The Science of Human Nature: A Psychology for Beginners
by William Henry Pyle · English · Gutenberg #18477 · 403,274 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Science of Human Nature: A Psychology for Beginners
Author: William Henry Pyle
Release date: May 31, 2006 [eBook #18477]
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Language: English
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Teacher Training Series
EDITED BY
W. W. CHARTERS
_Professor of Education, Carnegie Institute of Technology_
THE SCIENCE OF
HUMAN NATURE
_A PSYCHOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS_
BY
WILLIAM HENRY PYLE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
This book is written for young students in high schools and normal
schools. No knowledge can be of more use to a young person than a
knowledge of himself; no study can be more valuable to him than a study
of himself. A study of the laws of human behavior,--that is the purpose
of this book.
What is human nature like? Why do we act as we do? How can we make
ourselves different? How can we make others different? How can we make
ourselves more efficient? How can we make our lives more worth while?
This book is a manual intended to help young people to obtain such
knowledge of human nature as will enable them to answer these questions.
I have not attempted to write a complete text on psychology. There are
already many such books, and good ones too. I have selected for
treatment only such topics as young students can study with interest and
profit. I have tried to keep in mind all the time the practical worth of
the matters discussed, and the ability and experience of the intended
readers.
TO THE TEACHER
This book can be only a guide to you. You are to help your students
study human nature. You must, to some extent, be a psychologist yourself
before you can teach psychology. You must yourself be a close and
scientific student of human nature. Develop in the students the spirit
of inquiry and investigation. Teach them to look to their own minds and
their neighbor's actions for verification of the statements of the text.
Let the students solve by observation and experiment the questions and
problems raised in the text and the exercises. The exercises should
prove to be the most valuable part of the book. The first two chapters
are the most difficult but ought to be read before the rest of the book
is studied. If you think best, merely read these two chapters with the
pupils, and after the book is finished come back to them for careful
study.
In the references, I have given parallel readings, for the most part to
Titchener, Pillsbury, and Münsterberg. I have purposely limited the
references, partly because a library will not be available to many who
may use the book, and partly because the young student is likely to be
confused by much reading from different sources before he has worked out
some sort of system and a point of view of his own. Only the most
capable members of a high school class will be able to profit much from
the references given.
TO THE STUDENT
You are beginning the study of human nature. You can not study human
nature from a book, you must study yourself and your neighbors. This
book may help you to know what to look for and to understand what you
find, but it can do little more than this. It is true, this text gives
you many facts learned by psychologists, but you must verify the
statements, or at least see their significance to _you_, or they will
be of no worth to you. However, the facts considered here, properly
understood and assimilated, ought to prove of great value to you. But
perhaps of greater value will be the psychological frame of mind or
attitude which you should acquire. The psychological attitude is that of
seeking to find and understand the _causes of human action, and the
causes, consequences, and significance of the processes of the human
mind_. If your first course in psychology teaches you to look for these
things, gives you some skill in finding them and in using the knowledge
after you have it, your study should be quite worth while.
W. H. PYLE.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
There are at least two possible approaches to the study of psychology by
teacher-training students in high schools and by beginning students in
normal schools.
One of these is through methods of teaching and subject matter. The
other aims to give the simple, concrete facts of psychology as the
science of the mind. The former presupposes a close relationship between
psychology and methods of teaching and assumes that psychology is
studied chiefly as an aid to teaching. The latter is less complicated.
The plan contemplates the teaching of the simple fundamentals at first
and applying them incidentally as the occasion demands. This latter
point of view is in the main the point of view taken in the text.
The author has taught the material of the text to high school students
to the end that he might present the fundamental facts of psychology in
simple form.
W. W. C.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER II. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACE AND OF THE INDIVIDUAL 18
CHAPTER III. MIND AND BODY 34
CHAPTER IV. INHERITED TENDENCIES 50
CHAPTER V. FEELING AND ATTENTION 73
CHAPTER VI. HABIT 87
CHAPTER VII. MEMORY 124
CHAPTER VIII. THINKING 152
CHAPTER IX. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 176
CHAPTER X. APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 210
GLOSSARY 223
INDEX 227
THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN NATURE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
=Science.= Before attempting to define psychology, it will be helpful to
make some inquiry into the nature of science in general. Science is
knowledge; it is what we know. But mere knowledge is not science. For a
bit of knowledge to become a part of science, its relation to other bits
of knowledge must be found. In botany, for example, bits of knowledge
about plants do not make a science of botany. To have a science of
botany, we must not only know about leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, etc.,
but we must know the relations of these parts and of all the parts of a
plant to one another. In other words, in science, we must not only
_know_, we must not only have _knowledge_, but we must know the
significance of the knowledge, must know its _meaning_. This is only
another way of saying that we must have knowledge and know its relation
to other knowledge.
A scientist is one who has learned to organize his knowledge. The main
difference between a scientist and one who is not a scientist is that
the scientist sees the significance of facts, while the non-scientific
man sees facts as more or less unrelated things. As one comes to hunt
for causes and inquire into the significance of things, one becomes a
scientist. A thing or an event always points beyond itself to something
else. This something else is what goes before it or comes after it,--is
its cause or its effect. This causal relationship that exists between
events enables a scientist to prophesy. By carefully determining what
always precedes a certain event, a certain type of happening, a
scientist is able to predict the event. All that is necessary to be able
to predict an event is to have a clear knowledge of its true causes.
Whenever, beyond any doubt, these causes are found to be present, the
scientist knows the event will follow. Of course, all that he really
_knows_ is that such results have always followed similar causes in the
past. But he has come to have faith in the uniformity and regularity of
nature. The chemist does not find sulphur, or oxygen, or any other
element acting one way one day under a certain set of conditions, and
acting another way the next day under exactly the same conditions. Nor
does the physicist find the laws of mechanics holding good one day and
not the next.
The scientist, therefore, in his thinking brings order out of chaos in
the world. If we do not know the causes and relations of things and
events, the world seems a very mixed-up, chaotic place, where anything
and everything is happening. But as we come to know causes and
relations, the world turns out to be a very orderly and systematic
place. It is a lawful world; it is not a world of chance. Everything is
related to everything else.
Now, the non-scientific mind sees things as more or less unrelated. The
far-reaching causal relations are only imperfectly seen by it, while
the scientific mind not only sees things, but inquires into their causes
and effects or consequences. The non-scientific man, walking over the
top of a mountain and noticing a stone there, is likely to see in it
only a stone and think nothing of how it came to be there; but the
scientific man sees quite an interesting bit of history in the stone. He
reads in the stone that millions of years ago the place where the rock
now lies was under the sea. Many marine animals left their remains in
the mud underneath the sea. The mud was afterward converted into rock.
Later, the shrinking and warping earth-crust lifted the rock far above
the level of the sea, and it may now be found at the top of the
mountain. The one bit of rock tells its story to one who inquires into
its causes. The scientific man, then, sees more significance, more
meaning, in things and events than does the non-scientific man.
Each science has its own particular field. Zoölogy undertakes to answer
every reasonable question about animals; botany, about plants; physics,
about motion and forces; chemistry, about the composition of matter;
astronomy, about the heavenly bodies, etc. The world has many aspects.
Each science undertakes to describe and explain some particular aspect.
To understand all the aspects of the world, we must study all the
sciences.
=A Scientific Law.= By _law_ a scientist has reference to uniformities
which he notices in things and events. He does not mean that necessities
are imposed upon things as civil law is imposed upon man. He means only
that in certain well-defined situations certain events always take
place, according to all previous observations. The Law of Falling Bodies
may be cited as an example. By this law, the physicist means that in
observing falling bodies in the past, he has noticed that they fall
about sixteen feet in the first second and acquire in this time a
velocity of thirty-two feet. He has noted that, taking into account the
specific gravity of the object and the resistance of the air, this way
of falling holds true of all objects at about the level of the sea.
The more we carefully study the events of the world, the more strongly
we come to feel that definite causes, under the same circumstances,
always produce precisely the same result. The scientist has faith that
events will continue to happen during all the future in the same order
of cause and effect in which they have been happening during all the
past.
The astronomer, knowing the relations of the members of the solar
system--the sun and planets--can successfully predict the occurrence of
lunar and solar eclipses. In other fields, too, the scientist can
predict with as much certainty as does the astronomer, provided his
knowledge of the factors concerned is as complete as is the knowledge
which the astronomer has of the solar system. Even in the case of human
beings, uncertain as their actions seem to be, we can predict their
actions when our knowledge of the factors is sufficiently complete. In a
great many instances we do make such predictions. For example, if we
call a person by name, we expect him to turn, or make some other
movement in response. Our usual inability to make such predictions in
the case of human beings is not because human beings are not subject to
the law of cause and effect, it is not that their acts are due to
chance, but that the factors involved are usually many, and it is
difficult for us to find out all of them.
=The Science of Psychology.= Now, let us ask, what is the science of
psychology? What kind of problems does it try to solve? What aspect of
the world has it taken for its field of investigation?
We have said that each science undertakes to describe some particular
aspect of the world. Human psychology is the science of human nature.
But human nature has many aspects. To some extent, our bodies are the
subject matter for physiology, anatomy, zoölogy, physics, and chemistry.
Our bodies may be studied in the same way that a rock or a table might
be studied. But a human being presents certain problems that a rock or
table does not present. If we consider the differences between a human
being and a table, we shall see at once the special field of psychology.
If we stick a pin into a leg of the table, we get no response. If we
stick a pin into a leg of a man, we get a characteristic response. The
man moves, he cries out. This shows two very great differences between a
man and a table. The man is _sensitive_ and has the power of action, the
power of _moving himself_. The table is not sensitive, nor can it move
itself. If the pin is thrust into one's own leg, one has _pain_. Human
beings, then, are sensitive, conscious, acting beings. And the study of
sensitivity, action, and consciousness is the field of psychology. These
three characteristics are not peculiar to man. Many, perhaps all,
animals possess them. There is, therefore, an animal psychology as well
as human psychology.
A study of the human body shows us that the body-surface and many parts
within the body are filled with sensitive nerve-ends. These sensitive
nerve-ends are the sense organs, and on them the substances and forces
of the world are constantly acting. In the sense organs, the nerve-ends
are so modified or changed as to be affected by some particular kind of
force or substance. Vibrations of ether affect the eye. Vibrations of
air affect the ear. Liquids and solutions affect the sense of taste.
Certain substances affect the sense of smell. Certain organs in the skin
are affected by low temperatures; others, by high temperatures; others,
by mechanical pressure. Similarly, each sense organ in the body is
affected by a definite kind of force or substance.
This affecting of a sense organ is known technically as _stimulation_,
and that which affects the organ is known as the _stimulus_.
Two important consequences ordinarily follow the stimulation of a sense
organ. One of these is movement. The purpose of stimulation is to bring
about movement. To be alive is to respond to stimulation. When one
ceases to respond to stimulation, he is dead. If we are to continue
alive, we must constantly adjust ourselves to the forces of the world in
which we live. Generally speaking, we may say that every nerve has one
end in a sense organ and the other in a muscle. This arrangement of the
nerves and muscles shows that man is essentially a sensitive-action
machine. The problems connected with sensitivity and action and the
relation of each to the other constitute a large part of the field of
psychology.
We said just now, that a nerve begins in a sense organ and ends in a
muscle. This statement represents the general scheme well enough, but
leaves out an important detail. The nerve does not extend directly to a
muscle, but ordinarily goes by way of the brain. The brain is merely a
great group of nerve cells and fibers which have developed as a central
organ where a stimulation may pass from almost any sense organ to
almost any muscle.
But another importance attaches to the brain. When a sense organ is
stimulated and this stimulation passes on to the brain and agitates a
cell or group of cells there, _we are conscious_. Consciousness shifts
and changes with every shift and change of the stimulation.
The brain has still another important characteristic. After it has been
stimulated through sense organ and nerve, a similar brain activity can
be revived later, and this revival is the basis of _memory_. When the
brain is agitated through the medium of a sense organ, we have
_sensation_; when this agitation is revived later, we have a _memory
idea_. A study of consciousness, or mind, the conditions under which it
arises, and all the other problems involved, give us the other part of
the field of psychology.
We are not merely acting beings; we are _conscious_ acting beings.
Psychology must study human nature from both points of view. We must
study man not only from the outside; that is, objectively, in the same
way that we study a stone or a tree or a frog, but we must study him
from the inside or subjectively. It is of importance to know not only
how a man _acts_, but also how he _thinks and feels_.
It must be clear now, that human action, human behavior, is the main
field of psychology. For, even though our main interests in people were
in their minds, we could learn of the minds only through the actions.
But our interests in other human beings are not in their minds but in
_what they do_. It is true that our interest in ourselves is in our
minds, and we can know these minds directly; but we cannot know
directly the mind of another person, we can only guess what it is from
the person's actions.
=The Problems of Psychology.= Let us now see, in some detail, what the
various problems of psychology are. If we are to understand human
nature, we must know something of man's past; we must therefore treat of
the origin and development of the human race. The relation of one
generation to that preceding and to the one following makes necessary a
study of heredity. We must find out how our thoughts, feelings,
sensations, and ideas are dependent upon a physical body and its organs.
A study of human actions shows that some actions are unlearned while
others are learned or acquired. The unlearned acts are known as
_instincts_ and the acquired acts are known as _habits_. Our psychology
must, therefore, treat of instincts and habits.
How man gets experience, and retains and organizes this experience must
be our problem in the chapters on sensations, ideas, memory, and
thinking. Individual differences in human capacity make necessary a
treatment of the different types and grades of intelligence, and the
compilation of tests for determining these differences. We must also
treat of the application of psychology to those fields where a knowledge
of human nature is necessary.
=Applied Psychology.= At the beginning of a subject it is legitimate to
inquire concerning the possibility of applying the principles studied to
practical uses, and it is very proper to make this inquiry concerning
psychology. Psychology, being the science of human nature, ought to be
of use in all fields where one needs to know the causes of human action.
And psychology is applicable in these fields to the extent that the
psychologist is able to work out the laws and principles of human
action.
In education, for example, we wish to influence children, and we must go
to psychology to learn about the nature of children and to find out how
we can influence them. Psychology is therefore the basis of the science
of education.
Since different kinds of work demand, in some cases, different kinds of
ability, the psychology of individual differences can be of service in
selecting people for special kinds of work. That is to say, we must have
sometime, if we do not now, a psychology of professions and vocations.
Psychological investigations of the reliability of human evidence make
the science of service in the court room. The study of the laws of
attention and interest give us the psychology of advertising. The study
of suggestion and abnormal states make psychology of use in medicine. It
may be said, therefore, that psychology, once abstract and unrelated to
any practical interests, will become the most useful of all sciences, as
it works out its problems and finds the laws of human behavior.
At present, the greatest service of psychology is to education. So true
is this that a department has grown up called "educational psychology,"
which constitutes at the present time the most important subdivision of
psychology. While in this book we treat briefly of the various
applications of psychology, we shall have in mind chiefly its
application to education.
=The Science of Education.= Owing to the importance which psychology has
in the science of education, it will be well for us to make some inquiry
into the nature of education. If the growth, development, and learning
of children are all controlled and determined by definite causal
factors, then a systematic statement of all these factors would
constitute the science of education. In order to see clearly whether
there is such a science, or whether there can be, let us inquire more
definitely as to the kind of problems a science of education would be
expected to solve.
There are four main questions which the science of education must solve:
(1) What is the aim of education? (2) What is the nature of education?
(3) What is the nature of the child? (4) What are the most economical
methods of changing the child from what it is into what it ought to be?
The first question is a sociological question, and it is not difficult
to find the answer. We have but to inquire what the people wish their
children to become. There is a pretty general agreement, at least in the
same community, that children should be trained in a way that will make
them socially efficient. Parents generally wish their children to become
honest, truthful, sympathetic, and industrious. It should be the aim of
education to accomplish this social ideal. It should be the aim of the
home and the school to subject children to such influences as will
enable them to make a living when grown and to do their proper share of
work for the community and state, working always for better things, and
having a sympathetic attitude toward neighbors. Education should also do
what it can to make people able to enjoy the world and life to the
fullest and highest extent. Some such aim of education as this is held
by all our people.
The second question is also answered. Psychological analysis reveals the
fact that education is a process of becoming adjusted to the world. It
is the process of acquiring the habits, knowledge, and ideals suited to
the life we are to live. The child in being educated learns what the
world is and how to act in it--how to act in all the various situations
of life.
The third question--concerning the nature of the child--cannot be so
briefly answered. In fact, it cannot be fully answered at the present
time. We must know what the child's original nature is. This means that
we must know the instincts and all the other inherited capacities and
tendencies. We must know the laws of building up habits and of acquiring
knowledge, the laws of retention and the laws of attention. These
problems constitute the subject matter of educational psychology, and at
present can be only partially solved. We have, however, a very
respectable body of knowledge in this field, though it is by no means
complete.
The answer to the fourth question is in part dependent upon the progress
in answering the third. Economical methods of training children must be
dependent upon the nature of children. But in actual practice, we are
trying to find out the best procedure of doing each single thing in
school work; we are trying to find out by experimentation. The proper
way to teach children to read, to spell, to write, etc., must be
determined in each case by independent investigation, until our
knowledge of the child becomes sufficient for us to infer from general
laws of procedure what the procedure in a particular case should be. We
venture to infer what ought to be done in some cases, but generally we
feel insecure till we have proved our inference correct by trying out
different methods and measuring the results.
Education will not be fully scientific till we have definite knowledge
to guide us at every step. What should we teach? When should we teach
it? How should we teach it? How poorly we answer these questions at the
present time! How inefficient and uneconomical our schools, because we
cannot fully answer them! But they are answerable. We can answer them in
part now, and we know how to find out the answer in full. It is just a
matter of patient and extensive investigation. We must say, then, that
we have only the beginnings of a science of education. The problems
which a science of education must solve are almost wholly psychological
problems. They could not be solved till we had a science of psychology.
Experimental psychology is but a half-century old; educational
psychology, less than a quarter-century old. In the field of education,
the science of psychology may expect to make its most important
practical contribution. Let us, then, consider very briefly the problems
of educational psychology.
=Educational Psychology.= Educational psychology is that division of
psychology which undertakes to discover those aspects of human nature
most closely related to education. These are (1) the original nature of
the child--what it is and how it can be modified; (2) the problem of
acquiring and organizing experience--habit-formation, memory, thinking,
and the various factors related to these processes. There are many
subordinate problems, such as the problem of individual differences and
their bearing on the education of subnormal and supernormal children.
Educational psychology is not, then, merely the application of
psychology to education. It is a distinct science in itself, and its aim
is the solving of those educational problems which for their solution
depend upon a knowledge of the nature of the child.
=The Method of Psychology.= We have enumerated the various problems of
psychology, now how are they solved? The method of psychology is the
same as that of all other sciences; namely, the method of observation
and experiment. We learn human nature by observing how human beings act
in all the various circumstances of life. We learn about the human mind
by observing our own mind. We learn that we _see_ under certain
objective conditions, _hear_ under certain objective conditions,
_taste_, _smell_, _feel cold_ and _warm_ under certain objective
conditions. In the case of ourselves, we can know both our _actions_ and
our _mind_. In the case of others, we can know only their _actions_, and
must infer their mental states from our own in similar circumstances.
With certain restrictions and precautions this inference is legitimate.
We said the method of psychology is that of observation and experiment.
The experiment is observation still, but observation subjected to exact
methodical procedure. In a psychological experiment we set out to
provide the necessary conditions, eliminating some and supplying others
according to our object. The experiment has certain advantages. It
enables us to isolate the phenomena to be studied, it enables us to vary
the circumstances and conditions to suit our purposes, it enables us to
repeat the observation as often as we like, and it enables us to measure
exactly the factors of the phenomena studied.
=A Psychological Experiment.= Let us illustrate psychological method by a
typical experiment. Suppose we wish to measure the individual
differences among the members of a class with respect to a certain
ability; namely, the muscular speed of the right hand. Psychological
laboratories have delicate apparatus for making such a study. But let
us see how we can do it, roughly at least, without any apparatus. Let
each member of the class take a sheet of paper and a pencil, and make as
many strokes as possible in a half-minute, as shown in Figure I. The
instructor can keep the time with a stop watch, or less accurately with
the second hand of an ordinary watch. Before beginning the experiment,
the instructor should have each student taking the test try it for a
second or two. This is to make sure that all understand what they are to
do. When the instructor is sure that all understand, he should have the
students hold their pencils in readiness above the paper, and at the
signal, "Begin," all should start at the same time and make as many
marks as possible in the half-minute. The strokes can then be counted
and the individual scores recorded. The experiment should be repeated
several times, say six or eight, and the average score for each
individual recorded.
[Illustration: FIGURE I.--STROKES MADE IN THIRTY SECONDS
A test of muscular speed]
Whether the result in such a performance as this varies from day to day,
and is accidental, or whether it is constant and fundamental, can be
determined by repeating the experiment from day to day. This repetition
will also show whether improvement comes from practice.
If it is decided to repeat the experiment in order to study these
factors, constancy and the effects of practice, some method of studying
and interpreting the results must be found. Elaborate methods of doing
this are known to psychologists, but the beginner must use a simpler
method. When the experiment is performed for the first time, the
students can be ranked with reference to their abilities, the fastest
one being called "first," the second highest, "second," and so on down
to the slowest performer. Then after the experiment has been performed
the second time, the students can be again ranked.
A rough comparison can then be made as follows: Determine how many who
were in the best half in the first experiment are among the best half in
the second experiment. If most who were among the best half the first
time are among the best half in the second experiment, constancy in this
performance is indicated. Or we might determine how many change their
ranks and how much they change. Suppose there are thirty in the class
and only four improve their ranks and these to the extent of only two
places each. This would indicate a high degree of constancy. Two
different performances can be compared as above described. The abilities
on successive days can be determined by taking the average rank of the
first day and comparing it with the average rank of the second day.
If the effects of practice are to be studied, the experiments must be
kept up for many days, and each student's work on the first day compared
with his work on succeeding days. Then a graph can be plotted to show
the improvement from day to day. The average daily speed of the class
can be taken and a graph made to show the improvement of the class as a
whole. This might be plotted in black ink, then each individual student
could put on his improvement in red ink, for comparison. A group of
thirty may be considered as furnishing a fair average or norm in this
kind of performance.
In connection with this simple performance, making marks as fast as
possible, it is evident that many problems arise. It would take several
months to solve anything like all of them. It might be interesting, for
example, to determine whether one's speed in writing is related to this
simple speed in marking. Each member of the class might submit a plan
for making such a study.
The foregoing simple study illustrates the procedure of psychology in
all experimentation. A psychological experiment is an attempt to find
out the truth in regard to some aspect of human nature. In finding out
this truth, we must throw about the experiment all possible safeguards.
Every source of error must be discovered and eliminated. In the above
experiment, for example, the work must be done at the same time of day,
or else we must prove that doing it at different times of day makes no
difference. Nothing must be taken for granted, and nothing must be
assumed. Psychology, then, is like all the other sciences, in that its
method of getting its facts is by observation and experiment.
SUMMARY. Science is systematic, related knowledge. Each science has
a particular field which it attempts to explore and describe. The
field of psychology is the study of sensitivity, action, and
consciousness, or briefly, human behavior. Its main problems are
development, heredity, instincts, habits, sensation, memory,
thinking, and individual differences. Its method is observation and
experiment, the same as in all other sciences.
CLASS EXERCISES
1. Make out a list of things about human nature which you would like to
know. Paste your list in the front of this book, and as you find your
questions answered in this book, or in other books which you may read,
check them off. At the end of the course, note how many remain
unanswered. Find out whether those not answered can be answered at the
present time.
2. Does everything you do have a cause? What kind of cause?
3. Human nature is shown in human action. Human action consists in
muscular contraction. What makes a muscle contract?
4. Plan an experiment the object of which shall be to learn something
about yourself.
5. Enumerate the professions and occupations in which a knowledge of
some aspect of human nature would be valuable. State in what way it
would be valuable.
6. Make a list of facts concerning a child, which a teacher ought to
know.
7. Make a complete outline of Chapter I.
REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING
MÜNSTERBERG: _Psychology, General and Applied_, Chapters I, II, and V.
PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, Chapter I.
PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapter I.
TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, Chapter I.
CHAPTER II
DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACE AND OF THE INDIVIDUAL
=Racial Development.= The purpose of this chapter is to make some inquiry
concerning the origin of the race and of the individual. In doing this,
it is necessary for us first of all to fix in our minds the idea of
causality. According to the view of all modern science, everything has a
cause. Nothing is uncaused. One event is the result of other previous
events, and is in turn the cause of other events that follow. Yesterday
flowed into to-day, and to-day flows into to-morrow. The world as it
exists to-day is the result of the world as it existed yesterday. This
is true not only of the inorganic world--the world of physics and
chemistry--but it is true of living things as well. The animals and
plants that exist to-day are the descendants of others that lived
before. There is probably an unbroken line of descent from the first
life that existed on the earth to the living forms of to-day.
Not only does the law of causality hold true in the case of our bodies,
but of our minds as well. Our minds have doubtless developed from
simpler minds just as our bodies have developed from simpler bodies.
That different grades and types of minds are to be found among the
various classes of animals now upon the earth, no one can doubt, for the
different forms certainly show different degrees of mentality.
According to the evidence of those scientists who have studied the
remains of animals found in the earth's crust, there is a gradual
development of animal forms shown in successive epochs. In the very
oldest parts of the earth's crust, the remains of animal life found are
very simple. In later formations, the remains show an animal life more
complex. The highest forms of animals, the mammals, are found only in
the more recent formations. The remains of man are found only in the
latest formations.
Putting these two facts together--(1) that the higher types of mind are
found to-day only in the higher types of animals, and (2) that a gradual
development of animal forms is shown by the remains in the earth's
crust--the conclusion is forced upon us that mind has passed through
many stages of development from the appearance of life upon the earth to
the present time. Among the lower forms of animals to-day one sees
evidence of very simple minds. In amoebas, worms, insects, and fishes,
mind is very simple. In birds, it is higher. In mammals, it is higher
still. Among the highest mammals below man, we see manifestations of
mind somewhat like our own. These grades of mentality shown in the
animals of to-day represent the steps in the development of mind in the
animals of the past.
We cannot here go into the proof of the doctrine of development. For
this proof, the reader must be referred to zoölogy. One further point,
however, may be noted. If it is difficult for the reader to conceive of
the development of mind on the earth similar to the development of
animals in the past, let him think of the development of mind in the
individual. There can certainly be no doubt of the development of mind
in an individual human being. The infant, when born, shows little
manifestation of mentality; but as its body grows, its mind develops,
becoming more and more complex as the individual grows to maturity.
=The World as Dynamic.= The view of the world outlined above, and held by
all scientific men of the present time, may be termed the _dynamic_
view. Man formerly looked upon the world as static, a world where
everything was fixed and final. Each thing existed in itself and for
itself, and in large measure independent of all other things. We now
look upon things and events as related and dependent. Each thing is
dependent upon others, related to others.
Man not only _lives in_ such a world, but is _part of_ such a world. In
this world of constant and ceaseless change, man is most sensitive and
responsive. Everything may affect him. To all of the constant changes
about him he must adjust himself. He has been produced by this world,
and to live in it he must meet its every condition and change. We must,
then, look upon human nature as something coming out of the past and as
being influenced every moment by the things and forces of the present.
Man is not an independent being, unaffected by everything that happens;
on the contrary, he is affected by all influences that act upon him.
Among these influences may be mentioned weather, climate, food, and
social forces.
The condition of the various organs of a child's body determine, to some
extent, the effect which these various forces have upon it. If a child's
eyes are in any way defective, making vision poor, this tremendously
influences his life. Not only is such a child unable to see the world as
it really is, but the eyestrain resulting from poor vision has serious
effects on the child, producing all sorts of disorders. If a child
cannot hear well or is entirely deaf, many serious consequences follow.
In fact, every condition or characteristic of a child that is in any way
abnormal may lead on to other conditions and characteristics, often of a
serious nature. The growth of adenoids, for example, may lead to a
serious impairment of the mind. Poor vision may affect the whole life
and character of the individual. The influence of a parent, teacher, or
friend may determine the interest of a child and affect his whole life.
The correct view of child life is that the child is affected, in greater
or less degree, by every influence which acts upon him.
=Significance of Development and Causality.= What are the consequences of
the view just set forth? What is the significance of the facts that have
been enumerated? It is of great consequence to our thinking when we come
to recognize fully the idea of causality. We then fully accept the fact
that man's body and mind are part of a causal and orderly world.
Let us consider, for example, the movement of a muscle. Every such
movement must be caused. The physiologist has discovered what this cause
is. Ordinarily and normally, a muscle contracts only when stimulated by
a nerve current. Tiny nerve fibrils penetrate every muscle, ending in
the muscle fibers. The nerve-impulse passing into the fibers of the
muscles causes them to contract. The nerve stimulus itself has a cause;
it ordinarily arises directly or indirectly from the stimulation of a
sense organ. And the sense organs are stimulated by outside influences,
as was explained previously.
Not only are our movements caused, but our sensations, our ideas, and
our feelings follow upon or are dependent upon some definite bodily
state or condition. The moment that we recognize this we see that our
sensations, ideas, and feelings are subject to control. It is only
because our minds are in a world of causality, and subject to its laws,
that education is possible. We can bring causes to bear upon a child and
change the child. It is possible to build up ideas, ideals, and habits.
And ideas, ideals, and habits constitute the man. Training is possible
only because a child is a being that can be influenced. What any child
will be when grown depends upon what kind of child it was at the
beginning and upon the influences that affect it during its early life
while it is growing into maturity. We need have no doubt about the
outcome of any particular child if we know, with some degree of
completeness, the two sets of factors that determine his life--his
inheritance and the forces that affect this inheritance. We can predict
the future of a child to the extent that we know and understand the
forces that will be effective in his life.
The notion of causality puts new meaning into our view of the _training_
of a child. The doctrine of development puts new meaning into our notion
of the _nature_ of a child. We can understand man only when we view him
genetically, that is, in the light of his origin. We can understand a
child only in the light of what his ancestors have been.
As these lines are being written, the greatest, the bloodiest war of
history is in progress. Men are killing men by thousands and hundreds of
thousands. How can we explain such actions? Observation of children
shows that they are selfish, envious, and quarrelsome. They will fight
and steal until they are taught not to do such things. How can we
understand this? There is no way of understanding such actions until we
come to see that the children and men of to-day are such as they are
because of their ancestors. It has been only a few generations,
relatively speaking, since our ancestors were naked savages, killing
their enemies and eating their enemies' bodies. The civilized life of
our ancestors covers a period of only a few hundred years. The
pre-civilized life of our ancestors goes back probably thousands and
thousands of years. In the relatively short period of civilization, our
real, original nature has been little changed, perhaps none at all. The
modern man is, at heart, the same old man of the woods.
The improvements of civilization form what is called a social heritage,
which must be impressed upon the original nature of each individual in
order to have any effect. Every child has to learn to speak, to write,
to dress, to eat with knife and fork; he must learn the various social
customs, and to act morally as older people dictate. The child is by
nature bad, in the sense that the nature which he inherits from the past
fits him better for the original kind of life which man used to live
than it does for the kind of life which we are trying to live now. This
view makes us see that training a child is, in a very true sense,
_making him over again_. The child must be trained to subdue and control
his original impulses. Habits and ideals that will be suitable for life
in civilized society _must be built up_. The doctrine of the Bible in
regard to the original nature of man being sinful, and the necessity of
regeneration, is fundamentally correct. But this regeneration is not so
much a sudden process as it is the result of long and patient
building-up of habits and ideals.
One should not despair of this view of child-life. Neither should one
use it as an excuse for being bad, or for neglecting the training of
children. On the contrary, taking the genetic view of childhood should
give us certain advantages. It makes us see more clearly the _necessity_
of training. Every child must be trained, or he will remain very much a
savage. In the absence of training, all children are much alike, and all
alike bad from our present point of view. The chief differences in
children in politeness and manners generally, in morals, in industry,
etc., are due, in the main, to differences in training. It is a great
help merely to know how difficult the task of training is, and that
training there must be if we are to have a civilized child. We must take
thought and plan for the education and training of our children. The
task of education is in part one of changing human nature. This is no
light task. It is one that requires, in the case of each child, some
twenty years of hard, patient, persistent work.
=Individual Development.= Heredity is a corollary of evolution. Individual
development is intimately related to racial development. Indeed, racial
development would be impossible without heredity in the individual. The
individual must carry on and transmit what the race hands down to him.
This will be evident when we explain what heredity means.
By heredity we mean the likeness between parent and offspring. This
likeness is a matter of form and structure as well as likeness of action
or response. Animals and plants are like the parents in form and
structure, and to a certain extent their responses are alike when the
individuals are placed in the same situation. A robin is like the parent
robins in size, shape, and color. It also hops like the parent birds,
sings as they do, feeds as they do, builds a similar nest, etc. But the
likeness in action is dependent upon likeness in structure. The young
robin acts as does the old robin, because the nervous mechanism is the
same, and therefore a similar stimulus brings about a similar response.
Most of the scientific work in heredity has been done in the study of
the transmission of physical characteristics. The main facts of heredity
are evident to everybody, but not many people realize how far-reaching
is the principle of resemblance between parent and offspring. From
horses we raise horses. From cows we raise cows. The children of human
beings are human. Not only is this true, but the offspring of horses are
of the same stock as the parents. Not only are the colts of the same
stock as the parents, but they resemble the parents in small details.
This is also true of human beings. We expect a child to be not only of
the same race as the parents, but to have family resemblances to the
parents--the same color of hair, the same shape of head, the same kind
of nose, the same color of eyes, and to have such resemblances as moles
in the same places on the skin, etc. A very little investigation reveals
likenesses between parent and offspring which we may not have expected
before.
However, if we start out to hunt for facts of heredity, we shall perhaps
be as much impressed by differences between parent and child as we shall
by the resemblances. In the first place, every child has two parents,
and it is often impossible to resemble both. One cannot, for example, be
both short and tall; one cannot be both fair and dark; one cannot be
both slender and heavy; one cannot have both brown eyes and blue. In
some cases, the child resembles one parent and not the other. In other
cases, the child looks somewhat like both parents but not exactly like
either. If one parent is white and the other black, the child is
neither as white as the one parent nor as black as the other.
The parents of a child are themselves different, but there are four
grandparents, and each of them different from the others. There are
eight great grandparents, and all of them different. If we go back only
seven generations, covering a period of perhaps only a hundred and fifty
years, we have one hundred and twenty-eight ancestors. If we go back ten
generations, we have over a thousand ancestors in our line of descent.
Each of these people was, in some measure, different from the others.
Our inheritance comes from all of them and from each of them.
How do all of these diverse characteristics work out in the child? In
the first place, it seems evident that we do not inherit our bodies as
wholes, but in parts or units. We may think of the human race as a whole
being made up of a great number of unit characters. No one person
possesses all of them. Every person is lacking in some of them. His
neighbor may be lacking in quite different ones. Now one parent
transmits to the child a certain combination of unit characters; the
other parent, a different combination. These characteristics may not all
appear in the child, but all are transmitted through it to the next
generation, and they are transmitted purely. By being transmitted
purely, we mean that the characteristic does not seem to lose its
identity and disappear in fusions or mixtures. The essential point in
this doctrine of heredity is known as Mendelism; it is the principle of
inheritance through the pure transmission of unit characters.
An illustration will probably make the Mendelian principle clear. Let us
select our illustration from the plant world. It is found that if white
and yellow corn are crossed, all the corn the first year, resulting from
this crossing, will be yellow. Now, if this hybrid yellow corn is
planted the second year, and freely cross-fertilized, it turns out that
one fourth of it will be white and three fourths yellow. But this yellow
consists of three parts: one part being pure yellow which will breed
true, producing nothing but yellow; the other two parts transmit white
and yellow in equal ratio. That is to say, these two parts are hybrids,
the result of crossing white with yellow. It is not meant that one can
actually distinguish these two kinds of yellow, the pure yellow and the
hybrid yellow, but the results from planting it show that one third of
the yellow is pure and that the other two thirds transmit white and
yellow in equal ratio.
The main point to notice in all this is that when two individuals having
diverse characteristics are crossed, the characteristics do not fuse and
disappear ultimately, but that the two characteristics are transmitted
in equal ratio, and each will appear in succeeding generations, and will
appear pure, just as if it had not been crossed with something
different. The first offspring resulting from the cross--known as
hybrids--may show either one or the other of the diverse
characteristics, or, when such a thing is possible, even a blending of
the two characteristics. But whatever the actual appearance of the first
generation of offspring resulting from crossing parents having diverse
characteristics, their germ-cells transmit the diverse characteristics
in equal proportion, as explained above.
When one of the diverse characteristics appears in the first generation
of offspring and the other does not appear, or is not apparent, the one
that appears is said to be _dominant_, while the one not appearing is
said to be _recessive_. In our example of the yellow and white corn,
yellow is dominant and white recessive. And it must be remembered that
the white corn that appears in the second generation will breed true
just as if it had never been crossed with the yellow corn. One third of
the yellow of the second generation would also breed true if it could be
separated from the other two thirds.
It is not here claimed that Mendelism is a universal principle, that all
characteristics are transmitted in this way. However, the results of the
numerous experiments in heredity lead one to expect this to be the case.
Most of the experiments have been with lower animals and with plants,
but recent experiments and statistical studies show that Mendelism is an
important factor in human heredity, in such characteristics as color of
hair and eyes and skin, partial color blindness, defects of eye, ear,
and other important organs.
The studies that have been made of human heredity have been, for the
most part, studies of the transmission of physical characteristics. Very
little has been done that bears directly upon the transmission of mental
characteristics. But our knowledge of the dependence of mind upon body
should prepare us to infer mental heredity from physical heredity. Such
studies as throw light on the question bear us out in making such an
inference.
The studies that have been more directly concerned with mental heredity
are those dealing with the resemblances of twins, studies of heredity in
royalty, studies of the inheritance of genius, and studies of the
transmission of mental defects and defects of sense organs. The results
of all these studies indicate the inheritance of mental characteristics
in the same way that physical characteristics are transmitted. Not only
are human mental characteristics transmitted from parent to offspring,
but they seem to be transmitted in Mendelian fashion.
Feeble-mindedness, for example, seems to be a Mendelian character and
recessive. From the studies that have been made, it seems that two
congenitally feeble-minded parents will have only feeble-minded
children. Feeble-mindedness acts in heredity as does the white corn in
the example given above. If one parent only is feeble-minded, the other
being normal, all of the children will be normal, just as all of the
corn, in the first generation after the crossing, was yellow. But these
children whose parents are the one normal and the other feeble-minded,
while themselves normal, transmit feeble-mindedness in equal ratio with
normality. It works out as follows: If a feeble-minded person marry a
person of sound mind and sound stock, the children will all be of sound,
normal mind. If these children take as husbands and wives men and women
who had for parents one normal and one feeble-minded person, their
children will be one fourth feeble-minded and three fourths of them
normal.
To summarize the various conditions: If a feeble-minded person marry a
feeble-minded person, all the children will be feeble-minded. If a
feeble-minded person marry a sound, normal person (pure stock), all the
children will be normal. If the children, in the last case, marry others
like themselves as to origin, one fourth of their offspring will be
feeble-minded. If such hybrid children marry feeble-minded persons, one
half of the offspring will be feeble-minded. It is rash to prophesy, but
future studies of heredity may show that Mendelism, or some
modification of the principle, always holds true of mind as well as of
body.
Little can be said about the transmission of particular definite mental
traits, such as the various aspects of memory, association, attention,
temperament, etc. Before we can speak with any certainty here, we must
make very careful experimental studies of these mental traits in parents
and offspring. No such work has been done. All we have at the present
time is the result of general observation.
=Improvement of the Race.= Eugenics is the science of improvement of the
human race by breeding. While we can train children and thereby make
them much better than they would be without such training, this training
does not improve the stock. The improvement of the stock can be
accomplished only through breeding from the best and preventing the poor
stock from leaving offspring. This is a well-known principle in the
breeding of domestic animals.
It is doubtless just as true in the case of human beings. The hygienic
and scientific rearing of children is good for the children and makes
their lives better, but probably does not affect their offspring. We
should not forget that all the social and educational influences die
with the generation that receives them. They must be impressed by
training on the next generation or that generation will receive no
influence from them. The characters which we acquire in our lifetime
seem not to be transmitted to our children, except through what is known
as social heredity, which is merely the taking on of characteristics
through imitation. Our children must go through all the labor of
learning to read, write, spell, add, multiply, subtract, and divide,
which we went through. Moral traits, manners and customs, and other
habits and ideals of social importance must be acquired by each
successive generation.
=Heredity _versus_ Environment.= The question is often asked whether
heredity or the influence of environment has the most to do with the
final outcome of one's life. It is a rather useless question to ask, for
what a human being or anything else in the world does depends upon what
it is itself and what the things and forces are that act upon it.
Heredity sets a limitation for us, fixes the possibilities. The
circumstances of life determine what we will do with our inherited
abilities and characteristics. Hereditary influences incline us to be
tall or short, fat or lean, light or dark. The characteristics of our
memory, association, imagination, our learning capacity, etc., are
determined by heredity. Of course, how far these various aspects develop
is to some extent dependent upon the favorable or unfavorable influences
of the environment. What is possible for us to do is settled by
heredity; what we may actually do, what we may have the opportunity to
do, is largely a matter of the circumstances of life.
In certain parts of New England, the number of men who become famous in
art, science, or literature is very great compared to the number in some
other parts of our country. As far as we have any evidence, the native
stocks are the same in the two cases, but in New England the influences
turn men into the direction of science, art, and literature. Everything
there is favorable. In other parts of the country, the influences turn
men into other spheres of activity. They become large landowners, men of
business and affairs.
The question may be asked whether genius makes its way to the front in
spite of unfavorable circumstances. Sometimes it doubtless does. But
pugnacity and perseverance are not necessarily connected with
intellectual genius. Genius may be as likely to be timid as belligerent.
Therefore unfavorable circumstances may crush many a genius.
The public schools ought to be on the watch for genius in any and all
kinds of work. When a genius is found, proper training ought to be
provided to develop this genius for the good of society as well as for
the good of the individual himself. A few children show ability in
drawing and painting, others in music, others in mechanical invention,
some in literary construction. When it is found that this ability is
undoubtedly a native gift and not a passing whim, special opportunity
should be provided for its development and training. It will be better
for the general welfare, as well as for individual happiness, if each
does in life that for which he is by nature best fitted. For most of us,
however, there is not much difference in our abilities. We can do one
thing as well as we can many other things. But in a few there are
undoubted special native gifts.
SUMMARY. This is an orderly world, in which everything has a cause.
All events are connected in a chain of causes and effects. Human
beings live in this world of natural law and are subject to it.
Human life is completely within this world of law and order and is a
part of it. Education is possible only because we can change human
beings by having influences act upon them.
Individuals receive their original traits from their ancestors,
probably as parts or units. Mendelism is the doctrine of the pure
transmission of unit characters. Eugenics is the science of
improving the human race by selective breeding. An individual's life
is the result of the interaction of his hereditary characteristics
and his environment.
CLASS EXERCISES
1. Try to find rock containing the remains of animals. You can get
information on such matters from a textbook on geology.
2. Read in a geology about the different geological epochs in the
history of the earth.
3. Make a comparison of the length of infancy in the lower animals and
in man. What is the significance of what you find? What advantage does
it give man?
4. What is natural selection? How does it lead to change in animals?
Does natural selection still operate among human beings? (See a modern
textbook on zoölogy.)
5. By observation and from consulting a zoölogy, learn about the
different classes of animal forms, from low forms to high forms.
6. By studying domestic animals, see what you can learn about heredity.
Enumerate all the points that you find bearing upon heredity.
7. In a similar way, make a study of heredity in your family. Consider
such characteristics as height, weight, shape of head, shape of nose,
hair and eye color. Can you find any evidence of the inheritance of
mental traits?
8. Make a complete outline of Chapter II.
REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING
DAVENPORT: _Heredity in Relation to Eugenics_.
KELLICOTT: _The Social Direction of Human Evolution_.
CHAPTER III
MIND AND BODY
=Gross Dependence.= The relation of mind to body has always been an
interesting one to man. This is partly because of the connection of the
question with that of life after death. An old idea of this relation,
almost universally held till recently, was that the mind or spirit lived
in the body but was more or less independent of the body. The body has
been looked upon as a hindrance to the mind or spirit. Science knows
nothing about the existence of spirits apart from bodies. The belief
that after death the mind lives on is a matter of faith and not of
science. Whether one believes in an existence of the mind after death of
the body, depends on one's religious faith. There is no scientific
evidence one way or the other. The only mind that science knows anything
about is bound up very closely with body. This is not saying that there
is no existence of spirit apart from body, but that at present such
existence is beyond the realm of science.
The dependence of mind upon body in a general way is evident to every
one, upon the most general observation and thought. We know the effect
on the mind of disease, of good health, of hunger, of fatigue, of
overwork, of severe bodily injury, of blindness or deafness. We have,
perhaps, seen some one struck upon the head by a club, or run over by an
automobile, and have noted the tremendous consequences to the person's
mind. In such cases it sometimes happens that, as far as we can see,
there is no longer any mind in connection with that body. The most
casual observation, then, shows that mind and body are in some way most
intimately related.
=Finer Dependence.= Let us note this relation more in detail, and, in
particular, see just which part of the body it is that is connected with
the mind. First of all, we note the dependence of mind upon sense
organs. We see only with our eyes. If we close the eyelids, we cannot
see. If we are born blind, or if injury or disease destroys the retinas
of the eyes or makes the eyes opaque so that light cannot pass through
to the retinas, then we cannot see.
Similarly, we hear only by means of the ears. If we are born deaf, or if
injury destroys some important part of the hearing mechanism, then we
cannot hear. In like manner, we taste only by means of the taste organs
in the mouth, and smell only with the organs of smell in the nose. In a
word, our primary knowledge of the world comes only through the sense
organs. We shall see presently just how this sensing or perceiving is
accomplished.
=Dependence of Mind on Nerves and Brain.= We have seen how in a general
way the mind is dependent on the body. We have seen how in a more
intimate way it is dependent on the special sense organs. But the part
of the body to which the mind is most directly and intimately related is
the nervous system. The sense organs themselves are merely modifications
of the nerve ends together with certain mechanisms for enabling stimuli
to act on the nerve ends. The eye is merely the optic nerve spread out
to form the retina and modified in certain ways to make it sensitive to
ether vibrations. In addition to this, there is, of course, the focusing
mechanism of the eye. So for all the sense organs; they are, each of
them, some sort of modification of nerve-endings which makes them
sensitive to some particular force or substance.
Let us make the matter clear by an illustration. Suppose I see a picture
on the wall. My eyes are directed toward the picture. Light from the
picture is refracted within the eyes, forming an image on each retina.
The retina is sensitive to the light. The light produces chemical
changes on the retina. These changes set up an excitation in the optic
nerves, which is conducted to a certain place in the brain, causing an
excitation in the brain. Now the important point is that when this
excitation is going on in the brain, _we are conscious, we see the
picture_.
As far as science can determine, we do not see, nor hear, nor taste, nor
smell, nor have any other sensation unless a sense organ is excited and
produces the excitation in the brain. There can be no doubt about our
primary, sensory experience. By primary, sensory experience is meant our
immediate, direct knowledge of any aspect of the world. In this field of
our conscious life, we are entirely dependent upon sense organs and
nerves and brain. Injuries to the eyes destroying their power to perform
their ordinary work, or injuries to the optic nerve or to the visual
center in the brain, make it impossible for us to see.
These facts are so self-evident that it seems useless to state them. One
has but to hold his hands before his eyes to convince himself that the
mind sees by means of eyes, which are physical sense organs. One has but
to hold his hands tight over his ears to find out that he hears by
means of ears--again, physical sense organs.
But simple and self-evident as the facts are, their acceptance must have
tremendous consequences to our thinking, and to our view of human
nature. If the mind is dependent in every feature on the body with its
sense organs, this must give to this body and its sense organs an
importance in our thought and scheme of things that they did not have
before. This close dependence of mind upon body must give to the body a
place in our scheme of education that it would not have under any other
view of the mind. We wish to emphasize here that this statement of the
close relation of the mind and body is not a theory which one may accept
or not. It is a simple statement of fact. It is a presupposition of
psychology. By "presupposition" is meant a fundamental principle which
the psychologist always has in mind. It is axiomatic, and has the same
place in psychology that axioms have in mathematics. All explanations of
the working of the mind must be stated in terms of nerve and brain
action, and stimulation of sense organs.
Since the sense organs are the primary and fundamental organs through
which we get experience, and since the sensations are the elementary
experiences out of which all mental life is built, it is necessary for
us to have a clear idea of the sense organs, their structure and
functions, and of the nature of sensations.
=Vision.= _The Visual Sense Organs._ The details of the anatomy of the eye
can be looked up in a physiological textbook. The essential principles
are very simple. The eye is made on the principle of a photographer's
camera. The retina corresponds to the sensitive plate of the camera. The
light coming from objects toward which the eyes are directed is focused
on the retina, forming there an image of the object. The light thus
focused on the retina sets up a chemical change in the delicate nerve
tissue; this excitation is transmitted through the optic nerve to the
occipital (back) part of the brain, and sets up brain action there. Then
we have visual sensation; we see the object.
The different colors that we see are dependent upon the vibration
frequency of the ether. The higher frequencies give us the colors blue
and green, and the lower frequencies give us the colors yellow and red.
The intermediate frequencies give us the intermediate colors blue-green
and orange. By vibration frequencies is meant the rate at which the
ether vibrates, the number of vibrations a second. If the reader wishes
to know something about these frequencies, such information can be found
in a textbook on physics.
It will be found that the vibration rates of the ether are very great.
It is only within a certain range of vibration frequency that sunlight
affects the retina. Slower rates of vibration than that producing red do
not affect the eye, and faster than that producing violet do not affect
the eye. The lightness and darkness of a color are dependent upon the
intensity of the vibration. Red, for example, is produced by a certain
vibration frequency. The more intense the vibration, the brighter the
red; the less intense, the darker the red.
When all the vibration frequencies affect the eyes at the same time, we
see no color at all but only brightness. This is due to the fact that
certain vibration frequencies neutralize each other in their effect on
the retina, so far as producing color is concerned. Red neutralizes
green, blue neutralizes yellow, violet neutralizes yellowish green,
orange neutralizes bluish green.
All variations in vision as far as color and brightness are concerned
are due to variations in the stimulus. Changes in vibration frequency
give the different colors. Changes in intensity give the different
brightnesses: black, gray, and white. All explanations of the many
interesting phenomena of vision are to be sought in the physiological
action of the eye.
Besides the facts of color and light and shade, already mentioned, some
further interesting visual phenomena may be mentioned here.
_Visual Contrast._ Every color makes objects near it take on the
antagonistic or complementary color. Red makes objects near appear
green, green makes them appear red. Blue makes near objects appear
yellow, while yellow makes them appear blue. Orange induces greenish
blue, and greenish blue induces orange. Violet induces yellowish green,
and yellowish green induces violet. These color-pairs are known as
antagonistic or complementary colors. Each one of a pair enhances the
effect of its complementary when the two colors are brought close
together. In a similar way, light and dark tints act as complementaries.
Light objects make dark objects near appear darker, and dark objects
make light objects near seem lighter.
These universal principles of contrast are of much practical
significance. They must be taken account of in all arrangements of
colors and tints, for example, in dress, in the arrangement of flowers
and shrubs, in painting.
_Color-Mixture._ If, on a rotating motor, disks of different colors--say
red and yellow--are placed and rotated, one sees on looking at them not
red or yellow but orange. This phenomenon is known as _color-mixture_.
The result is due to the simultaneous stimulation of the retina by two
kinds of ether vibration. If the colors used are a certain red and a
certain green, they neutralize each other and produce only gray. All the
pairs of complementary colors mentioned above act in the same way,
producing, if mixed in the right proportion, no color, but gray. If
colored disks not complementary are mixed by rotation on a motor, they
produce an intermediate color. Red and yellow give orange. Blue and
green give bluish green. Yellow and green give yellowish green. Red and
blue give violet or purple, depending on the proportion. Mixing pigments
gives, in general, the same results as mixing by means of rotating the
disks. The ordinary blue and yellow pigments give green when mixed,
because each of the two pigments contains green. The blue and yellow
neutralize each other, leaving green.
_Visual After-Images._ The stimulation of the retina has interesting
after effects. We shall mention here only the one known as _negative
after-images_. If one will place on the table a sheet of white paper,
and on this white paper lay a small piece of colored paper, and if he
will then gaze steadily at the colored paper for a half-minute, it will
be found that if the colored paper is removed one sees its complementary
color. If the head is not moved, this complementary color has the same
size and shape as the original colored piece of paper. The negative
after-image can be projected on a background at different distances, its
size depending on the distance of the background. The after-image will
be found to mix with an objective color in accordance with the
principles of color-mixture mentioned above.
After-image phenomena have some practical consequences. If one has been
looking at a certain color for some time, a half-minute or more, then
looks at some other color, the after-image of the first color mixes with
the second color.
_Adaptation._ The fact last mentioned leads us to the subject of
adaptation. If the eyes are stimulated by the same kind of light for
some time, the eyes become adapted to that light. If the light is
yellow, at first objects seem yellow, but after a time they look as if
they were illuminated with white light, losing the yellow aspect. But if
one then goes out into white light, everything looks bluish. The
negative after-image of the yellow being cast upon everything makes the
surroundings look blue, for the after-image of yellow is blue. All the
other colors act in a similar way, as do also black and white. If one
has been for some time in a dark room and then goes out to a lighter
place, it seems unusually light. And if one goes from the light to a
dark room, it seems unusually dark.
=Hearing or Audition.= Just as the eye is an organ sensitive to certain
frequencies of ether vibration, so the ear is an organ sensitive to
certain air vibrations. The reader should familiarize himself with the
physiology of the ear by reference to physiologies. The drum-skin, the
three little bones of the middle ear, and the cochlea of the inner ear
are all merely mechanical means of making possible the stimulation of
the specialized endings of the auditory nerve by vibrations of air.
As the different colors are due to different vibration frequencies of
the ether, so different pitches of sound are due to differences in the
rates of the air vibrations. The low bass notes are produced by the low
vibration frequencies. The high notes are produced by the high
vibration frequencies. The lowest notes that we can hear are produced by
about twenty vibrations a second, and the highest by about forty
thousand vibrations a second.
=Other Sense Organs.= We need not give a detailed statement of the facts
concerning the other senses. In each case the sense organ is some
special adaptation of the nerve-endings with appropriate apparatus in
connection to enable it to be affected by some special thing or force in
the environment.
In the case of taste, we find in the mouth, chiefly on the back and
edges of the tongue, organs sensitive to sweet, sour, salt, and bitter.
In the nose we have an organ that is sensitive to the tiny particles of
substances that float in the air which we breathe in through the nose.
In the skin we find several kinds of sense organs that give us the
sensations of cold and warmth, of pressure and pain. These are all
special and definite sensations produced by different kinds of organs.
The sense of warmth is produced by different organs from those which
produce the sense of cold. These organs can be detected and localized on
the skin. So, also, pain and touch or pressure have each its particular
organ.
Within the body itself we have sense organs also, particularly in the
joints and tendons and in the muscles. These give us the sensations
which are the basis of our perception of motion, and of the position of
the body and its members. In the semicircular canals of the inner ear
are organs that give us the sense of dizziness, and enable us to
maintain our equilibrium and to know up from down.
The general nature of the sense organs and of sensation should now be
apparent. The nervous system reaches out its myriad fingers to every
portion of the surface of the body, and within the body as well. These
nerve-endings are specially adapted to receive each its particular form
of stimulation. This stimulation of our sense organs is the basis or
cause of our sensations. And our sensations are the elementary stuff of
all our experience. Whatever thoughts we have, whatever ideas or images
we have, they come originally from our sensations. They are built up out
of our sensations or from these sensations as they exist in memory.
=Defects of Sense Organs.= The organs of sight and hearing are now by far
the most important of our sense organs. They enable us to sense things
that are at a distance. We shall therefore discuss defects of these two
organs only. Since sensations are the primary stuff out of which mind is
made, and since sight and hearing are the most important sense organs,
it is evident that our lives are very much dependent on these organs. If
they cannot do their work well, then we are handicapped. And this is
often the case.
The making of the human eye is one of the most remarkable achievements
of nature. But the making of a perfect eye is too big a task for nature.
She never makes a perfect eye. There is always some defect, large or
small. To take plastic material and make lenses and shutters and
curtains is a great task. The curvature of the front of the eye and of
the front and back of the crystalline lens is never quite perfect, but
in the majority of cases it is nearly enough perfect to give us good
vision. However, in about one third of school children the defect is
great enough to need to be corrected by glasses.
The principle of the correction of sight by means of glasses is merely
this:[1] When the focusing apparatus of the eye is not perfect, it can
be made so by putting in front of the eye the proper kind of lens. There
is nothing strange or mysterious about it. In some cases, the eye
focuses the light before it reaches the retina. Such cases are known as
nearsightedness and are corrected by having placed in front of the eyes
concave lenses of the proper strength. These lenses diverge the rays and
make them focus on the retina. In other cases, the eye is not able to
focus the rays by the time they reach the retina. In these cases, the
eyes need the help of convex lenses of the proper strength to make the
focus fall exactly on the retina.
[1] The teacher should explain these principles and illustrate by
drawings. Consult a good text in physiology. Noyes' University of
Missouri Extension Bulletin on eye and ear defects will be found most
useful.
Another defect of the eye, known as astigmatism, is due to the fact that
the eye does not always have a perfectly spherical front (cornea). The
curvature in one direction is different from that in others. For
example, the vertical curvature may be more convex than the horizontal.
Such a condition produces a serious defect of vision. It can be
corrected by means of cylindrical lenses of the proper strength so
placed before the eye as to correct the defect in curvature.
Still another defect of vision is known as presbyopia or farsightedness
due to old age. It has the following explanation: In early life, when we
look at near objects, the crystalline lens automatically becomes
thicker, more convex. This adjustment brings the rays to a focus on the
retina, which is required for good vision. As we get old, the
crystalline lens loses its power to change its adjustment for near
objects, although the eye may see at a distance as well as ever. The
old person, therefore, must wear convex glasses when looking at near
objects, as in reading and sewing.
Another visual defect of a different nature is known as partial color
blindness. The defects described above are due to misshapen eyes.
Partial color blindness is due to a defect of the retina which makes it
unable to be affected by light waves producing red and green. A person
with this defect confuses red and green. While only a small percentage
of the population has this defect, it is nevertheless very important
that those having it be detected. People having the defect should not be
allowed to enter occupations in which the seeing of red and green is
important. It was recently brought to the author's attention that a
partially color-blind man was selling stamps in a post office. Since two
denominations of stamps are distinguished by red and green colors, this
man made frequent mistakes. He was doing one of the things for which he
was specially unfitted. It is easy to detect color blindness by simple
tests.
So great is the importance of good vision in school work and the later
work of life, that every teacher should know how to make simple tests to
determine visual defects. Children showing any symptoms of eyestrain
should be required to have their visual defects corrected by a competent
oculist, and should be warned not to have the correction made by a
quack. There is great popular ignorance and even prejudice concerning
visual defects, and it is very important that teachers have a clear
understanding of the facts.
=Defects of Hearing.= Hearing defects are only about half as frequent as
those of sight. They are nearly all due to catarrhal infection of the
middle ear through the Eustachian tube. The careful and frequent
medical examination of school children cannot, therefore, be too
strongly emphasized. The deafness or partial deafness that comes from
this catarrhal infection can seldom be cured; it must be prevented by
the early treatment of the troubles which cause it.
SUMMARY. The mind is closely related to the body. Especially is it
dependent upon the brain, nerves, and sense organs. The sense organs
are special adaptations of the nerve-ends for receiving impressions.
Each sense organ receives only its particular type of impression.
The main visual phenomena are those of color-mixture, after-images,
adaptation, and contrast. Since sensation is the basis of mental
life, defects of the sense organs are serious handicaps and should
be corrected if possible. Visual defects are usually due to a
misshapen eyeball and can be corrected by proper glasses, which
should be fitted by an oculist. Hearing defects usually arise from
catarrhal trouble in the middle ear.
CLASS EXERCISES
1. Make a study of the relation of the mind to the body. Enumerate the
different lines of evidence which you may find indicating their close
relationship.
2. Can you find any evidence tending to show that the mind is
independent of the body?
3. _Color-Mixture._ Colored disks can be procured from C. H. Stoelting
Company, Chicago. If a small motor is available, the disks can be
rotated on the motor and the colors mixed. Mix pairs of complementary
colors, also pairs of non-complementary colors, and note the result. A
simple device can be made for mixing colors, as follows: On a board
stand a pane of glass. On one side of the glass put a colored paper and
on the other side of the glass put a different color. By looking through
the glass you can see one color through transmitted light and the other
color through reflected light. By inclining the glass at different
angles you can get different proportions of the mixture, now more of one
color, now more of the other.
4. _Negative After-Images._ Cut out pieces of colored paper a half inch
square. Put one of these on a white background on the table. With elbows
on the table, hold the head in the hands and gaze at the colored paper
for about a half-minute, then blow the paper away and continue to gaze
at the white background. Note the color that appears. Use different
colors and tabulate the results. Try projecting the after-images at
different distances. Project the after-images on different colored
papers. Do the after-images mix with the colors of the papers?
5. An interesting experiment with positive after-images can be performed
as follows: Shut yourself in a dark closet for fifteen or twenty minutes
to remove all trace of stimulation of the retina. With the eyes covered
with several folds of thick black cloth go to a window, uncover the eyes
and take a momentary look at the landscape, immediately covering the
eyes again. The landscape will appear as a positive after-image, with
the positive colors and lights and shades. The experiment is best
performed on a bright day.
6. _Adaptation._ Put on colored glasses or hold before the eyes a large
piece of colored glass. Note that at first everything takes on the color
of the glass. What change comes over objects after the glasses have been
worn for fifteen or twenty minutes? Describe your experience after
removing the glasses. Plan and perform other experiments showing
adaptation. For illustration, go from a very bright room into a dark
room. Go from a very dark room to a light one. Describe your experience.
7. _Contrast._ Take a medium gray paper and lay it on white and various
shades of gray and black paper. Describe and explain what you find.
8. _Color Contrast._ Darken a room by covering all the windows except
one window pane. Cover it with cardboard. In the cardboard cut two
windows six inches long and one inch wide. Over one window put colored
glass or any other colored material through which some light will pass.
By holding up a pencil you can cast two shadows on a piece of paper.
What color are the shadows? One is a contrast color induced by the
other; which one? Explain the results.
9. Make a study of the way in which women dress. What do you learn about
color effects?
10. From the Stoelting Company you can obtain the Holmgren worsteds for
studying color blindness.
11. _Defective Vision._ Procure a Snellen's test chart and determine the
visual acuity of the members of the class. Seat the subject twenty feet
from the chart, which should be placed in a good light. While testing
one eye, cover the other with a piece of cardboard. Above each row of
letters on the chart is a number which indicates the distance at which
it can be read by a normal eye. If the subject can read only the
thirty-foot line, his vision is said to be 20/30; if only the forty-foot
line, the vision is 20/40. If the subject can read above the twenty-foot
line and complains of headache from reading, farsightedness is
indicated. If the subject cannot read up to the twenty-foot line,
nearsightedness or astigmatism is indicated.
12. _Hearing._ By consultation with the teacher of physics, plan an
experiment to show that the pitch of tones depends on vibration
frequency. Such an experiment can be very simply performed by rotating a
wheel having spokes. Hold a light stick against the spokes so that it
strikes each spoke. If the wheel is rotated so as to give twenty or
thirty strokes a second, a very low tone will be heard. By rotating the
wheel faster you get a higher tone. Other similar experiments can be
performed.
13. Acuity of hearing can be tested by finding the distance at which the
various members of the class can hear a watch-tick. The teacher can plan
an experiment using whispering instead of the watch-tick. (See the
author's _Examination of School Children_.)
14. By using the point of a nail, one can find the "cold spots" on the
skin. Warm the nail to about 40 degrees Centigrade and you can find the
"warm spots."
15. By touching the hairs on the back of the hand, you can stimulate the
"pressure spots."
16. By pricking the skin with the point of a needle, you can stimulate
the "pain spots."
17. The sense of taste is sensitive only to solutions that are sweet,
sour, salt, or bitter. Plan experiments to verify this point. What we
call the "taste" of many things is due chiefly to odor. Therefore in
experiments with taste, the nostrils should be stopped up with cotton.
It will be found, for example, that quinine and coffee are
indistinguishable if their odors be eliminated by stopping the nose. The
student should compare the taste of many substances put into the mouth
with the nostrils open with the taste of the same substances with the
nostrils closed.
REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING
COLVIN AND BAGLEY: _Human Behavior_, Chapters VII and XII.
MÜNSTERBERG: _Psychology, General and Applied_, Chapters III, IV, VI,
and VII.
PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, Chapters II, III, and IV.
PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapter II.
TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, Chapter I, par. 3; also
Chapter II.
CHAPTER IV
INHERITED TENDENCIES
=Stimulus and Response.= We have learned something about the sense organs
and their functions. We have seen that it is through the sense organs
that the world affects us, stimulates us. And we have said that we are
stimulated in order that we may respond.
We must now inquire into the nature of our responses. We are moving,
active beings. But how do we move, how do we act when stimulated? Why do
we do one thing rather than another? Why do we do one thing at one time
and a different thing at another time?
Before we answer these questions it will be necessary for us to get a
more definite and complete idea of the nature of stimulus and response.
We have already used these terms, but we must now give a more definite
account of them. It was said in the preceding chapter that when a muscle
contracts, it must first receive a nerve-impulse. Now, anything which
starts this nerve-impulse is called the stimulus. The muscular movement
which follows is, of course, the response. The nervous system forms the
connection between the stimulus and response.
The stimulus which brings about a response may be very simple. Or, on
the other hand, it may be very complex. If one blows upon the eyelids of
a baby, the lids automatically close. The blowing is the stimulus and
the closing of the lids is the response. Both stimulus and response are
here very simple.
But sometimes the stimulus is more complex, not merely the simple
excitation of one sense organ, but a complicated stimulation of an
organ, or the simultaneous stimulation of several organs. In playing
ball, the stimulus for the batter is the on-coming ball. The response is
the stroke. This case is much more complex than the reflex closing of
the eyelids. The ball may be pitched in many different ways and the
response changes with these variations.
In piano playing, the stimulus is the notes written in their particular
places on the staff. Not only must the position of the notes on the
staff be taken into account, but also many other things, such as sharps
and flats, and various characters which give directions as to the manner
in which the music is to be played. The striking of the notes in the
proper order, in the proper time, and with the proper force, is the
response.
In typewriting, the stimulus is the copy, or the idea of what is to be
written, and the response is the striking of the keys in the proper
order. Speaking generally, we may say that the stimulus is the force or
forces which excite the sense organs, and thereby, through the nervous
system, bring about a muscular response.
This is the ordinary type of action, but we have already indicated a
different type. In speaking of typewriting we said the stimulus might be
either the copy or ideas. One can write from copy or dictation, in which
the stimulus is the written or spoken word, but one can also write as
one thinks of what one wishes to write. The latter is known as
_centrally initiated action_. That is to say, the stimulus comes from
within, in the brain, rather than from without.
Let us explain this kind of stimulation a little further. Suppose I am
sitting in my chair reading. I finish a chapter and look at my watch. I
notice that it is three o'clock, and recall that I was to meet a friend
at that time. The stimulus in this case is in the brain itself; it is
the nervous activity which corresponds to the idea of meeting my friend.
If we disregard the distinction between mind and body, we may say that
the stimulus for a response may be an idea as well as a perception, the
perception arising from the immediate stimulation of a sense organ, and
the idea arising from an excitation of the brain not caused by an
immediate stimulation of a sense organ.
=Instincts and Habits.= In human action it is evident that there is always
a stimulus to start the nerve-impulse which causes the action. If we
make inquiry concerning the connection between the stimulus and
response; if we ask how it has come about that a particular stimulus
causes a particular response rather than some other possible response,
we find two kinds of causes. In one case the causal connection is
established through heredity; in the other, the causal connection is
established during a person's lifetime through training.
A chicken, for example, hides under some cover the first time it hears
the cry of a hawk; it scratches the first time its feet touch sand or
gravel; it pecks the first time it sees an insect near by. An infant
closes its eyes the first time it feels cold wind blow upon them; it
cries the first time it feels pain; it clasps its fingers together the
first time a touch is felt inside them. The child's nervous system is so
organized that, in each of the cases named, the stimulus brings forth
the particular, definite response. These acts do not have to be
learned.
But it is quite different in typewriting and piano playing. One _must
learn_ what keys on the piano to strike in response to the various
situations of the notes as written in the music. One must also learn the
keys on the typewriter before he can operate a typewriter. And in the
case of other habits, we find, for example, that one does not respond by
saying "81" for 9 times 9; nor "13" for 6 plus 7; nor "8" for 15 minus
7; nor "8" for the square root of 64; nor "144" for the square of 12,
etc., until one has learned in each case.
Some connections between stimulus and response we have through
inheritance; all others are built up and established in one's lifetime,
particularly in the first thirty years of one's life.
We have spoken of bonds between stimulus and response, but have not
explained just what can be meant by a _bond_. In what sense are stimulus
and response bound together? A bond is a matter of greater permeability,
of less resistance in one direction through the nervous system than in
other directions. Nerves are conductors for nerve-currents. When a
nerve-current is started in a sense organ, it passes on through the path
of least resistance.
Now, some nerves are so organized and connected through inheritance as
to offer small resistance. This forms a ready-made connection between
stimulus and response. Muscular responses that are connected with their
stimuli through inherited bonds, by inherited nerve structure, are
called instincts. Those that are connected by acquired bonds are called
habits. Sucking, crying, laughing, are instinctive acts. Adding,
typewriting, piano playing, are habits.
The term _instinct_ may be given to the act depending upon inherited
structure, an inherited bond, or it may be given to the inherited bond
itself. Similarly, the term _habit_ may be given to an act that we have
had to learn or to the bond which we ourselves establish between
response and stimulus. In this book we shall usually mean by instinct an
action depending upon inherited structure and by habit an act depending
upon a bond established during lifetime. A good part of our early lives
is spent in building up bonds between stimuli and responses. This
establishing of bonds or connections is called _learning_.
=Appearance of Inherited Tendencies.= Not all of our inherited tendencies
are manifested immediately after birth, nor indeed in the earliest years
of childhood, but appear at different stages of the child's growth. It
has already been said that a child, soon after birth, will close its
eyelids when they are blown upon. The lids do not close at this time if
one strikes at them, but they will do this later. The proper working of
an instinct or an inherited tendency, then, depends upon the child's
having reached a certain state of development.
The maturing of an instinct depends upon both age and use, that is to
say, upon the age of the animal and the amount of use or exercise that
the instinctive activity has had. The most important factor, however,
seems to be age. While our knowledge of the dependence of an instinct
upon the age of the animal is not quite so definite in the case of human
instincts, the matter has been worked out in the case of chickens.
The experiment was as follows: Chickens were taken at the time of
hatching, and some allowed to peck from the first, while others were
kept in a dark room and not allowed to peck. When the chickens were
taken out of the dark room at the end of one, two, three, and four days,
it was found that in a few hours they were pecking as well as those
that had been pecking from birth. It seems probable, if we may judge
from our limited knowledge, that in the human child, activities are for
the most part dependent upon the age of the child, and upon the state of
development of the nervous system and of the organs of the body.
=Significance of Inherited Tendencies.= Although human nature is very
complex, although human action nearly always has some element of habit
in it, nevertheless, inborn tendencies are throughout life powerful
factors in determining action. This will at once be apparent if we
consider how greatly we are influenced by anger, jealousy, love, fear,
and competition. Now we do not have to learn to be jealous, to hate, to
love, to be envious, to fight, or to fear. These are emotions common to
all members of the human race, and their expression is an inborn
tendency. Throughout life no other influences are so powerful in
determining our action as are these. So, although most of our detailed
actions in life are habits which we learn or acquire, the fundamental
influences which decide the course of our action are inherited
tendencies.
=Classification of Instincts.= For convenience in treatment the instincts
are grouped in classes. Those instincts most closely related to
individual survival are called _individualistic_ instincts. Those more
closely related to the survival of the group are called _socialistic_.
Those individualistic tendencies growing out of periodic changes of the
environment may be called _environmental_ instincts. Those closely
related to human infancy, adapting and adjusting the child to the world
in which he lives, may be called _adaptive_. There is still another
group of inherited tendencies connected with sex and reproduction, which
are not discussed in this book.
We shall give a brief discussion of the instincts falling under these
various classes. It must be remembered, however, that the psychology of
the instincts is indefinite and obscure. It is difficult to bring the
instincts into the laboratory for accurate study. For our knowledge of
the instincts we are dependent, for the most part, on general
observation. We have had a few careful studies of the very earliest
years of childhood. However, although from the theoretical point of view
our knowledge of the instincts is incomplete, it is sufficient to be of
considerable practical value.
=The Individualistic Instincts.= Man's civilized life has covered but a
short period of time, only a few hundred or a few thousand years. His
pre-civilized life doubtless covered a period of millions of years. The
inborn tendencies in us are such as were developed in the long period of
savage life. During all of man's life in the time before civilization,
he was always in danger. He had many enemies, and most of these enemies
had the advantage of him in strength and natural means of defense.
Unaided by weapons, he could hardly hold his own against any of the
beasts of prey. So there were developed in man by the process of natural
selection many inherited responses which we group under the head of
_fear_ responses.
Just what the various situations are that bring forth these responses
has never been carefully worked out. But any situation that suddenly
puts an individual in danger of losing his life brings about
characteristic reactions. The most characteristic of the responses are
shown in connection with circulation and respiration. Both of these
processes are much interfered with. Sometimes the action is accelerated,
at other times it is retarded, and in some cases the respiratory and
circulatory organs are almost paralyzed. Also the small muscles of the
skin are made to contract, producing the sensation of the hair standing
on end. Just what the original use of all these responses was it is
difficult now to work out, but doubtless each served some useful
purpose.
Whether any particular situations now call forth inherited fear
responses in us is not definitely established. But among lower animals
there are certain definite and particular situations which do call forth
fear responses. On the whole, the evidence rather favors the idea of
definite fear situations among children. It seems that certain
situations do invariably arouse fear responses. To be alone in the dark,
to be in a strange place, to hear loud and sudden noises, to see large,
strange animals coming in threatening manner, seem universally to call
forth fear responses in children.
However, the whole situation must always be considered. A situation in
which the father or mother is present is quite different from one in
which they are both absent. But it is certain that these and other fears
are closely related to the age and development of the child. In the
earlier years of infancy, certain fears are not present that are present
later. And it can be demonstrated that the fears that do arise as
infancy passes on are natural and inherited and not the result of
experience.
Few of the original causes of fear now exist. The original danger was
from wild animals chiefly. Seldom are we now in such danger. But of
course this has been the case for only a short time. Our bodies are the
same sort of bodies that our ancestors had, therefore we are full of
needless fears. During the early years of a child's life, wise treatment
causes most of the fear tendencies to disappear because of disuse. On
the other hand, unwise treatment may accentuate and perpetuate them,
causing much misery and unhappiness. Neither the home nor the school
should play upon these ancestral fears. We should not try to get a child
to be good by frightening him; nor should we often use fear of pain as
an incentive to get a child to do his work.
Man has always been afraid, but he has also always been a fighter. He
has always had to fight for his life against the lower animals, and he
has also fought his fellow man. The fighting response is connected with
the emotions of anger, envy, and jealousy. A man is angered by anything
that interferes with his life, with his purposes, with whatever he calls
his own. We become angry if some one strikes our bodies, or attacks our
beliefs, or the beliefs of our dear friends, particularly of our
families. The typical responses connected with anger are such as faster
heart-beat, irregular breathing, congestion of the blood in the face and
head, tightening of the voluntary muscles, particularly a setting of the
teeth and a clinching of the fists. These responses are preparatory to
actual combat.
Anger, envy, and jealousy, and the responses growing out of them, have
always played a large part in the life of man. A great part of history
is a record of the fights of nations, tribes, and individuals. If the
records of wars and strifes, and the acts growing out of envy and
jealousy and other similar emotions should be taken out of history,
there would not be much left. Much of literature and art depict those
actions of man which grew out of these individualistic aspects of his
nature. Competition, which is an aspect of fighting, even to the present
day, continues to be one of the main factors in business and in life
generally. Briefly, fighting responses growing out of man's selfishness
are as old as man himself, and the inherited tendencies connected with
them are among the strongest of our natures.
In the training of children, one of the most difficult tasks is to help
them to get control over the fighting instinct and other selfish
tendencies. These tendencies are so deeply rooted in our natures that it
is hard to get control of them. In fact, the control which we do get
over them is always relative. The best we can hope to do is to get
control over our fighting tendencies in ordinary circumstances.
It is doubtful whether it would be good for us if the fighting spirit
should disappear from the race. It puts vim and determination into the
life of man. But our fighting should not be directed against our fellow
man. The fighting spirit can be retained and directed against evil and
other obstacles. We can learn to attack our tasks in a fighting spirit.
But surely the time has come when we should cease fighting against our
neighbors.
=Social Tendencies.= Over against our fighting tendencies we may set the
socialistic tendencies. Coöperative and sympathetic actions grow out of
original nature, just as truly as do the selfish acts. But the
socialistic tendencies are not, in general, as strong as are the
individualistic ones. What society needs is the strengthening of the
socialistic tendencies by use, and a weakening of at least some of the
individualistic tendencies, by control and disuse.
Socialistic tendencies show themselves in gangs and clubs formed by
children and adults. It is, therefore, a common practice now to speak of
the "gang" instinct. Human beings are pleased and content when with
other human beings and not content, not satisfied, when alone. Of course
circumstances make a difference in the desires of men, but the general
original tendency is as stated.
The gang of the modern city has the following explanation: Boys like to
be with other boys. Moreover, they like to be active; they want to be
doing something. The city does not provide proper means for the desired
activities, such as hunting, fishing, tramping, and boating. It does not
provide experiences with animals, such as boys have on the farm. Much of
the boy's day is spent in school in a kind of work not at all like what
he would do by choice. There is not much home life. Usually there is not
the proper parental control. Seldom do the parents interest themselves
in planning for the activities of their children. The result is that the
boys come together on the streets and form a club or gang. Through this
organization the boy's nature expresses itself. Without proper guidance
from older people, this expression takes a direction not good for the
future character and usefulness of the boy.
The social life of children should be provided for by the school in
coöperation with the home. The school or the schoolroom should
constitute a social unit. The teacher with the parents should plan the
social life of the children. The actual work of the school can be very
much socialized. There can be much more coöperation and much more group
work can be done in the school than is the case at present. And many
other social activities can be organized in connection with the school
and its work. Excursions, pageants, shows, picnics, and all sorts of
activities should be undertaken.
The schoolhouse should be used by the community as the place for many of
its social acts and performances. Almost every night, and throughout the
summer as well as in the winter, the people, young and old, should meet
at the school for some sort of social work or play. The Boy Scouts
should be brought under the control of the school to help fulfill some
of its main purposes.
=Environmental Instincts.= In this class there are at least two tendencies
which seem to be part of the original nature of man; namely, the
_wandering_ and the _collecting_ tendencies.
_Wandering._ The long life that our ancestors lived free and
unrestrained in the woods has left its effect within us. One of the
greatest achievements of civilization has been to overcome the inherited
tendencies to roam and wander, to the extent that for the most part we
live out our lives in one home, in one family, doing often but one kind
of work all our lives. Originally, man had much more freedom to come and
go and do whatever he wished.
Truancies and runaways are the result of original tendencies and desires
expressing themselves in spite of training, perhaps sometimes because of
the lack of training. In childhood and youth these original tendencies
should, to some extent, be satisfied in legitimate ways. Excursions and
picnics can be planned both for work and for play. If the child's
desires and needs can be satisfied in legitimate ways, then he will not
have to satisfy them illegitimately. The teaching itself can be done
better by following, to some extent, the lead of the child's nature.
Much early education consists in learning the world. Now, most of the
world is out of doors and the child must go out to find it. The teacher
should make use of the natural desires of the children to wander and
explore, as a means of educating them. The school work should be of such
a nature that much outdoor work will need to be done.
_Collecting._ It is in the nature of children to seize and, if possible,
carry away whatever attracts attention. This tendency is the basis of
what is called the collecting instinct. If one will take a walk with a
child, one can observe the operation of the collecting tendency,
particularly if the walk is in the fields and woods. The child will be
observed to take leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, nuts, pebbles, and in
fact everything that is loose or can be gotten loose. They are taken at
first aimlessly, merely because they attract attention. The original,
natural response of the child toward that which attracts attention is
usually to get it, get possession of it and take it along. It is easy to
see why such tendencies were developed in man. In his savage state it
was highly useful for him to do this. He must always have been on the
lookout for things which could be used as food or as weapons. He had to
do this to live. But one need not take a child to the woods to observe
this tendency. One can go to the stores. Till a child is trained not to
do it, he seizes and takes whatever attracts attention.
Just as the wandering tendencies can be used for the benefit of the
child, so can the collecting tendencies. Not only should the children
make expeditions to learn of the world, but specimens should be
collected so that they can be used to form a museum at the school which
will represent the surrounding locality. Geological, geographical,
botanical, and zoölogical specimens should be collected. The children
will learn much while making the collections, and much from the
collections after they are made.
"Education could profit greatly by making large demands upon the
collecting instinct. It seems clear that in their childhood is the time
when children should be sent forth to the fields and woods, to study
what they find there and to gather specimens. The children can form
naturalists' clubs for the purpose of studying the natural environment.
Such study should embrace rocks, soils, plants, leaves, flowers, fruits,
and specimens of the wood of the various trees. Birds and insects can be
studied and collected. The work of such a club would have a twofold
value. (1) The study and collecting acquaint the child with his natural
environment, and in doing it, afford a sphere for the activity of many
aspects of his nature. They take him out of doors and give an
opportunity for exploring every nook and corner of the natural
environment. The collecting can often be done in such a way as to appeal
to the group instincts. For example, the club could hold meetings for
exhibiting and studying the specimens, and sometimes the actual
collecting could be done in groups. (2) The specimens collected should
be put into the school museum, and the aim of this museum should be to
represent completely the local environment, the natural and physical
environment, and also the industrial, civil, and social environment. The
museum should be completely illustrative of the child's natural,
physical, and social surroundings. The museum would therefore be
educative in its making, and when it is made, it would have immense
value to the community, not only to the children but to all the people.
In this museum, of course, should be found the minerals, rocks, soils,
insects,--particularly those of economic importance,--birds, and also
specimens of the wild animals of the locality. If proper appeal is made
to the natural desire of the children, this instinct would soon be made
of service in producing a very valuable collection. The school museum in
which these specimens are placed should also include other classes of
specimens. There should be specimens showing industrial evolution, the
stages of manufacture of raw material, specimens of local historical
interest, pictures, documents, books. The museum should be made of such
a nature that parents would go there nearly as often as the children.
The school should be for the instruction of all the people of the
community. It should be the experiment station, the library, the
debating club, the art gallery for the whole community."[2]
[2] Pyle's _Outlines of Educational Psychology_, pp. 84-86.
=Imitation.= One of the fundamental original traits of human nature is the
tendency to imitate. Imitation is not instinctive in the strict meaning
of the word. Seeing a certain act performed does not, apart from
training and experience, serve as a stimulus to make a child perform a
similar act. Hearing a certain sound does not serve as a stimulus for
the production of the same sound. Nevertheless, there is in the human
child a tendency or desire to do what it sees others doing.
A few hours spent in observing children ought to convince any one of the
universality and of the strength of this tendency. As our experience
becomes organized, the idea of an act usually serves as the stimulus to
call it forth. However, this is not because the idea of an act, of
necessity, always produces the act. It is merely a matter of the
stimulus and the response _becoming connected in that way_ as the result
of experience. Our meaning is that an act can be touched off or prompted
by any stimulus. Our nervous organization makes this possible. The
particular stimulus that calls forth a particular response depends upon
how we have been trained, how we have learned. In most cases our acts
are coupled up with the ideas of the acts. We learn them that way.
In early life particularly, the connection between stimulus and response
is very close. When a child gets the idea of an act, he immediately
performs the act, if he knows how. Now, seeing another perform an act
brings the act clearly into the child's consciousness, and he proceeds
to perform it. But the act must be one which the child already knows how
to perform, otherwise his performance of it will be faulty and
incomplete. If he has never performed the particular act, seeing another
perform the act sets him to trying to do it and he may soon learn it. If
he successfully performs an act when he sees it done by another, the act
must be one which he already knows how to perform, and for whose
performance the idea has already served as a stimulus. Now if imitation
were instinctive in the strict sense, one could perform the act for the
first time merely from seeing another do it, without any previous
experience or learning. It is doubtful whether there are any such
inherited connections. It is, however, true that human beings are of
such a nature that, particularly in early life, they _like_ to do and
_want_ to do what they see others doing. This is one of the most
important aspects of human nature, as we shall see.
=Function and Importance of Imitation in Life.= Natural selection has
developed few aspects of human nature so important for survival as the
tendency to imitate, for this tendency quickly leads to a successful
adjustment of the child to the world in which he lives. Adult men and
women are successfully adjusted to their environment. Their adjustment
might be better, but it is good enough to keep them alive for a time.
Now, if children do as they see their parents doing, they will reach a
satisfactory adjustment. We may, therefore, say that the tendency to
imitate serves to adjust the child to his environment. It is for this
reason that imitation has been called an _adaptive instinct_. It would
perhaps be better to say merely that the _tendency_ to imitate is part
of the _original equipment of man_.
Imitation is distinctively a human trait. While it occurs in lower
animals it is probably not an important factor in adjusting them to
their environment. But in the human race it is one of the chief factors
in adjustment to environment. Imitation is one of the main factors in
education. Usually the quickest way to teach a child to do a thing is to
show him how.
Through imitation we acquire our language, manners, and customs. Ideals,
beliefs, prejudices, attitudes, we take on through imitation. The
tendency to imitate others coupled with the desire to be thought well of
by others is one of the most powerful factors in producing conformity.
They are the whips which keep us within the bounds of custom and
conventionality. The tendency to imitate is so strong that its results
are almost as certain as are those of inherited tendencies. It is almost
as certain that a child will be like his parents in speech, manners,
customs, superstitions, etc., as it is that he will be like them in form
of body. He not only walks and talks and acts like his parents, but he
thinks as they do. We, therefore, have the term _social heredity_,
meaning the taking on of all sorts of social habits and ideals through
imitation.
The part that imitation plays in the education of a child may be learned
by going to a country home and noting how the boy learns to do all the
many things about the farm by imitating his father, and how the girl
learns to do all the housework by imitating her mother. Imitation is the
basis of much of the play of children, in that their play consists in
large part of doing what they see older people doing. This imitative
play gives them skill and is a large factor in preparing for the work of
life.
=Dramatization.= Dramatization is an aspect of imitation, and is a means
of making ideas more real than they would otherwise be. There is nothing
that leads us so close to reality as action. We never completely know an
act till we have done it. Dramatization is a matter of carrying an idea
out into action. Ideas give to action its greatest fullness of meaning.
Dramatic representation should, therefore, have a prominent place in the
schools, particularly in the lower grades. If the child is allowed to
mimic the characters in the reading lesson, the meaning of the lesson
becomes fuller. Later on in the school course, dramatic representation
of the characters in literature and history is a means of getting a
better conception of these characters. In geography, the study of the
manners and customs and occupations of foreign peoples can be much
facilitated through dramatic representation. Children naturally have the
dramatic tendency; it is one aspect of the tendency to imitate. We have
only to encourage it and make use of it throughout the school course.
=Imitation in Ideals.= Imitation is of importance not only in acquiring
the actions of life but also in getting our ideals. Habits of thinking
are no less an aspect of our lives than are habits of acting. Our
attitudes, our prejudices, our beliefs, our moral, religious, and
political ideals are in large measure copied from people about us. The
family and social atmosphere in which one lives is a mold in which one's
mind is formed and shaped. We cannot escape the influence of this
atmosphere if we would. One takes on a belief that his father has, one
clings to this belief and interprets the world in the light of it. This
belief becomes a part of one's nature. It is a mental habit, a way of
looking at the world. It is as much a part of one as red hair or big
feet or a crooked nose. Probably no other influence has so much to do
with making us what we are as social beings as the influence of
imitation.
=Play.= Play is usually considered to be a part of the original equipment
of man. It is essentially an expression of the ripening instincts of
children, and not a specific instinct itself. It is rather a sort of
make-believe activity of all the instincts. Kittens and dogs may be seen
in play to mimic fighting. They bite and chew each other as in real
fighting, but still they are not fighting.
As the structures and organs of children mature, they demand activity.
This early activity is called play. It has several characteristics. The
main one is that it is pleasurable. Play activity is pleasurable in
itself. We do not play that we may get something else which we like, as
is the case with the activity which we call work. Play is an end in
itself. It is not a means to get something else which is intrinsically
valuable.
One of the chief values of play comes from its activity aspect. We are
essentially motor beings. We grow and develop only through exercise. In
early life we do not have to exert ourselves to get a living. Play is
nature's means of giving our organs the exercise which they must have to
bring them to maturity. Play is an expression of the universal tendency
to action in early life. Without play, the child would not develop,
would not become a normal human being.
All day long the child is ceaselessly active. The value of this activity
can hardly be overestimated. It not only leads to healthy growth, but is
a means through which the child learns himself and the world. Everything
that the child sees excites him to react to it or upon it. He gets
possession of it. He bites it. He pounds it. He throws it. In this way
he learns the properties of things and the characteristics of forces.
Through play and imitation, in a very few years the child comes to a
successful adjustment in his world.
Play and imitation are the great avenues of activity in early life. Even
in later life, we seldom accomplish anything great or worth while until
the thing becomes play to us, until we throw our whole being into it as
we do in play, until it is an expression of ourselves as play is in our
childhood. The proper use of play gives us the solution of many of the
problems of early education.
Play has two functions in the school: (1) Motor play is necessary to
growth, development, and health. The constant activity of the child is
what brings about healthy growth.
In the country it is not difficult for children to get plenty of the
proper kind of exercise, but in the larger cities it is difficult.
Nevertheless, opportunity for play should be provided for every child,
no matter what the trouble or expense, for without play children cannot
become normal human beings. Everywhere parents and teachers should plan
for the play life of the children.
(2) In the primary grades play can have a large place in the actual work
of the school. The early work of education is to a large extent getting
the tools of knowledge and thought and work--reading, spelling,
writing, correct speech, correct writing, the elementary processes of
arithmetic, etc. In many ways play can be used in acquiring these tools.
One aspect of play particularly should have a large place in education;
namely, the manipulative tendencies of children. This is essentially
play. Children wish to handle and manipulate everything that attracts
their attention. They wish to tear it to pieces and to put it together.
This is nature's way of teaching, and by it children learn the
properties and structures of things. They thereby learn what things do
and what can be done with them. Teachers and parents should foster these
manipulative tendencies and use them for the child's good. These
tendencies are an aspect of curiosity. We want to know. We are unhappy
as long as a thing is before us which we do not understand, which has
some mystery about it. Nature has developed these tendencies in us, for
without a knowledge of our surroundings we could not live. The child
therefore has in his nature the basis of his education. We have but to
know this nature and wisely use and manipulate it to achieve the child's
education.
SUMMARY. Instincts are inherited tendencies to specific actions.
They fall under the heads: individualistic, socialistic,
environmental, adaptive, sexual or mating instincts. These inherited
tendencies are to a large extent the foundation on which we build
education. The educational problem is to control and guide them,
suppressing some, fostering others. In everything we undertake for a
child we must take into account these instincts.
CLASS EXERCISES
1. Make a study of the instincts of several animals, such as dogs, cats,
chickens. Make a list showing the stimuli and the inherited responses.
2. Make a study of the instincts of a baby. See how many inherited
responses you can observe. The simpler inherited responses are known as
_reflexes_. The closing of the eyelids mentioned in the text is an
example. How many such reflexes can you find in a child?
3. Make a special study of the fears of very young children. How many
definite situations can you find which excite fear responses in all
children? Each member of the class can make a list of his own fears. It
may then be seen whether any fears are common to all members of the
class and whether there are any sex differences.
4. Similarly, make a study of anger and fighting. What situations
invariably arouse the fighting response? In what definite, inherited
ways is anger shown? Do your studies and observations convince you that
the fighting instinct and other inherited responses concerned with
individual survival are among the strongest of inherited tendencies? Can
the fighting instinct be eliminated from the human race? Is it desirable
to eliminate it?
5. Make a study of children's collections. Take one of the grades and
find what collections the children have made. What different objects are
collected?
6. Outline a plan for using the collecting instinct in various school
studies.
7. With the help of the principal of the school make a study of some
specific cases of truancy. What does your finding show?
8. Make a study of play by watching children of various ages play. Make
a list of the games that are universal for infancy, those for childhood,
and those for youth. (Consult Johnson's _Plays and Games_.)
9. What are the two main functions of play in education? Why should we
play after we are mature?
10. Study imitation in very young children. Do this by watching the
spontaneous play of children under six. What evidences of imitation do
you find?
11. Outline the things we learn by imitation. What is your opinion of
the place which imitation has in our education?
12. Make a study of imitation as a factor in the lives of grown people.
Consider styles, fashions, manners, customs, beliefs, prejudices,
religious ideas, etc.
13. On the whole, is imitation a good thing or a bad thing?
14. Make a plan of the various ways in which dramatization can be
profitably used in the schools.
15. Make a study of your own ideals. What ideals do you have? Where did
you get them? What ideals did you get from your parents? What from
books? What from teachers? What from friends?
16. Show that throughout life inherited tendencies are the fundamental
bases from which our actions proceed, on which our lives are erected.
17. Make a complete outline of the chapter.
REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING
COLVIN and BAGLEY: _Human Behavior_, Chapters III, VIII, IX, and X.
KIRKPATRICK: _Fundamentals of Child Study_, Chapters IV-XIII.
MÜNSTERBERG: _Psychology, General and Applied_, pp. 184-187.
PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, Chapter X.
PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapters IV-IX.
TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER V
FEELING AND ATTENTION
=The Feelings.= Related to the instincts on one side and to habits on the
other are the feelings. In Chapter III we discussed sensation, and in
the preceding chapter, the instincts, but when we have described an act
in terms of instinct and sensation, we have not told all the facts.
For example, when a child sees a pretty red ball of yarn, he reaches out
to get it, then puts it into his mouth, or unwinds it, and plays with it
in various ways. It is all a matter of sensation and instinctive
responses. The perception of the ball--seeing the ball--brings about the
instinctive reaching out, grasping the ball, and bringing it to the
mouth. But to complete our account, we must say that the child is
_pleased_. We note a change in his facial expression. His eyes gleam
with pleasure. His face is all smiles, showing pleasant contentment.
Therefore we must say that the child not only sees, not only acts, but
the seeing and acting are _pleasant_. The child continues to look, he
continues to act, because the looking and acting bring joy.
This is typical of situations that bring pleasure. We want them
continued; we act in a way to make them continue. _We go out after the
pleasure-giving thing._
But let us consider a different kind of situation. A child sees on the
hearth a glowing coal. It instinctively reaches out and grasps it,
starts to draw the coal toward it, but instinctively drops it. This is
not, however, the whole story. Instead of the situation being pleasant,
it is decidedly unpleasant. The child fairly howls with pain. His face,
instead of being wreathed in smiles, is covered with tears. He did not
hold on to the coal. He did not try to continue the situation. On the
contrary, he dropped the coal, and withdrew the hand. The body
contracted and shrank away from the situation.
These two cases illustrate the two simple feelings, pleasantness and
unpleasantness. Most situations in life are either pleasant or
unpleasant. Situations may sometimes be neutral; that is, may arouse
neither the feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness. But usually a
conscious state is either pleasant or unpleasant. A situation brings us
life, joy, happiness. We want it continued and act in a way to bring
about its continuance. Or the situation tends to take away our life,
brings pain, sorrow, grief, and we want it discontinued, and act in a
way to discontinue it.
These two simple forms of feeling perhaps arose in the beginning in
connection with the act of taking food. It is known that if a drop of
acid touches an amoeba, the animal shrinks, contracts, and tries to
withdraw from the death-bringing acid. On the other hand, if a particle
of a substance that is suitable for food touches the animal, it takes
the particle within itself. The particle is life-giving and brings
pleasure.
=The Emotions.= Pleasure and displeasure are the simple feelings. Most
situations in life bring about very complex feeling states known as
_emotions_. The emotions are made up of pleasure or displeasure mixed
or compounded with the sensations from the bodily reactions.
The circulatory system, the respiratory system, and nearly all the
involuntary organs of the body form a great sounding board which
instantly responds in various ways to the situations of life. When the
youth sees the pretty maiden and when he touches her hand, his heart
pumps away at a great rate, his cheeks become flushed, his breathing is
paralyzed, his voice trembles. He experiences the emotion of love. The
state is complex indeed. There is pleasantness, of course, but there is
in addition the feeling of all the bodily reactions.
When the mother sees her dead child lying in its casket, her head falls
over on her breast, her eyes fill with tears, her shoulders droop, her
chest contracts, she sobs, her breathing is spasmodic. Nearly every
organ of the body is affected in one way or another. The state is
_unpleasant_, but there is also the feeling of the manifold bodily
reactions.
So it is always. The biologically important situations in life bring
about, through hereditary connections in the nervous system, certain
typical reactions. These reactions are largely the same for the same
type of situation, and they give the particular coloring to each
emotion. It is evident that the emotions are closely related to the
instincts. The reflexes that take place in emotions are of the same
nature as the instincts. Each instinctive act has its characteristic
emotion. There are fear instincts and fear emotions. Fear is unpleasant.
In addition to its unpleasantness there is a multitude of sensations
that come from the body. The hair stands on end, the heart throbs, the
circulation is hastened, breathing is interrupted, the muscles are
tense. This peculiar mass of sensations, blended with the
unpleasantness, gives the characteristic emotion of fear. But we need
not go into an analysis of the various emotions of love, hate, envy,
grief, jealousy, etc. The reader can do this for himself.[3]
[3] See James' _Psychology, Briefer Course_, Chapter XXIV.
Nearly every organ of the body plays its part in the emotions: the
digestive organs, the liver, the kidneys, the throat and mouth, the
salivary glands, the eyes and tear glands, the skin muscles, the facial
muscles, etc. And every emotion is made up of pleasantness or
unpleasantness and the sensations produced by some combination of bodily
reactions.
It is well for us to remember the part that bodily conditions and states
play in the emotional life. The emotional state of a man depends upon
whether he has had his dinner or is hungry, whether the liver is working
normally, and upon the condition of the various secreting and excreting
organs and glands. In a word, it is evident that our emotions fall
within a world of cause and effect. _Our feeling states are caused._
=Importance in Life.= Our feelings and emotions are the fountains from
which nearly all our volitional actions flow. Feeling is the
_mainspring_ of life. Nearly everything we do is prompted by love, or
hate, or fear, or jealousy, or rivalry, or anger, or grief. If the
feelings have such close relation to action, then the schools must take
them into account, for by education we seek to control action. If the
feelings control action, then we must try to control the feelings. We
must get the child into a right state of mind toward the school, toward
his teacher, and toward his work. The child must like the school, like
the teacher, and _want_ to learn.
Moreover, we must create the right state of mind in connection with
each study, each task. The child must come to feel the need and
importance of each individual task as well as of each subject. The task
is then desirable, it is to be sought for and worked at, it is important
for life.
This is merely enlisting the child's nature in the interest of his
education. For motive, we must always look to the child's nature. The
two great forces which pull and drive are _pleasure_ and _pain_. Nature
has no other methods. Formerly the school used pain as its motive almost
exclusively. The child did his tasks to escape pain. For motive we now
use more often the positive influences which give pleasure, which pull
instead of drive. What will one not do _for_ the _loved_ one? What will
one not do _to_ the _hated_ one? The child who does not love his teacher
gets little good from school while under that teacher. Moreover, school
work is often a failure because it is so unreal, has so little relation
to an actual world, and seems foreign to any real needs of the child. No
one is going to work very hard unless the work is prompted by desire.
Our desires come from our needs. Therefore, if we are to enlist the
child's feelings in the service of his education, we must make the
school work vital and relate it, if possible, to the actual needs of the
child.
It must not be forgotten, however, that we must build up permanent
attitudes of respect for authority, obedience, and reverence for the
important things of life. Neither must it be forgotten that we can
create needs in the child. If in the education of the child we follow
only such needs as he has, we will make a fine savage of him but nothing
else. It is the business of the school to create in the child the right
kind of needs. As was pointed out in our study of the instincts, we
must make the child over again into what he ought to be. But this
cannot be a sudden process. One cannot arouse enthusiasm in a
six-year-old child over the beauties of higher mathematics. It takes ten
or fifteen years to do that, and it must be done little by little.
=Control of the Emotions.= Without training, we remain at the mercy of our
baser emotions. The child must be trained to control himself. Here is
where habit comes in to modify primitive action. The child can be
trained to inhibit or prevent the reactions that arise in hatred, envy,
jealousy, anger, etc. For a fuller discussion of this point we must wait
till we come to the discussion of habit and moral training.
=Mood and Temperament.= A mood is a somewhat extended emotional state
continuing for hours or days. It is due to a continuance of the factors
which cause it. The state of the liver and digestive organs may throw
one for days into a cross and ugly mood. When the body becomes normal,
the mood changes or disappears. Similarly, one may for hours or days be
overjoyed, or depressed, or morose, or melancholy. Parents and teachers
should look well to the matter of creating and establishing continuous
and permanent states of feeling that are favorable to work and
development.
Some people are permanently optimistic, others pessimistic. Some are
always joyful, others as constantly see only the dark side of life. Some
are always serious and solemn, others always gay, even giddy. These
permanent emotional attitudes constitute temperament, and are due to
fundamental differences within the body that are in some cases
hereditary. Crossness and moroseness, for example, may be due to a
dyspeptic condition and a chronically bad liver. The happy dispositions
belong to bodies whose organs are functioning properly, in which
assimilation is good--all the parts of the body doing their proper work.
Poor eyes which are under a constant strain, through the reflex effects
upon various organs of the body, are likely to develop a permanently
cross and irritable disposition. Through the close sympathetic relation
of the various organs, anything affecting one organ and interfering with
its proper action is likely to affect many other organs and profoundly
influence the emotional states of the body. In growing children
particularly, there are many influences which affect their emotions,
things of which we seldom think, such as the condition of vision and
hearing, the condition of the teeth, nose, and throat, and the condition
of all the important vital organs of the body. When a child's
disposition is not what we think it ought to be, we should try to find
out the causes.
=Training the Emotions.= The emotions are subject to training. The child
can be taught control. Moreover, he can be taught to appreciate and
enjoy higher things than mere animal pleasure; namely, art, literature,
nature, truth. The child thereby becomes a spiritual being instead of a
mere pig. The ideal of the school should be to develop men and women
whose baser passions are under control, who are calm, self-controlled,
and self-directed, and who get their greatest pleasure from the finer
and higher things of life, such as the various forms of music, the songs
of birds, the beauties and intricate workings of nature.
This is a wonderful world and a wonderful life, but the child may go
through the world without seeing it, and live his life without knowing
what it is to live. His eyes must be opened, he must be trained to see
and to feel. It is not the place here to tell how this is to be done.
This is not a book on methods of teaching. We can only indicate here
that the business of the school is not merely to teach people how to
make a living, but to teach them how to enjoy the living. There are many
avenues from which we get the higher forms of pleasure. There are really
many different worlds which we may experience: the world of animals, the
world of plants, the mechanical world, the chemical world, the world of
literature and of art, the world of music. It is the duty of the schools
to open up these worlds to the children, and make them so many
possibilities of joy and happiness.
The emotions and feelings, then, are not lawless and causeless, but are
a part of a world of law and order. They are themselves caused and
therefore subject to control and modification.
=Attention.= Attention, too, is related to inherited tendencies on the one
side and to habits on the other. If one is walking in the woods and
catches a glimpse of something moving in the trees, the eyes
_instinctively_ turn so that the person can get a better view of the
object. If one hears a sudden sound, the head is instinctively turned so
that the person can hear better. One stops, the body is held still and
rigid, breathing is slow and controlled--all to favor better hearing.
The various acts of attention are reflex and instinctive. But what is
attention? By attention we mean _sensory clearness_. When we say we are
attentive to a thing or subject, we mean that perceptions or ideas of
that thing or subject are _clear_ as compared to other perceptions and
ideas that are in consciousness at the same time. The contents of one's
consciousness, the perceptions and ideas that constitute one's mind at
any one moment are always arranged in an _attentive_ pattern, some
being clear, others unclear. The pattern constantly changes and shifts.
What is now clear and in the focus of consciousness, presently is
unclear and may in a moment disappear from consciousness altogether,
while other perceptions or ideas take its place.
The first question that arises in connection with attention is, What are
the causes of attention? The first group of causes are hereditary and
instinctive. The child attends to loud things, bright things, moving
things, etc. But as we grow older, the basis of attention becomes more
and more _habit_. An illustration will make this clear. I once spent a
day at a great exposition with a machinist. He was constantly attending
to things mechanical, when I would not even see them. He had spent many
years working with machinery, and as a result, things mechanical at once
attracted him. Similarly, if a man and a woman walk along a street
together and look in at the shop windows, the woman sees only hats,
dresses, ribbons, and other finery, while the man sees only cigars,
pipes, and automobile supplies. Every day we live, we are building up
habits of attending to certain types of things. What repeatedly comes
into our experience, easily attracts our attention to the exclusion of
other things.
=The Function of Attention.= Attention is the unifying aspect of
consciousness. There are always many things in consciousness, and we
cannot respond to all at once. The part of consciousness that is clear
and focal brings about action. The things to which we attend are the
things that count.
In later chapters we shall learn that in habit-formation, attention is
an important factor. We must attend to the acts we are trying to
make habitual. In getting knowledge, we must attend to what we are
trying to learn. In committing to memory, we must attend to the ideas
that we are trying to fix and make permanent. In thinking and reasoning,
those ideas become associated together that are together in attention.
Attention is therefore the controlling aspect of consciousness. It is
the basis of what we call _will_. The ideas that are clear and focal and
that persist in consciousness are the ideas that control our action.
When one says he has made up his mind, he has made a choice; that merely
means that a certain group of ideas persist in consciousness to the
exclusion of others. These are the ideas which ultimately produce
action. And it is our past experience that determines what ideas will
become focal and persist.
=Training the Attention.= There are two aspects of the training of
attention. (1) We can learn to hold ourselves to a task. When we sit
down to a table to study, there may be many things that tend to call us
away. There lies a magazine which we might read, there is a play at the
theater, there are noises outside, there is a friend calling across the
street. But we must study. We have set ourselves to a task and we must
hold fast to our purpose.
The young child cannot do this. He must be trained to do it. The
instruments used to train him are pleasure and pain, rewards and
punishments that come from parents. Gradually, slowly, the child gains
control over himself. No one ever amounts to anything till he can hold
himself to a task, to a fixed purpose. One must learn to form plans
extending over weeks, months, and years, and to hold unflinchingly to
them, just as one must hold himself to his study table and allow nothing
to distract or to interfere. No training a child can receive is more
important than this, for it gives him control over his life, it gives
him control over the ideas that are to become focal and determine
action. It is for this reason that we call such training a training of
attention. It might perhaps better be called a training of the will. But
the will is only the attentive consciousness. The idea that is clear,
that holds its own in consciousness, is the idea that produces action.
When we say that we _will_ to do a certain thing, all we can mean is
that the _idea of this act_ is clearest and holds its focal place in
consciousness to the exclusion of other ideas. It therefore goes over
into action.
(2) The training just discussed may be called a general training of
attention giving us a general power and control over our lives, but
there is another type of training which is specific. As with the
machinist mentioned above, so with all of us; we attend to the type of
thing that we have formed a habit of attending to. Continued experience
in a certain field makes it more and more easy to attend to things in
that field. One can take a certain subject and work at it day after day,
year after year. By and by, the whole world takes on the aspect of this
chosen subject. The entomologist sees bugs everywhere, the botanist sees
only plants, the mechanic sees only machines, the preacher sees only the
moral and religious aspects of action, the doctor sees only disease, the
mathematician sees always the quantitative aspect of things. Ideas and
perceptions related to one's chosen work go at once and readily to the
focus of consciousness; other things escape notice.
It is for this reason that we become "crankier" every year that we live.
We are attending to only one aspect of the world. While this blinds us
to other aspects of the world, it brings mastery in our individual
fields. We can, then, by training and practice, get a general control
over attention, and by working in a certain field or kind of work, we
make it easy to attend to things in that field or work. This to an
extent gives us control of our lives, of our destiny.
=Interest.= The essential elements of interest are attention and feeling.
When a person is very attentive to a subject and gets pleasure from
experience in that subject, we commonly say that he is _interested_ in
that subject.
Since the importance of attention and feeling in learning has already
been shown and will be further developed in the chapters which follow in
connection with the subjects of habit, memory, and thinking, little more
need be said here.
The key to all forms of learning is _attention_. The key to attention is
_feeling_. Feeling depends upon the nature of the child, inherited and
acquired. In our search for the means of arousing interest, we look
first to the original nature of the child, to the instincts and the
emotions. We look next to the acquired nature, the habits, the ideals,
the various needs that have grown up in the individual's life.
Educational writers have overemphasized the original nature of the child
as a basis of interest and have not paid enough attention to acquired
nature. We should not ask so much what a child's needs are, but what
they _ought_ to be. Needs can be created. The child's nature to some
extent can be changed. The problem of arousing interest is therefore one
of finding in the child's nature a basis for attention and pleasure. If
the basis is not to be found there, then it must be built up. How this
can be done, how human nature can be changed, is to some extent the main
problem of psychology. Every chapter in this book, it is hoped, will be
found to throw some light on the problem.
SUMMARY. The two elementary feeling states are pleasantness and
unpleasantness. The emotions are complex mental states composed of
feeling and the sensations from bodily reactions to the situations.
Feeling and emotion are the motive forces of life, at the bottom of
all important actions. The bodily reactions of emotions are reflex
and instinctive. Attention is a matter of the relative clearness of
the contents of consciousness. The function of attention is to unify
thought and action. It is the important factor in all learning and
thinking, for it is only the attentive part of consciousness that is
effective.
CLASS EXERCISES
1. Make out a complete list of the more important emotions.
2. Indicate the characteristic expression of each emotion in your list.
3. Can you have an emotion without its characteristic expression? If,
for example, when a situation arises which ordinarily arouses anger in
you, you inhibit all the usual motor accompaniments of anger, are you
really angry?
4. Are the expressions of the same emotion the same for all people?
5. Try to analyze some of your emotional states: anger, or fear, or
grief. Can you detect the sensations that come from the bodily
reactions?
6. Try to induce an emotional state by producing its characteristic
reactions.
7. Try to change an emotional state to an opposite emotion; for example,
grief to joy.
8. Try to control and change emotional states in children.
9. Name some sensations that for you are always pleasant, others that
are always unpleasant--colors, sounds, tastes, odors, temperatures.
10. Confirm by observation the statement of the text as to the
importance of emotions in all the important actions of life.
11. To what extent do you have control of your emotional states? What
have you observed about differences in expression of deep emotions by
different people? In case of death in the family, some people wail and
moan and express their grief in the most extreme manner, while others do
not utter a sound and show great control. Why the difference?
12. Make an introspective study of your conscious states to note the
difference in clearness of the different processes that are going on in
consciousness. Do you find a constant shifting?
13. Perform experiments to show the effects of attention in forming
habits and acquiring knowledge.
(1) Perform tests in learning, using substitution tests as described in
Chapter X. Use several different keys. In some experiments have no
distractions, in others, have various distracting noises. What
differences do you find in the results?
(2) Try learning nonsense syllables, some lists with distractions,
others without distractions.
(3) Try getting the ideas from stories read to you, as in the logical
memory experiment described in Chapter X. Some stories should be read
without distractions, others with distractions.
14. Why are you unable to study well when under the influence of some
strong emotion?
15. Are you trained to the extent that you can concentrate on a task and
hold yourself to it for a long time?
16. Do you see that as far as will and attention and the emotions are
concerned, your life and character are in large measure in your own
hands?
17. Make a complete outline of the chapter.
REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING
COLVIN and BAGLEY: _Human Behavior_, Chapters IV, V, and VI.
MÜNSTERBERG: _Psychology, General and Applied_, Chapter XIV, also
pp. 187-192 and pp. 370-371.
PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, Chapters V and XI.
PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapter XIV.
TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, Chapters IV, VIII, and XI.
CHAPTER VI
HABIT
=The Nature of Habit.= We now turn from man's inherited nature to his
acquired nature. Inherited tendencies to action we have called
instincts; acquired tendencies to action we shall call habits. We can
best form an idea of the nature of habit by considering some concrete
cases.
Let us take first the case of a man forming the habit of turning out the
basement light. It usually happens that when a man has an electric light
in the basement of his house, it is hard for him at first to think to
turn out the light at night when he retires, and as a consequence the
light often burns all night. This is expensive and unnecessary, so there
is a strong incentive for the man to find a plan which will insure the
regular turning-off of the light at bedtime. The plan usually hit upon
is the following: The electric switch that controls the basement light
is beside the basement stairway. The man learns to look at the switch as
he comes up the stairs, after preparing the furnace fire for the night,
and learns to take hold of the switch when he sees it and turn off the
light. Coming up the stairs means to look at the switch. Seeing the
switch means to turn it. Each step of the performance touches off the
next. The man sees that in order to make sure that the light will always
be turned off, the acts must all be made automatic, and each step must
touch off the next in the series. At first, the man leaves the light
burning about as often as he turns it off. After practicing for a time
on the scheme, the different acts become so well connected that he
seldom leaves the light burning. We say that he has formed the _habit_
of turning off the light.
For a second illustration, let us take the process of learning that nine
times nine equals eighty-one. At first, one does not say or write
"eighty-one" when one sees "nine times nine," but one can acquire the
habit of doing so. It does not here concern us how the child learns what
the product of nine times nine is. He may learn it by counting, by being
told, or by reading it in a book. But however he first learns it, he
fixes it and makes it automatic and habitual by _continuing_ to say or
to write, "nine times nine equals eighty-one." The essential point is
that at first the child does not know what to say when he hears or sees
the expression "nine times nine," but after long practice he comes to
give automatically and promptly the correct answer. For the definite
problem "nine times nine" there comes the definite response
"eighty-one."
For a third illustration, let us take the case of a man tipping his hat
when he meets a lady. A young boy does not tip his hat when he meets a
lady until he has been taught to do so. After he learns this act of
courtesy he does it quite automatically without thinking of it. For the
definite situation, meeting a lady of his acquaintance, there comes to
be established the definite response, tipping the hat. A similar habit
is that of turning to the right when we meet a person. For the definite
situation, meeting a person on the road or street or sidewalk, there is
established the definite response, turning to the right. The response
becomes automatic, immediate, certain.
There is another type of habit that may properly be called an
intellectual habit, such as voting a certain party ticket, say the
Democratic. When one is a boy, one hears his father speak favorably of
the Democratic party. His father says, "Hurrah for Bryan," so he comes
to say, "Hurrah for Bryan." His father says, "I am a Democrat," so he
says he is a Democrat. He takes the side that his father takes. In a
similar way we take on the same religious notions that our parents have.
It does not always happen this way, but this is the rule. But no matter
how we come to do it, we do adopt the creed of some party or some
church. We adopt a certain way of looking at public questions, and a
certain way of looking at religious questions. For certain rather
definite situations, we come to take definite stands. When we go to the
booth to vote, we look at the top of the ballot to find the column
marked "Democratic," and the definite response is to check the
"Democrat" column. Of course, some of us form a different habit and
check the "Republican" column, but the psychology of the act is the
same. The point is that we form the Democratic habit or we form the
Republican habit; and the longer we practice the habit, the harder it is
to change it.
In the presidential campaign of 1912, Roosevelt "bolted" from the
Republican party. It was hard for the older Republicans to follow him.
While one occasionally found a follower of Roosevelt who was gray, one
usually found the old Republicans standing by the old party, the younger
ones joining the Progressive party. It is said that when Darwin
published "The Origin of Species," very few old men accepted the
doctrine of evolution. The adherents of the new doctrine were nearly
all young men. So there is such a thing as an intellectual habit. One
comes to take a definite stand when facing certain definite intellectual
situations.
Similar to the type of habits which we have called intellectual is
another type which may be called "moral." When we face the situation of
reporting an occurrence, we can tell the truth or we can lie. We can
build up the habit of meeting such situations by telling the truth on
all occasions. We can learn to follow the maxim "Tell the truth at all
times, at all hazards." We can come to do this automatically, certainly,
and without thought of doing anything else.
Most moral situations are fairly definite and clear-cut, and for them we
can establish definite forms of response. We can form the habit of
helping a person in distress, of helping a sick neighbor, of speaking
well of a neighbor; we can form habits of industry, habits of
perseverance. These and other similar habits are the basis of morality.
The various kinds of habits which we have enumerated are alike in
certain fundamental particulars. In all of them there is a definite
situation followed by a definite response. One sees the switch and turns
off the light; he sees the expression "nine times nine" and says
"eighty-one"; he sees a lady he knows and tips his hat; in meeting a
carriage on the road, he turns to the right; when he has to vote, he
votes a certain ticket; when he has to report an occurrence, he tells it
as it happened. There is, in every case, a definite situation followed
by a definite response.
Another characteristic is common to all the cases mentioned above,
_i.e._ the response is acquired, it does not come at first. In every
instance we might have learned to act differently. We could form the
habit of always leaving the light burning; could just as easily say
"nine times nine equals forty"; we could turn to the left; we could vote
the Republican ticket. We can form bad moral habits as well as good
ones, perhaps more easily. The point is, however, that we acquire
definite ways of acting for the same situations, and these definite ways
of acting are called habits.
=Habit and Nerve-Path.= It has already been stated that a habit is a
tendency toward a certain type of action in a certain situation. The
basis of this tendency is in the nervous system. In order to understand
it we must consider what the nervous system is like. Nerves terminate at
one end in a sense organ and at the other end ultimately in a muscle.
In Figure II, A is a sense organ, B a nerve going from the sense organ
to the brain C. D, E, F, G, and H are motor nerves going from the brain
to the muscles. Now, let us show from the diagram what organization
means and what tendency means. At first when the child sees the
expression "nine times nine," he does not say "eighty-one." The stimulus
brings about no definite action. It is as likely to go out through E or
F as through D. But suppose we can get the child to say "nine times nine
equals eighty-one." We can write the expression on the blackboard and
have the child look at it and say "nine times nine equals eighty-one."
Suppose the act of saying "eighty-one" is brought about by the
nerve-current going out through nerve-chain D. By repetition, we
establish a bond. A stimulus of a particular kind comes through A, goes
over B to C, and out over D, making muscles at M bring about a very
definite action in saying "eighty-one."
[Illustration: FIGURE II.--THE ORGANIZATION OF TENDENCIES]
From the point of view of physiology, the process of habit-formation
consists in securing a particular nerve coupling, establishing a
particular nerve path, so that a definite form of stimulation will bring
about a definite form of response. A nerve tendency is simply the
likelihood that a stimulus will take a certain course rather than any
other. This likelihood is brought about by getting the stimulus to take
the desired route through the nervous system to a group of muscles and
to continue following this route. The more times it passes the same way,
the greater is the probability that at any given time the stimulus will
take the accustomed route and bring about the usual response. At first
any sort of action is possible. A nerve stimulus can take any one of the
many routes to the different muscles. By chance or by conscious
direction, the stimulus takes a certain path, and by repetition we fix
and make permanent this particular route. This constitutes a nerve
tendency or habit.
=Plasticity.= Our discussion should have made it clear that habit is
acquired nature, while instinct is inherited nature. Habit is acquired
tendency while instinct is inherited tendency. The possibility of
acquiring habits is peculiarly a human characteristic. While inanimate
things have a definite nature, a definite way of reacting to forces
which act upon them, they have little, if any, possibility of varying
their way of acting. Water might be said to have habits. If one cools
water, it turns to ice. If we heat it, it turns to steam. But it
_invariably_ does this. We cannot teach it any different way of acting.
Under the same conditions it always does the same thing.
Plants are very much like inanimate things. Plants have definite ways of
acting. A vine turns around a support. A leaf turns its upper surface to
the light. But one cannot teach plants different ways of acting. The
lower forms of animals are somewhat like plants and inanimate objects.
But to a very slight extent they are variable and can form habits. Among
the higher animals, such as dogs and other domestic animals, there is a
greater possibility of forming habits. In man there are the greatest
possibilities of habit-formation. In man the learned acts or habits are
many as compared to the unlearned acts or instincts; while among the
lower animals the opposite is the case--their instincts are many as
compared to their habits.
We may call this possibility of forming habits _plasticity_. Inanimate
objects such as iron, rocks, sulphur, oxygen, etc., have no plasticity.
Plants have very little possibility of forming habits. Lower animals
have somewhat more, and higher animals still more, while man has the
greatest possibility of forming habits. This great possibility of
forming habits is one of the main characteristics of man. Let us
illustrate the contrast between man and inanimate objects by an example.
If sulphur is put into a test tube and heated, it at first melts and
becomes quite thin like water. If it is heated still more, it becomes
thick and will not run out of the tube. It also becomes dark. Sulphur
_always_ does this when so treated. It cannot be taught to act
differently. Now the action of sulphur when heated is like the action of
a man when he turns to the right upon meeting a person in the street.
But the man has to acquire this habit, while the sulphur does not have
to learn its way of acting. Sulphur always acted in this way, while man
did not perform his act at first, but had to learn it by slow
repetition.
Everything in the world has its own peculiar nature, but man is unique
in that his nature can be very much changed. To a large extent, a man is
_made_, his nature is _acquired_. After we become men and women, we have
hundreds and thousands of tendencies to action, definite forms of
action, that we did not have when young. Man's nature might be said to
consist in his tendencies to action. Some of these tendencies he
inherits; these are his instincts. Some of these he acquires; these are
his habits.
=What Habits Do for Us.= We have found out what habits are like; let us
now see what they do for us. What good do they accomplish for us? How
are we different after forming a habit from what we were before? We can
best answer these questions by a consideration of concrete cases.
Typewriting will serve very well the purpose of illustration. We shall
give the result of an actual experiment in which ten university students
took part. During their first half hour of practice, they wrote an
average of 120 words. At the end of forty-five hours of practice, they
were writing an average of 680 words in a half hour. This was an
increase of speed of 560 per cent. An expert typist can write about
3000 words in a half hour. Such a speed requires much more than
forty-five hours practice, and is attained by the best operators only.
[Illustration: FIGURE III.--LEARNING CURVES
The upper graph shows the improvement in speed of a group of students
working two half hours a day. The lower curve shows the improvement of a
group working ten half-hours a day.]
In the foregoing experiment, the students improved in accuracy also. At
the beginning of the work, they made 115 errors in the half hour. At the
end of the practice, with much faster speed, they were making only
327 errors in a half hour. The actual number of errors had increased
280 per cent. The increase in errors was therefore exactly half as much
as the increase in speed. This, of course, was a considerable increase
in accuracy, for while the speed had increased to 5.6 times what it had
been at the beginning, the errors had increased only 2.8 times. The
subjects in this experiment paid much more attention to speed than they
did to accuracy. If they had emphasized accuracy, they would have been
doing almost perfect work at the end of the practice, and their speed
would have been somewhat less. Practice, then, not only develops speed
but also develops accuracy.
There are also other results. At the beginning of work with the
typewriter, there is much waste of energy and much fatigue. The waste of
energy comes from using unnecessary muscles, and the fatigue is partly
due to this waste of energy. But even apart from this waste of energy,
an habituated act is performed with less fatigue. The various muscles
concerned become better able to do their work. As a result of
habituation there is, then, greater speed, greater accuracy, less waste
of energy, and less fatigue.
If we look not at the changes in our work but at the changes in
ourselves, the changes in our minds due to the formation of habits, we
find still other results. At the beginning of practice with the
typewriter, the learner's whole attention is occupied with the work.
When one is learning to do a new trick, the attention cannot be divided.
The whole mind must be devoted to the work. But after one has practiced
for several weeks, one can operate the typewriter while thinking about
something else. We say that the habituated act sinks to a lower level of
consciousness, meaning that as a habit becomes more and more fixed, less
and less attention is devoted to the acts concerned.
Increased skill gives us pleasure and also gives us confidence in our
ability to do the thing. Corresponding to this inner confidence is outer
certainty. There is greater objective certainty in our performance and a
corresponding inner confidence. By objective certainty, we mean that a
person watching our performance, becomes more and more sure of our
ability to perform, and we ourselves feel confidence in our power of
achievement.
Now that we have shown the results of habituation let us consider
additional illustrations. In piano playing, the stimuli are the notes as
written in the music. We see the notes occupying certain places on the
scale of the music. A note in a certain place means that we must strike
a certain key. At first the response is slow, we have to hunt out each
note on the keyboard. Moreover, we make many mistakes; we strike the
wrong keys just as we do in typewriting. We are awkward, making many
unnecessary movements, and the work is tiresome and fatiguing. After
long practice, the speed with which we can manipulate the keys in
playing the piano is wonderful. Our playing becomes accurate, perfect.
We do it with ease, with no unnecessary movements. We can play the
piano, after we become skilled, without paying attention to the actual
movements of our hands. We can play the piano while concentrating upon
the meaning of the music, or while carrying on a conversation, or while
thinking about something else. As a rule, pleasure and confidence come
with skill. Playing a difficult piece on the piano involves a skill
which is one of the most complicated that man achieves. It is possible
only through habituation of the piano-playing movements.
Nailing shingles on a roof illustrates well the various aspects of
habituation. The expert carpenter not only nails on many more shingles
in a day than does the amateur, but he does it better and with more
ease, and with much less fatigue. The carpenter knows exactly how much
he can do in a day, and each particular movement is certain and sure.
The carpenter has confidence in, and usually prides himself on, this
ability, thus getting pleasure out of his work.
The operations in arithmetic illustrate most of the results of
habituation. Practice in addition makes for speed and accuracy. In a few
weeks' time we can very much increase our speed and accuracy in adding,
or in the other arithmetical operations.
The foregoing examples are sufficient, although they could be multiplied
indefinitely. Almost any habit one might name would show clearly most of
the results enumerated. The most important aspects of habituation may be
summed up in the one word _efficiency_. Habituation gives us speed and
accuracy. Speed and accuracy mean skill. Skill means efficiency.
=How Habits Are Formed.= It is clear from the foregoing discussion that
the essential thing in a habit is the definiteness of the connection
between the stimulus and the response, between the situation and the
reaction to the situation. Our question now is, how is this definiteness
of connection established? The answer is, _through repetition_. Let us
work the matter out from a concrete case, such as learning to play the
piano. In piano playing the stimulus comes from the music as printed on
the staff. A note having a certain position on the staff indicates that
a certain key is to be struck. We are told by our music teacher what
keys on the piano correspond to the various notes on the staff, or we
may learn these facts from the instruction book. It makes no difference
how we learn them; but after we know these facts, we must have practice
to give us skill. The mere knowledge will not make us piano players. In
order to be skillful, we must have much practice not only in striking
the keys indicated by the various note positions, but with the various
combinations of notes. For example, a note on the second space indicates
that the player must strike the key known as "A." But "A" may occur with
any of the other notes, it may precede them or it may follow them. We
must therefore have practice in striking "A" in all these situations. To
have skill at the piano, we must mechanize many performances. We must be
able to read the notes with accuracy and ease. We must practice so much
that the instant we see a certain combination of notes on the staff, our
hands immediately execute the proper strokes. Not only must we learn
what keys on the piano correspond to the various notes of the music, but
the notes have a temporal value which we must learn. Some are to be
sounded for a short time, others for a longer time. We have eighth
notes, quarter notes, half notes, etc. Moreover, the signature of the
music as indicated by the sharps or flats changes the whole situation.
If the music is written in "A sharp" then when "A" is indicated on the
staff, we must not strike the white key known as "A," but the black key
just above, known as "A sharp."
Briefly, in piano playing, the stimulus comes from the characters
printed on the staff. The movements which these characters direct are
very complicated and require months and years of practice. We must
emphasize the fact that practice alone gives facility, years of
practice. But after these years of practice, one can play a piece of
music at sight; that is, the first stimulus sets off perfectly a very
complicated response. This sort of performance is one of the highest
feats of skill that man accomplishes.
To get skill, then, one must practice. But mere repetition is not
sufficient. For practice to be most effective, one must put his whole
mind on what he is doing. If he divides his attention between the acts
which he is practicing and something else, the effect of the practice in
fixing and perfecting the habit is slight. It seems that when we are
building up a new nerve-path which is to be the basis of a new habit,
the nervous energies should not be divided; that the whole available
nervous energy should be devoted to the acts which we are repeating.
This is only another way of saying that when we are practicing to
establish a habit, we should attend to what we are doing and to nothing
else. But after the habit-connection is once firmly established, we can
attend to other things while performing the habitual act. The habitual
action will go on of itself. We may say, then, that in order to be able
to do a thing with little or no attention, we must give much attention
to it at first.
Another important factor in habit-formation is pleasure. The act which
we are practicing must give us pleasure, either while we are doing it or
as a result. Pleasurable results hasten habit-formation. When we
practice an act in which we have no interest, we make slow progress or
none at all. Now the elements of interest are attention and pleasure. If
we voluntarily attend to a thing and its performance gives us pleasure,
or pleasure results from it, we say we are interested in it. The secret
of successful practice is interest. Repeatedly in laboratory experiments
it happens that a student loses interest in the performance and
subsequently makes little, if any, progress. One of the biggest problems
connected with habit-formation is that of maintaining interest.
A factor which prevents the formation of habits is that of exceptions.
If a stimulus, instead of going over to the appropriate response,
produces some other action, there is an interference in the formation of
the desired habit. The effect of an exception is greater than the mere
neglect of practice. The _exception opens up another path_ and tends to
make future action uncertain. Particularly is this true in the case of
moral habits. Forming moral habits is usually uphill work anyway, in
that we have instincts to overcome. Allowing exceptions to enter, in the
moral sphere, usually means a slipping back into an old way of acting,
thereby weakening much the newly-made connection.
In any kind of practice, when we become fatigued we make errors. If we
continue to practice when fatigued, we form connections which we do not
wish to make and which interfere with the desired habits.
=Economy of Practice.= The principles which we have enumerated and
illustrated are fairly general and of universal validity. There are
certain other factors which we may discuss here under the head of
economical procedure. To form a habit, we must practice. But how long
should we practice at one time? This is an experimental problem and has
been definitely solved. It has been proved by experiment that we can
practice profitably for as long a time as we can maintain a high degree
of attention, which is usually till we become fatigued. This time is not
the same for all people. It varies with age, and in the case of the same
person it varies at different times. If ordinary college students work
at habit-formation at the highest point of concentration, they get the
best return for a period of about a half hour. It depends somewhat on
the amount of concentration required for the work and the stage of
fixation of the habit, _i.e._ whether one has just begun to form the
habit or whether it is pretty well fixed. For children, the period of
successful practice is usually much less than a half hour--five, ten,
fifteen, twenty minutes, depending upon the age of the child and the
kind of work.
The best interval between periods of practice is the day, twenty-four
hours. If one practices in the morning for a half hour, one can practice
again in the afternoon with nearly as much return as he would secure the
next day, but not quite. In general, practice is better, gives more
return, if spread out. To practice one day as long as one can work at a
high point of efficiency, and then to postpone further practice till the
next day, gives one the most return for the time put in. But if one is
in a hurry to form a habit, one can afford to practice more each day
even if the returns from the practice do diminish proportionately.
This matter has been tried out on the typewriter. If one practices for
ten half hours a day with half-hour rests between, one does not get so
much return for his time as he would if he should spread it out at the
rate of one or two half-hour practices a day. But by working ten half
hours a day, one gets much more efficiency in the same number of days
than if he should practice only one or two half hours a day. This point
must not be misunderstood. We do not mean that one must not work at
anything longer than a half hour a day. We mean that if one is forming a
habit, his time counts for more in forming the habit if spread out at
the rate of a half hour or an hour a day, than it does if put in at a
faster rate. Therefore if one is in no hurry and can afford to spread
out his time, he gets the best return by so doing, and the habit is more
firmly fixed than if formed hurriedly. But if one is in a hurry, and has
the time to devote to it, he can afford to concentrate his practice up
to five hours or possibly more in a day, provided that rest intervals
are interspersed between periods of practice.
There is one time in habit-formation when concentrated practice is most
efficient. That is at the beginning. In a process as complicated as
typewriting, so little impression is made at the beginning by a short
period of practice that progress is but slight. On the first day, one
should practice about four or five times to secure the best returns, a
half hour each time.
=What the Teacher Can Do.= Now, let us see how the teacher can be of
assistance to the pupil in habit-formation. The teacher should have a
clear idea of the nature of the habit to be formed and should
demonstrate the habit to the pupil. Suppose the habit is so simple a
thing as long division. The teacher should explain each step in the
process. She should go to the blackboard and actually solve a number of
problems in long division, so that the pupils can see just how to do it.
After this the pupils should go to the board and solve a problem
themselves. The reason for this procedure is that it is most economical.
If the children are left to get the method of doing long division from a
book, they will not be able to do it readily and will make mistakes. A
teacher can explain a process better than it can be explained in a book.
By giving a full explanation and demonstration and then by requiring the
children to work a few problems while she watches for mistakes,
correcting them at once, the teacher secures economy of effort and time.
The first step is to demonstrate the habit to the pupils; the second, to
have them do the act, whatever it is, correcting their mistakes; the
third, to require the pupils to practice till they have acquired skill.
The teacher must make provision for practice.
=What Parents Can Do.= Parents can be of very great assistance to children
who are forming habits.
(1) They can coöperate with the school, which is directing the child in
the systematic formation of a great system of habits. The teacher should
explain these habits to the parents so that they may know what the
teacher is trying to do. Quite often the home and the school are working
at cross purposes. The only way to prevent this is for them to work in
the closest coöperation, with the fullest understanding of what is being
undertaken for the child. Parents and teachers should often meet
together and talk over the work of training the children of the
community. Parents should have not merely a general understanding of the
work of the school, but they should know the details undertaken. The
school often assigns practice work to be done at home in reading,
writing, arithmetic. Parents should always know of these assignments and
should help the children get the necessary practice. They can do this by
reminding the child of the work, by preparing a suitable place where the
work may be done, and by securing quiet for the practice. Children like
play and it is easy for them to forget their necessary work. Parents can
be of the greatest service to childhood and youth by holding the
children to their responsibilities and duties.
Few parents take any thought of whether their children are doing all
possible for their school progress. Few of those who do, make definite
plans and arrangements for the children to accomplish the necessary
practice and study. This is the parent's duty and responsibility.
Moreover, parents are likely to feel that children have no rights, and
think nothing of calling on them in the midst of their work to do some
errand. Now, children should work about the house and help their
parents, but there should be a time for this and a separate time for
study and practice on school work.
When a child sits down for serious practice on some work, his time
should be sacred and inviolable. Instead of interfering with the child,
the parents should do everything in their power to make this practice
possible and efficient. In their relations with their children perhaps
parents sin more in the matter of neglecting to plan for them than in
any other way. They plan for everything else, but they let their
children grow up, having taken no definite thought about helping them to
form their life habits and to establish these habits by practice. When a
child comes home from school, the mother should find out just what work
is to be done before the next day and should plan the child's play and
work in such a way as to include all necessary practice. If all parents
would do this, the value to the work of the school and to the life of
the child would be incalculable.
(2) Just as one of the main purposes of the teacher is to help the child
gain initiative, so it is one of the greatest of the parents' duties.
Parents must help the children to keep their purposes before them.
Children forget, even when they wish to remember. Often, they do not
want to remember. The parents' duty is to get the child to _want_ to
remember, and to help him to remember, whether he wants to or not. One
of the main differences between childhood and maturity is that the child
lives in the present, his purposes are all immediate ones. Habits always
look forward, they are for future good and use. Mature people have
learned to look forward and to plan for the future. They must,
therefore, perform this function for the children. They must look
forward and see what the child should learn to do, and then see that he
learns to do it.
(3) Parents must help children to plan their lives in general and in
detail; _i.e._ in the sense of determining the ideals and habits that
will be necessary for those lives. The parents must do this with the
help of the child. The child must not be a blind follower, but as the
child's mind becomes mature enough, the parent must explain the matter
of forming life habits, and must show the child that life is a structure
that he himself is to build. Life will be what he makes it, and the time
for forming character is during early years. The parent must not only
tell the child this but must help him to realize the truth of it, must
help him continually, consistently.
(4) Of course it is hardly necessary to say that the parent can help
much, perhaps most, by example. The parent must not only tell the child
what to do but must _show_ him how it should be done.
(5) Parents can help in the ways mentioned above, but they can also help
by coöperating among themselves in planning for the training of the
children of the community. One parent cannot train his children
independently of all the other people in the community. There must be a
certain unity of ideals and aims. Therefore, not only is there need for
coöperation between parents and teachers but among parents themselves.
Although they coöperate in everything else, they seldom do in the
training of their children. The people of a community should meet
together occasionally to plan for this common work.
=Importance of Habit in Education and Life.= A man is the sum of his
habits and ideals. He has language habits; he speaks German, or French,
or English. He has writing habits, spelling habits, reading habits,
arithmetic habits. He has political habits, religious habits. He has
various social habits, habitual attitudes which he takes toward his
fellows. He has moral habits--he is honest and truthful, or he is
dishonest and untruthful. He always looks on the bright side, or else on
the dark side of events. All these habits and many more, he has. They
are structures which he has built. One's life, then, is the sum of his
tendencies, and these tendencies one establishes in early life.
This view gives an importance to the work of the school which is derived
from no other view. The school is not a place where we get this little
bit of information, or the other. It is the place where we are molded,
formed, and shaped into the beings we are to be. The school has not
risen to see the real importance of its work. Its aims have been low and
its achievements much lower than its aims. Teachers should rise to the
importance of their calling. Their work is that of gods. They are
creators. They do not make the child. They do not give it memory or
attention or imagination. But they are creators of tendencies,
prejudices, religions, politics, and other habits unnumbered. So that in
a very real sense, the school, with all the other educational
influences, makes the man. We do not give a child the capacity to learn,
but we can determine what he shall learn. We do not give him memory, but
we can select what he shall remember. We do not make the child as he is
at the beginning, but we can, in large measure, determine the world of
influences which complete the task of _making_.
In the early part of life every day and every hour of the day
establishes and strengthens tendencies. Every year these tendencies
become stronger. Every year after maturity, we resist change. By
twenty-five or thirty, "character has set like plaster." The general
attitude and view of the world which we have at maturity, we are to hold
throughout life. Very few men fundamentally change after this. It takes
a tremendous influence and an unusual situation to break one up and make
him an essentially different man after maturity. Every year a "crank"
becomes "crankier."
It is well that this is so. Everything in the world costs its price.
Rigidity is the price we pay for efficiency. In order to be efficient,
we must make habitual the necessary movements. After they are
habituated, they resist change. But habit makes for regularity and
order. We could not live in society unless there were regularity,
order, fixity. Habit makes for conservatism. But conservatism is
necessary for order. In a sense, habit works against progress. But
permanent improvement without habit would be impossible, for permanent
progress depends upon holding what we gain. It is well for society that
we are conservative. We could not live in the chaos that would exist
without habit. Public opinion resists change. People refuse to accept a
view that is different from the one they have held. We could get nowhere
if we continually changed, and it is well for us that we continue to do
the old way to which we have become accustomed, till a new and better
one is shown beyond doubt. Even then, it is probably better for an old
person to continue to use the accustomed methods of a lifetime. Although
better methods are developed, they will not be so good for the old
person as those modes of action that he is used to. The possibility of
progress is through new methods which come in with each succeeding
generation.
When we become old we are not willing to change, but the more reasonable
of us are willing that our children should be taught a better way.
Sometimes, of course, we find people who say that what was good enough
for them is good enough for their children. Most of us think better, and
wish to give our children a "better bringing up than ours has been."
These considerations make clear the importance of habit in life. They
should also make clear a very important corollary. If habits are
important in life, then it is the duty of parents and teachers to make a
careful selection of the habits that are to be formed by the children.
The habits that will be necessary for the child to form in order to meet
the various situations of his future life, should be determined. There
should be no vagueness about it. Definite habits, social, moral,
religious, intellectual, professional, etc., will be necessary for
efficiency. We should know what these various habits are, and should
then set about the work of establishing them with system and
determination, just as we would the building of a house. Much school
work and much home training is vague, indefinite, uncertain, done
without a clear understanding of the needs or of the results. We
therefore waste time, years of the child's life, and the results are
unsatisfactory.
=Drill in School Subjects.= In many school subjects, the main object is to
acquire skill in certain processes. As previously explained, we can
become skillful in an act only by repetition of the act. Therefore, in
those subjects in which the main object is the acquiring of skill, there
must be much repetition. This repetition is called drill. The matter of
economical procedure in drill has already been considered, but there are
certain problems connected with drill that must be further discussed.
Drill is usually the hardest part of school work. It becomes monotonous
and tiresome. Moreover, drill is always a means. It is the means by
which we become efficient. Take writing, for example. It is not an end
in itself; it is the means by which we convey thoughts. Reading is a
means by which we are able to get the thought of another. In acquiring a
foreign language, we have first to master the elementary tools that will
enable us to make the thought of the foreign language our own.
It seems that the hardest part of education always comes first, when we
are least able to do it. It used to be that nearly all the work of the
school was drill. There was little school work that was interesting in
itself. In revolt against this kind of school, many modern educators
have tried to plan a curriculum that would be interesting to the child.
In schools that follow this idea, there is little or no drill, pure and
simple. There is no work that is done for the sole purpose of acquiring
skill. The work is so planned that, in pursuing it, the child will of
necessity have to perform the necessary acts and will thereby gain
efficiency. In arithmetic, there is no adding, subtracting, multiplying,
or dividing, only as such things must be done in the performance of
something else that is interesting in itself. For example, the child
plays store and must add up the sales. The child plays bean bag and must
add up the score. Practice gained in this indirect way is known as
incidental drill. Direct drill consists in making a direct approach; we
wish to be efficient at adding, so we practice adding as such and not
merely as incidental to something else.
This plan of incidental drill is in harmony with the principle of
interest previously explained. There are several things, however, that
must be considered. The proper procedure would seem to be to look
forward and find out in what directions the child will need to acquire
skill and then to help him acquire it in the most economical way and at
the proper time. Nature has so made us that we like to do a new trick.
When we have taught a child how to add and subtract, he likes to perform
these operations because the operations themselves give pleasure.
Therefore much repetition can be allowed and much skill acquired by a
direct approach to the practice. When interest drags, incidental drill
can be fallen back upon to help out the interest. Children should be
taught that certain things must be done, certain skill must be acquired.
They should accept some things on the authority of elders. They should
be taught to apply themselves and to give their whole attention to a
thing that must be done. A desire for efficiency can be developed in
them. The spirit of competition can sometimes be effectively used to add
interest to drill. Of course, interest and attention there must be, and
if it cannot be secured in one way, it must be in another.
Experiments have abundantly shown the value of formal drill, that is to
say, drill for drill's sake. If an arithmetic class is divided, one half
being given a few minutes' drill on the fundamental operations each day
but otherwise doing exactly the same work as the other half of the
class, the half receiving the drill acquires much more skill in the
fundamental operations and, besides, is better at reasoning out problems
than the half that had no drill. The explanation of the latter fact is
doubtless that the pupils receiving the drill acquire such efficiency in
the fundamental operations that these cause no trouble, leaving all the
energies of the pupils for reasoning out the problems.
It has been shown experimentally that a direct method of teaching
spelling is more efficient than an indirect method. It is not to be
wondered at that such turns out to be the case. For in a direct
approach, the act that we are trying to habituate is brought more
directly before consciousness, receiving that focal attention which is
necessary for the most efficient practice in habit-formation. If one
wishes to be a good ball pitcher, one begins to pitch balls, and
continues pitching balls day after day, morning, noon, and night. One
does not go about it indirectly. If one wishes to be a good shot with a
rifle, one gets a rifle and goes to shooting. Similarly, if one wishes
to be a good adder, the way to do is to begin adding, not to begin doing
something else. Of course any method that will induce a child to realize
that he ought to acquire a certain habit, is right and proper. We must
do all we can to give a child a desire, an interest in the thing that he
is trying to do. But there is no reason why the thing should not be
faced directly.
=Rules for Habit Formation.= In the light of the various principles which
we have discussed, what rules can be given to one forming habits? The
evident answer is, to proceed in accordance with established principles.
We may, however, bring the most important of these principles together
in the form of rules which can serve as a guide and help to one forming
habits.
(1) _Get initiative._ By this is meant that a person forming a habit
should have some sustaining reason for doing it, some end that is being
sought. This principle will be of very little use to young children,
only to those old enough to appreciate reasons and ends. In arithmetic,
for example, a child should be shown what can be accomplished if he
possesses certain skill in addition, subtraction, and multiplication. It
is not always possible for a young person to see why a certain habit
should be formed. For the youngest children, the practice must be in the
form of play. But when a child is old enough
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