A typology is a system of classification used to organize things according to similar or dissimilar characteristics.
Groups of things within a typology are known as "types".
Typologies are distinct from
taxonomies
image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy
Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...
in that they primarily address things not categorizable based on empirical and objective characteristics, such as abstract and conceptual ideas or subjective criteria, though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
The earliest evidence for the use of typology as a noun in the English language dates to the 1850s when it was invoked by
William Maxwell Hetherington.
See also
*
Typology (anthropology) Typology in anthropology was the categorization of the human species by races, based solely on traits that are readily observable from a distance such as head shape, skin color, hair form, body build, and stature. During the late 19th and early 20th ...
, human anatomical categorization based on morphological traits
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Typology (archaeology), classification of artefacts according to their characteristics
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Building typology, relating to buildings and architecture
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Farm typology, farm classification by the USDA
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Typology of Greek vase shapes
The pottery of ancient Greece has a long history and the form of Greek vase shapes has had a continuous evolution from Minoan pottery down to the Hellenistic period. As Gisela Richter puts it, the forms of these vases (by convention the term "v ...
, classification of Greek vases
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Johnson's Typology, a classification of intimate partner violence
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Typology (linguistics)
Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...
, study and classification of languages according to their structural features
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Morphological typology
Morphological typology is a linguistic typology, way of classifying the languages of the world that groups languages according to their common Morphology (linguistics), morphological structures. The field organizes languages on the basis of how ...
, a method of classifying languages
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Typology (psychology)
In psychology, personality type refers to the psychological classification of individuals. In contrast to personality traits, the existence of personality types remains extremely controversial. Types are sometimes said to involve ''qualitative'' d ...
, a model of personality types
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Psychological typologies
Psychological typologies are classifications used by psychologists to describe the distinctions between people. The problem of finding the essential basis for the classification of psychological types—that is, the basis of determining a broad ...
, classifications used by psychologists to describe the distinctions between people
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Sociopolitical typology
Sociopolitical typology refers to four types, or levels, of a political organization: "band", "tribe", "chiefdom", and "state", created by the anthropologist Elman Service.
Overview
Service's work is fundamental to cultural materialism, one amo ...
, four types, or levels, of a political organization
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Typology (statistics)
Typology is a composite measure that involves the classification of observations in terms of their attributes on multiple variables. Such classification is usually done on a nominal scale. Typologies are used in both qualitative and quantitat ...
, a concept in statistics, research design and social sciences
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Typology (theology)
Typology in Christian theology and biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory concerning the Old Testament#Relationship between Old and New Testament, relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. Events, persons or statements in the ...
, the Christian interpretation of some figures and events in the Old Testament as foreshadowing the New Testament
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Blanchard's transsexualism typology
The American-Canadian sexologist Ray Blanchard proposed a psychological typology of gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and fetishistic transvestism in a series of academic papers through the 1980s and 1990s. Building on the work of earlier resear ...
, a controversial classification of
trans women
A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...
*
Typology (urban planning and architecture)
Typology is the study and classification of object types. In urban planning and architecture, typology refers to the task of identifying and grouping buildings and urban spaces according to the similarity of their essential characteristics.
Comm ...
, the classification of characteristics common to buildings or urban spaces
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The Bechers' photographic typologies
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Typification
Typification is a process of creating standard (''typical'') social construction based on standard assumptions. Discrimination based on typification is called typism.
See also
* Ideal type
* Normal type
* Typology
References
External linksTyp ...
, a process of creating standard (''typical'') social construction based on standard assumptions
*
Topology (disambiguation)
Topology is a branch of mathematics concerned with geometric properties preserved under continuous deformation (stretching without tearing or gluing).
Topology may also refer to:
Mathematics
*A topology is the collection of open sets used to def ...
*
Type (disambiguation)
*
References
{{reflist
Classification systems