A BEGINNER’S PSYCHOLOGY

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A BEGINNER’S PSYCHOLOGY

EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER

ISBN: 978-93-5420-351-0

Published:

1915

© 2020 LECTOR HOUSE LLP

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A BEGINNER’S PSYCHOLOGY BY

EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER

1915

TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

PREFACE It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.—Leonardo da Vinci In this Beginner’s Psychology I have tried to write, as nearly as might be, the kind of book that I should have found useful when I was beginning my own study of psychology. That was nearly thirty years ago; and I read Bain, and the Mills, and Spencer, and Rabier, and as much of Wundt as a struggling acquaintance with German would allow. Curiously enough, it was a paragraph in James Mill, most unpsychological of psychologists, that set me on the introspective track,—though many years had to pass before I properly understood what had put him off it. A book like this would have saved me a great deal of labour and vexation of spirit. Nowadays, of course, there are many introductions to psychology, and the beginner has a whole library of text-books to choose from. Still, they are of varying merit; and, what is perhaps more important, their temperamental appeal is diverse. I do not find it easy to relate this new book to the older Primer,—which will not be further revised. There is change all through; every paragraph has been rewritten. The greatest change is, however, a shift of attitude; I now lay less stress than I did upon knowledge and more upon point of view. The beginner in any science is oppressed and sometimes disheartened by the amount he has to learn; so many men have written, and so many are writing; the books say such different things, and the magazine articles are so upsetting! Enviable is the senior who can reply, when some scientific question is on the carpet,—There are three main views, A’s and B’s and C’s, and you will find them here and there and otherwhere! But as time goes by this erstwhile beginner comes to see that knowledge is, after all, a matter of time itself. If he keeps on working, knowledge is added unto him; and not only knowledge, but also what is just as valuable as knowledge, the power of expert assimilation; so that presently, when some special point is in debate, he is not ashamed of the plea of ignorance. He has learned that one man cannot compass the full range of a science, and he is assured that so-many hours of expert attention will make him master of the new matter. He comes in this way not, surely, to underestimate knowledge, but to be less anxious about it; and as that preoccupation goes, the point of view seems to be more and more important. Why is it that beginners in science are so often disjointed in their thinking, so often superficial, unable to correlate what they know, logically all at sea? There is no doubt that they are, whether they study physics or chemistry, biology or psychology. I think the main reason is that they have never got the scientific point of view; they are taught Physics or Biology, but not Science. Hence I have, in this book, writ-

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ten an inordinately long introduction, and have kept continually harping on the difference between fact and meaning. I try to make the reader see clearly what I take Science to be. It does not matter whether he agrees with me; that is a detail; I shall be fully satisfied if he learns to be clear and definite in his objections, realizes his own point of view, and sticks to it in working out later his own psychological system. Muddlement is the enemy; and there is a good deal of muddled thinking even in modern books. Not that I offer this little essay as a model of clear thought! The ideas of current psychology and the words in which they find expression are still, in very large measure, an affair of tradition and compromise; and even if a writer has fought through to clarity,—past experience forbids me to hope that: but even if one had,—a book meant for beginners may not be too consistently radical; some touch must be maintained with the past, and some too with the multifarious trends of the present. There is something turbid in the very atmosphere of an elementary psychology (is the air much clearer elsewhere?), and it is difficult to see things in perspective. So the critic who will soon be saying that the ideal text-book of psychology has yet to be written will be heartily in the right, even if he is not particularly helpful. The present work has its due share of the mistakes and minor contradictions that are inevitable to a first writing; at many points it falls short of my intention,—l’œuvre qu’on porte en soi paraît toujours plus belle que celle qu’on a faite; and I daresay that the intention itself is not within measureable distance of the ideal. It is, nevertheless, the best I can do at the time; and it is also, I repeat, the kind of book that I should have liked to have when I began psychologising. Psychological text-books usually contain a chapter on the physiology of the central nervous system. The reader will find no such chapter here; for I hold, and have always held, that the student should get his elementary knowledge of neurology, not at second hand from the psychologist, but at first hand from the physiologist. I have added to every chapter a list of Questions, looking partly to increase of knowledge, but especially to a test of the reader’s understanding of what he has just read. I have also added a list of References for further reading. It depends upon the maturity and general mental habit of the student whether these references—made as they are, in many cases, to authors who do not agree either with one another or with the text of the book—should be followed up at once, or only after the text itself has been digested. The decision must be left to the instructor. My own opinion is that beginners are best given one thing at a time, and that the knowledge-questions and the references should therefore, in the ordinary run of teaching, be postponed until some ‘feeling’ for psychology, some steadiness of psychological attitude, has become apparent. I have avoided the term ‘consciousness.’ Experimental psychology made a serious effort to give it a scientific meaning; but the attempt has failed; the word is too slippery, and so is better discarded. The term ‘introspection’ is, I have no doubt, travelling the same road; and I could easily have avoided it, too; but the time is, perhaps, not quite ripe. I have said nothing of the ‘thought-element’, which seems to me to be a psychological pretender, supported only by the logicising tendencies of the day; and if I am wrong no great harm has been done, since a description

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of this alleged elementary process, by positive characters, is not yet forthcoming. My references are confined to works available in the English language; I think it unlikely that the students for whom this book is intended will have attained to any considerable knowledge of French or German. Lastly,—I believe that this is my last major omission,—I have referred only incidentally to the ‘application’ of psychology; for science is not technology, though history goes to show that any the least fact of science may, some day or other, find its sphere of practical usefulness. Two of my illustrations are borrowed: the swallow-figure on p. 138 from Professor Ebbinghaus, and the cut on p. 282 from Dr. A. A. Grünbaum. I am sorry to confess that a few of the quotations which head the chapters are mosaics, pieced together from different paragraphs of the original. Even great writers are, at times, more diffuse than one could wish; or perhaps it would be fairer to say that they did not write with a view to chapter-headings. I hope, in any case, that no injustice has been done. It is a very pleasant duty to acknowledge the assistance that I have received from my Cornell colleagues, Prof. H. P. Weld and Drs. W. S. Foster and E. G. Boring, and from Dr. L. D. Boring of Wells College. I am indebted to all for many points of valid criticism, and I wish to express to all my sincere thanks for much self-sacrificing labour. I have retained the late Professor Huxley’s name in the forefront of this new primer, partly as an act of homage to the master in Science,—the brilliant investigator, the fearless critic, the lucid expositor; and partly, also, as a personal tribute to the man it was my earlier privilege to know. Cornell Heights, Ithaca, N.Y. July, 1915.

CONTENTS Page Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

CHAPTER I PSYCHOLOGY: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES 1. Common Sense and Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. The Subject-matter of Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Mind and Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4. The Problem of Psychology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 5. The Method of Psychology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6. Process and Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7. The Scope of Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 8. A Personal Word to the Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 References for Further Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

CHAPTER II SENSATION 9. Sensations from the Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 10. Kinæsthetic Sensations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 11. Taste and Smell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 12. Sensations from the Ear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 13. Sensations from the Eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 14. Organic Sensations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 15. Sensation and Attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 16. The Intensity of Sensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

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A BEGINNER’S PSYCHOLOGY Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

CHAPTER III SIMPLE IMAGE AND FEELING 17. Simple Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 18. Simple Feelings and Sense-feelings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

CHAPTER IV ATTENTION 19. The Problem of Attention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 20. The Development of Attention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 21. The Nature of Attention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 22. The Experimental Study of Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 23. The Nervous Correlate of Attention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

CHAPTER V PERCEPTION AND IDEA 24. The Problem in General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 25. The Analysis of Perception and Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 26. Meaning in Perception and Idea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 27. The Types of Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 28. The Perception of Distance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 29. The Problem in Detail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 30. The Types of Idea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

CHAPTER VI ASSOCIATION 31. The Association of Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

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32. Associative Tendencies: Material of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 33. The Establishment of Associative Tendencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 34. The Interference and Decay of Associative Tendencies . . . . . . . . . . 78 35. The Connections of Mental Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 36. The Law of Mental Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 37. Practice, Habit, Fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

CHAPTER VII MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 38. Recognition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 39. Direct Apprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 40. The Memory-Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 41. Illusions of Recognition and Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 42. The Pattern of Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 43. Mnemonics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 44. The Idea of Imagination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 45. The Pattern of Imagination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

CHAPTER VIII INSTINCT AND EMOTION 46. The Nature of Instinct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 47. The Two Sides of Instinct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 48. Determining Tendencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 49. The Nature of Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 50. The James-Lange Theory of Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 51. The Expression of Emotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 52. Mood, Passion, Temperament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

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A BEGINNER’S PSYCHOLOGY ACTION 53. The Psychology of Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 54. The Typical Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 55. The Reaction Experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 56. Sensory and Motor Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 57. The Degeneration of Action: From Impulsive to Reflex. . . . . . . . . . 121 58. The Development of Action: From Impulsive to Selective and Volitional. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 59. The Compound Reaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 60. Will, Wish, and Desire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

CHAPTER X THOUGHT 61. The Nature of Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 62. Imaginal Processes in Thought: The Abstract Idea. . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 63. Thought and Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 64. Mental Attitudes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 65. The Pattern of Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 66. Abstraction and Generalisation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 67. Comparison and Discrimination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

CHAPTER XI SENTIMENT 68. The Nature of Sentiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 69. The Variety of Feeling-attitude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 70. The Forms of Sentiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 71. The Situations and their Appeal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 72. Mood, Passion, Temperament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

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CHAPTER XII SELF AND CONSCIOUSNESS 73. The Concept of Self. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 74. The Persistence of the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 75. The Self in Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 76. The Snares of Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 77. Consciousness and the Subconscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 78. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Questions and Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

APPENDIX DREAMING AND HYPNOSIS 79. Sleep and Dream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 80. Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Index of Names and Subjects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

A BEGINNER’S PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER I PSYCHOLOGY: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES It is well for a man, when he seeks a clear and unbiassed opinion upon some certain matter, to forget many things, and to begin to look at it as if he knew nothing at all before.—Li Hung Chang Common Sense and Science § 1. Common Sense and Science.—We live in a world of values. We have material standards of comfort, and moral standards of conduct; and we eat and drink, and dress, and house our families, and educate our children, and carry on our business in life, with these standards more or less definitely before us. We approve good manners; we avoid extravagance and display; we aim at efficiency; we try to be honest; we should like to be cultivated. Everywhere and always our ordinary living implies this reference to values, to better and worse, desirable and undesirable, vulgar and refined. And that is the same thing as saying that our ordinary living is not scientific. It is not either unscientific, in the regular meaning of that word; it has nothing to do with science; it is non-scientific or extra-scientific. For science deals, not with values, but with facts. There is no good or bad, sick or well, useful or useless, in science. When the results of science are taken over into everyday life, they are transformed into values; the telegraph becomes a business necessity, the telephone a household convenience, the motor-car a means of recreation; the physician works to cure, the educator to fit for citizenship, the social reformer to correct abuses. Science itself, however, works simply to ascertain the truth, to discover the fact. Mr. H. G. Wells complains in a recent novel that no sick soul could find help or relief in a modern text-book of psychology. Of course not! Psychology is the science of mind, not the source of mental comfort or improvement. A sick soul would not go, for that matter, to a text-book of theology; it would go to some proved and trusted friend, or to some wise and tender book written by one who had himself suffered. So a sick body would betake itself, not to the physiological laboratory, but to a physician’s consulting room or to a hospital. We live, again, in a world whose centre is ourself. This does not necessarily mean that we are all selfish; a life may be very unselfish. But whether we are selfish or unselfish, we live in a universe which revolves about the Me. Our self