linguistic typology and morphological typology. Typology is a branch of linguistics which concerns itself with comparing the properties that languages have, disregarding their genetic relationships.
- Psychology. Carl Jung proposed a psychological typology based on archetypes. See Jungian archetypes. Also, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Myers developed a typology that categorizes a person by personality types, see Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
- Sociology. Typological terms have been developed by Ferdinand Tönnies (see normal type) and Max Weber (see ideal type).