psychology assignment
YYY_ww
the_science_of_mind.asp_.pdf
THE STORY OF THE MIND.
CHAPTER I.
THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND—PSYCHOLOGY.
PSYCHOLOGY is the science of the mind. It aims to find out all about the mind—the whole story—just as the other sciences aim to find out all about the subjects of which they treat—as- tronomy, of the stars; geology, of the earth; physiology, of the body. And when we wish to trace out the story of the mind, as psychology has done it, we find that there are certain general truths with which we should first acquaint our- selves ; truths which the science has been a very long time finding out, but which we can now re- alize without a great deal of explanation. These general truths, we may say, are preliminary to the story itself; they deal rather with the need of defining, first of all, the subject or topic of which the story is to be told.
i. The first such truth is that the mind is not the possession of man alone. Other creatures have minds. Psychology no longer confines itself, as it formerly did, to the human soul, denying to the animals a place in this highest of all the sciences. It finds itself unable to require any test or evi- dence of the presence of mind which the animals do not meet, nor does it find any place at which the story of the mind can begin higher up than
2 THE STORY OF THE MIND.
the very beginnings of life. For as soon as we ask, " How much mind is necessary to start with ? " we have to answer, "Any mind at a l l " ; and all the animals are possessed of some of the actions which we associate with mind. Of course, the ascertainment of the truth of this belongs—as the ascertainment of all the truths of nature belongs —to scientific investigation itself. It is the scien- tific man's rule not to assume anything except as he finds facts to support the assumption. So we find a great department of psychology devoted to just this question—i. e., of tracing mind in the animals and in the child, and noting the stages of what is called its "evolution" in the ascending scale of animal life, and its " development " in the rapid growth which every child goes through in the nursery. This gives us two chapters of the story of the mind. Together they are called "Genetic Psychology," having two divisions, "Ani- mal or Comparative Psychology" and " Child Psychology."
2. Another general truth to note at the outset is this: that we are able to get real knowledge about the mind. This may seem at first sight a useless question to raise, seeing that our minds are, in the thought of many, about the only things we are really sure of. But that sort of sureness is not what science seeks. Every science requires some means of investigation, some method of procedure, which is more exact than the mere say-so of common sense; and which can be used over and again by different investigators and under different conditions. This gives a high de- gree of verification and control to the results once obtained. The chemist has his acids, and re- agents, and blowpipes, etc.; they constitute his in-
THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND-PSYCHOLOGY. 3
struments, and by using them, under certain con- stant rules, he keeps to a consistent method. So with the physiologist; he has his microscope, his staining fluids, his means of stimulating the tis- sues of the body, etc. The physicist also makes much of his lenses, and membranes, and electrical batteries, and X-ray apparatus. In like manner it is necessary that the psychologist should have a recognised way of investigating the mind, which he can lay before anybody saying: " There, you see my results, you can get them for yourself by the same method that I used."
In fulfilling this requirement the psychologist resorts to two methods of procedure. He is able to investigate the mind in two ways, which are of such general application that anybody of sufficient training to make scientific observations at all can repeat them and so confirm the results. One of these is what is called Introspection. It consists in taking note of one's own mind, as all sorts of changes are produced in it, such as emo- tions, memories, associations of events now gone, etc., and describing everything that takes place. Other persons can repeat the observations with their own minds, and see that what the first re- ports is true. This results in a body of knowl- edge which is put together and called " Introspec- tive Psychology," and one chapter of the story should be devoted to that.
Then the other way we have is that of experi- menting on some one else's mind. We can act on our friends and neighbours in various ways, mak- ing them feel, think, accept, refuse this and that, and then observe how they act. The differences in their action will show the differences in the feel- ings, etc., which we have produced. In pursuing
4 THE STORY OF THE MIND.
this method the psychologist takes a person— called the "subject " or the "re-agent"—into his laboratory, asks him to be willing to follow cer- tain directions carefully, such as holding an elec- tric handle, blowing into a tube, pushing a but- ton, etc., when he feels, sees, or hears certain things; this done with sufficient care, the results are found recorded in certain ways which the psychologist has arranged beforehand. This sec- ond way of proceeding gives results which are gathered under the two headings " Experimental " and " Physiological Psychology." They should also have chapters in our story.
3. There is besides another truth which the psychologist nowadays finds very fruitful for his knowledge of the mind; this is the fact that minds vary much in different individuals, or classes of individuals. First, there is the pronounced differ- ence between healthy minds and diseased minds. The differences are so great that we have to pur- sue practically different methods of treating the diseased, not only as a class apart from the well minds—putting such diseased persons into institutions—but also as differing from one an- other. Just as the different forms of bodily dis- ease teach us a great deal about the body—its degree of strength, its forms of organization and function, its limitations, its heredity, the inter- connection of its parts, etc.—so mental diseases teach us much about the normal mind. This gives another sphere of information which constitutes u Abnormal Psychology " or " Mental Pathology."
There are also very striking variations between individuals even within normal life; well people are very different from one another. All that is commonly meant by character or temperament as
THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND-PSYCHOLOGY. 5
distinguishing one person from another is evi- dence of these difierences. But really to know all about mind we should see what its variations are, and endeavour to find out why the variations exist. This gives, then, another topic, " Indi- vidual or Variational Psychology." This sub- ject should also have notice in the story.
4. Allied with this the demand is made upon the psychologist that he show to the teacher how to train the mind; how to secure its development in the individual most healthfully and produc- tively, and with it all in a way to allow the varia- tions of endowment which individuals show each to bear its ripest fruit. This is "Educational or Pedagogical Psychology."
5. Besides all thes-e great undertakings of the psychologist, there is another department of fact which he must some time find very fruitful, although as yet he has not been able to investi- gate it thoroughly : he should ask about the place of the mind in the world at large. If we seek to know what the mind has done in the world, what a wealth of story comts to us from the very be- ginnings of history ! Mind has done all that has been done: it has built human institutions, indited literature, made science, discovered the laws of Nature, used the forces of the material world, em- bodied itself in all the monuments which stand to testify to the presence of man. What could tell us more of what mind is than this record of what mind has done ? The ethnologists are patiently tracing the records left by early man in his uten- sils, weapons, clothing, religious rites, architec- tural remains, etc., and the anthropologists are seeking to distinguish the general and essential from the accidental and temporary in all the his-
6 THE STORY OF THE MIND.
tory of culture and civilization. They are mak- ing progress very slowly, and it is only here and there that principles are being discovered which reveal to the psychologist the necessary modes of action and development of the mind. All this comes under the head of " Race Psychology."
6. Finally, another department, the newest of all, investigates the action of minds when they are thrown together in crowds. The animals herd, the insects swarm, most creatures live in companies; they are gregarious, and man no less is social in his nature. So there is a psychology of herds, crowds, mobs, etc., all put under the heading of "Social Psychology." It asks the question, What new phases of the mind do we find when individuals unite in common action ?— or, on the other hand, when they are artificially separated ?
We now have with all this a fairly complete idea of what The Story of the Mind should in- clude, when it is all told. Many men are spend- ing their lives each at one or two of these great questions. But it is only as the results are all brought together in a consistent view of that won- derful thing, the mind, that we may hope to find out all that it is. We must think of it as a grow- ing, developing thing, showing its stages of evo- lution in the ascending animal scale, and also in the unfolding of the child; as revealing its nature in every change of our daily lives which we ex- perience and tell to one another or find ourselves unable to tell; as allowing itself to be discovered in the laboratory, and as willing to leave the marks of its activity on the scientist's blackened drum and the dial of the chronoscope; as subject to the limitations of health and disease, needing
THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND—PSYCHOLOGY. 7
to be handled with all the resources of the asy- lum, the reformatory, the jail, as well as with the delicacy needed to rear the sensitive girl or to win the love of the bashful maid; as manifesting itself in the development of humanity from the first rude contrivances for the use of fire, the first organizations for defence, and the first inscrip- tions of picture writing, up to the modern inven- tions in electricity, the complex constitutions of government, and the classic productions of liter- ary art; and as revealing its possibilities finally in the brutal acts of the mob, the crimes of a lynch- ing party, and the deeds of collective righteous- ness performed by our humane and religious so- cieties.
It would be impossible, of course, within the limits of this little volume, to give even the main results in so many great chapters of this ambitious and growing science. I shall not attempt that; but the rather select from the various departments certain outstanding results and principles. From these as elevations the reader may see the moun- tains on the horizon, so to speak, which at his leisure, and with better guides, he may explore. The choice of materials from so rich a store has depended also, as the preface states, on the writ- er's individual judgment, and it is quite probable that no one will find the matters altogether wisely chosen. All the great departments now thus briefly described, however, are represented in the following chapters.
