The Science of Human Nature

s. In Chapter III we discussed sensation, and in the preceding chapter, the instincts, but wh

eeing 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. Hi

e want them continued; we act in a way to make them

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 w

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 conti

d touches an am?ba, the animal shrinks, contracts, and tries to withdraw from the death-bringing acid. On the other hand, if a particle of a

bring about very complex feeling states known as emotions. The emotions are made up of p

tions 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

her shoulders droop, her chest contracts, she sobs, her breathing is spasmodic. Nearly every organ of the body is af

e 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 hear

chology, Briefer C

at and mouth, the salivary glands, the eyes and tear glands, the skin muscles, the facial muscles, etc. And every emo

on whether he has had his dinner or is hungry, whether the liver is working normally, and upon the condition of the various secreting and ex

ealousy, 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, th

child must come to feel the need and importance of each individual task as well as of each subj

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

f 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 ch

re is where habit comes in to modify primitive action. The child can be trained to inhibit or prevent the reactions that arise in hatred,

ve 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

hese 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 d

rgan 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 thin

re, 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-con

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

s, but are a part of a world of law and order. They are thems

f 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 in

mpared 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 c

ear. 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

any things in consciousness, and we cannot respond to all at once. The part of consciousness tha

ke habitual. In getting knowledge, we must attend to what we are trying to learn. In committing to memory, we must attend to the ideas tha

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 consciousn

e 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

linchingly 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 bette

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, t

cts 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

en a person is very attentive to a subject and gets pleasure from experien

wn and will be further developed in the chapters which follow in connection wi

s 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

g 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 cont

EXER

e list of the more

istic expression of ea

ample, when a situation arises which ordinarily arouses anger in you, you

f the same emotion th

anger, or fear, or grief. Can you detect the s

l state by producing its

state to an opposite emotio

change emotional

pleasant, others that are always unpleasant

the text as to the importance of emoti

on of deep emotions by different people? In case of death in the family, some people wail and moan and express th

the difference in clearness of the different processes that a

effects of attention in formin

Use several different keys. In some experiments have no distractions, in others

s, some lists with distraction

ical memory experiment described in Chapter X. Some stories s

well when under the influe

you can concentrate on a task and h

nd the emotions are concerned, your life and c

te outline of

S FOR CLA

Human Behavior, Cha

al and Applied, Chapter XIV, a

als of Psychology,

of Educational Psyc

r's Psychology, Chap