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Psychology

by Robert Sessions Woodworth

By Robert Sessions Woodworth · Psychology · Public domain

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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.

Psychology at a glance

Author
Robert Sessions Woodworth
Length
167,655 words · about 14 hours to read
Chapters
41
Price
Free — public domain

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Read Psychology online — full text

CHAPTER III. Reactions of Different Levels 45

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

CHAPTER IV. Tendencies to Reaction 68

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

CHAPTER V. Native and Acquired Traits 89

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

CHAPTER VI. Instinct 105

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

CHAPTER VII. Emotion 118

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

CHAPTER VIII. Inventory of Human Instincts

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

CHAPTER IX. The Feelings 172

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

CHAPTER X. Sensation 187

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

CHAPTER XI. Attention 244

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

CHAPTER XII. Intelligence 271

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

CHAPTER XIII. Learning and Habit Formation 296

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

CHAPTER XIV. Memory 332

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

CHAPTER XV. Association and Mental Imagery 366

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

CHAPTER XVI. The Laws of Association 389

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

CHAPTER XVII. Perception 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

CHAPTER XVIII. Reasoning 462

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

CHAPTER XIX. Imagination 481

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

CHAPTER XX. Will 523

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

CHAPTER XXI. Personality 552

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

CHAPTER I. What Psychology Is and Does

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.

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Contents — all 41 chapters

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