Psychology is a public-domain classic of psychology by Robert Sessions Woodworth.
The complete text is on this page and the chapter pages below — all 41 chapters, about 167,655 words (~14 hours of reading), free to read online with no signup. Chapters include “CHAPTER III. Reactions of Different Levels 45”, “CHAPTER IV. Tendencies to Reaction 68”, “CHAPTER V. Native and Acquired Traits 89”, and more.
Short, fact-checked Wunder courses related to Psychology — free to read, no signup. Or browse every course.
REACTIONS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS 45
Different Sorts of Stimuli 47
The Motor Centers, Lower and Higher 49
How the Brain Produces Muscular Movements 53
Facilitation and Inhibition 54
Super-motor Centers in the Cortex 56
Speech Centers 57
The Auditory Centers 59
The Visual Centers 62
Cortical Centers for the Other Senses 68
Lower Sensory Centers 64
The Cerebellum 66
Different Levels of Reaction 65
Exercises 67
References 67
TENDENCIES TO REACTION 68
Purposive Behavior 70
Organic States that Influence Behavior 72
Preparation for Action 74
Preparatory Reactions 77
What the Preparatory Reactions Accomplish 79
What a Tendency Is, in Terms of Nerve Action 82
Motives 84
Exercises 86
References 88
NATIVE AND ACQUIRED TRAITS 89
The Source of Native Traits 90
Reactions Appearing at Birth Must Be Native 91
Reactions That Cannot Be Learned Must Be Native 92
Experimental Detection of Native Reactions 93
Is Walking Native or Acquired? 95
Universality as a Criterion of Native Reactions 97
Some Native Traits Are Far from Being Universal 98
Why Acquired Traits Differ from One Individual to Another 99
What Mental Traits Are Native? 100
Exercises 103
References 104
INSTINCT 105
The Difference Between an Instinct and a Reflex 107
An Instinct Is a Native Reaction-Tendency 109
Fully and Partially Organized Instincts 111
Instincts Are Not Ancestral Habits 113
Instincts Not Necessarily Useful in the Struggle for Existence 114
The So-called Instincts of Self-preservation and of Reproduction 115
Exercises 117
References 117
EMOTION 118
Organic States That Are Not Usually Classed as Emotions 119
How These Organic States Differ from Regular Emotions 120
The Organic State in Anger 121
Glandular Responses During Emotion 122
The Nerves Concerned in Internal Emotional Response 124
The Emotional State as a Preparatory Reaction 125
"Expressive Movements," Another Sort of Preparatory Reactions 126
Do Sensations of These Various Preparatory Reactions Constitute the Conscious State of Emotion? 128
The James-Lange Theory of the Emotions 129
Emotion and Impulse 130
Emotion Sometimes Generates Impulse 132
Emotion and Instinct 134
The Higher Emotions 136
Exercises 136
References 136
INVENTORY OF HUMAN INSTINCTS AND PRIMARY EMOTIONS 137
Classification 138
Responses to Organic Needs 139
Instinctive Responses to Other Persons 145
The Play Instincts 151
Exercises 170
References 171
THE FEELINGS 172
Pleasantness and Unpleasantness Are Simple Feelings 173
Felling-tone of Sensations 174
Theories of Feeling 175
Sources of Pleasantness and Unpleasantness 178
Primary Likes and Dislikes 180
Other Proposed Elementary Feelings 184
Exercises 186
References 186
SENSATION 187
The Sense Organs 188
Analysis of Sensations 197
The Skin Senses 197
The Sense of Taste 201
The Sense of Smell 203
Organic Sensations 204
The Sense of Sight 204
Simpler Forms of the Color Sense 209
Visual Sensations as Related to the Stimulus 212
Color Mixing 214
What Are the Elementary Visual Sensations? 216
Theories of Color Vision 220
Adaptation 224
Rod and Cone Vision 226
After-images 226
Contrast 227
The Sense of Hearing 228
Comparison of Sight and Hearing 231
Theory of Hearing 234
Senses of Bodily Movement 236
Exercises 241
References 243
ATTENTION 244
The Stimulus, or What Attracts Attention 245
The Motor Reaction in Attention 248
The Shifting of Attention 251
Laws of Attention and Laws of Reaction in General 256
Sustained Attention 257
Distraction 259
Doing Two Things at Once 260
The Span of Attention 261
Summary of the Laws of Attention 262
Attention and Degree of Consciousness 265
The Management of Attention 267
Theory of Attention 268
Exercises 270
References 270
INTELLIGENCE 271
Intelligence Tests 272
Performance Tests 275
Group Testing 276
Some Results of the Intelligence Tests 278
Limitations of the Intelligence Tests 281
The Correlation of Abilities 288
General Factors in Intelligence 285
Special Aptitudes 288
Heredity of Intelligence and of Special Aptitudes 289
Intelligence and the Brain 292
Exercises 294
References 295
LEARNING AND HABIT FORMATION 296
Acquired Reactions Are Modified Native Reactions 297
Acquired Tendencies 299
Animal Learning 302
Summary of Animal Learning 310
Human Learning 311
Human Compared with Animal Learning 313
Learning by Observation 317
The Learning of Complex Practical Performances 321
Higher Units and Overlapping 323
Moderate Skill Acquired in the Ordinary Day's Work 326
Habit 328
Exercises 330
References 331
MEMORY 332
The Process of Memorizing 333
Economy in Memorizing 333
Unintentional Learning 346
Retention 348
Recall 364
Recognition 357
Memory Training 360
Exercises 364
References 365
ASSOCIATION AND MENTAL IMAGERY 366
What Can Be Recalled 366
Memory Images 368
Limitations of Imagery 371
The Question of Non-Sensory Recall 373
Hallucinations 375
Free Association 376
Controlled Association 381
Examples of Controlled Association 384
Exercises 386
References 388
THE LAWS OF ASSOCIATION 389
The Law of Exercise 389
The Law of Effect 391
Limitations of the Law of Exercise 393
Association by Similarity 395
Association by Contiguity 396
The Law of Combination 398
The Law of Combination in Recall 413
The Laws of Learning in Terms of the Neurones 414
Exercises 418
References 418
PERCEPTION 418
Some Definitions 421
The Difference Between Perception and Sensation 423
Perception and Image 425
Perception and Motor Reaction 427
What Sort of Response, Then, Is Perception? 431
Practiced Perception 433
Corrected Perception 435
Sensory Data Serving as Signs of Various Sorts of Fact 437
The Perception of Space 439
Esthetic Perception 443
Social Perception 444
Errors of Perception 446
Illusions 450
Exercises 460
References 461
REASONING 462
Animal and Human Exploration 463
Reasoning Culminates in Inference 465
Varieties of Reasoning 468
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning 474
Psychology and Logic 476
Exercises 480
References 480
IMAGINATION 481
Beginnings of Imagination in the Child 482
Preliminary Definition of Imagination 483
Play 485
The Play Motives 488
Empathy 491
Worry 497
Day Dreams 498
Dreams 499
Freud's Theory of Dreams 505
Autistic Thinking 508
Invention and Criticism 509
The Enjoyment of Imaginative Art 512
The Psychology of Inventive Production 517
Imagination Considered in General 519
Exercises 521
References 522
WILL 523
Voluntary and Involuntary Action 524
Development of Voluntary Control 526
Ideomotor Action 527
Conflict and Decision 528
Obstruction and Effort 535
Thought and Action 539
Securing Action 541
The Influence of Suggestion 546
Exercises 551
References 561
PERSONALITY 552
Factors in Personality 553
The Self 555
Integration and Disintegration of the Personality 558
The Unconscious, or, the Subconscious Mind 561
Unconscious Wishes and Motives 565
Exercises 571
References 571
INDEX 573
{1}
PSYCHOLOGY
WHAT PSYCHOLOGY IS AND DOES
THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE SCIENCE, ITS PROBLEMS AND ITS METHODS
Modern psychology is an attempt to bring the methods of scientific investigation, which have proved immensely fruitful in other fields, to bear upon mental life and its problems. The human individual, the main object of study, is so complex an object, that for a long time it seemed doubtful whether there ever could be real science here; but a beginning was made in the nineteenth century, following the lead of biology and physiology, and the work of the investigator has been so successful that to-day there is quite a respectable body of knowledge to assemble under the title of scientific psychology.
Psychology, then, is a science. It is the science of--what shall we say? "The science of the soul"--that is what the name means by derivation and ancient usage. "The science of the mind" has a more modern sound. "The science of consciousness" is more modern still. "The science of behavior" is the most recent attempt at a concise formula.
None of these formulas is wholly satisfactory. Psychology does not like to call itself the science of the soul, for that has a theological tang and suggests problems that have so far not seemed accessible to scientific investigation. Psychology does not like very well to call itself the science {2} of the mind, as the mind seems to imply some thing or machine, and there is no such thing to be observed (unless it be the brain and body generally), and, anyway, psychology is distinctly a study of actions rather than of things. Psychology does not like to limit itself to the study of consciousness, but finds it necessary to study also unconscious actions. As to "behavior", it would be a very suitable term, if only it had not become so closely identified with the "behavioristic movement" in psychology, which urges that consciousness should be entirely left out of psychology, or at least disregarded. "Behavior psychology", as the term would be understood to-day, means a part of the subject and not the whole.
The best way of getting a true picture of psychology, and of reaching an adequate definition of its subject-matter, would be to inspect the actual work of psychologists, so as to see what kind of knowledge they are seeking. Such a survey would reveal quite a variety of problems under process of investigation, some of them practical problems, others not directly practical.
Varieties of Psychology
Differential psychology.
One line of question that always interests the beginner in psychology is as to how people differ--how different people act under the same circumstances--and why; and if we watch the professional psychologist, we often find him working at just this problem. He tests a great number of individuals to see how they differ, and tries to discover on what factors their differences depend, how far on heredity, how far on environment. The "psychologist" in such a place as the children's court {3} is a specialist whose duty it is to test the delinquent children that are brought before the court, with the special object of measuring the intelligence of each individual child and of helping in other ways to understand the child's peculiar conduct and attitude.
The Wunder Library · Learn anything · Home — complete public-domain books, free to read, with narration and illustrations. Psychology is in the public domain.