Hvitt (JlolUgg of AgrUttltucc At OJnrncU InUJeraitB Cornell University Library LB 1051.C4 Human behavior; a first book in psycholog 3 1924 013 403 765 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013403765 HUMAN BEHAVIOR •Tl ^^^y^ THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NSW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR A FIRST BOOK IN PSYCHOLOGY FOR TEACHERS BY STEPHEN SHELDON COLVIN PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, BROWN DNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF "THE LEARNING PROCESS" AND WILLIAM CHANDLER BAGLEY PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AUTHOR OF "THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS," " CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT '' "EDUCATIONAL VALUES" Neto gorfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All rights reserved Copyright, 1913, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1913. Reprinted June, August, 1913 ; January, June, December, 1914; May, December, 1915 ; May, X916 ; May, 1917. Narisaatr ^w» J. 8. Oushlng Co. — Berwick & Smith Oo. Norwood, MasB., U.S.A. PREFACE The study of psychology has for a long time been looked upon as an essential phase of the professional preparation of the teacher. The following chapters represent an attempt to formulate psychological prin- ciples in terms of conduct or behavior. The authors believe that this "functional" point of view in psy- chology offers a helpful perspective upon the problems of classroom teaching, explaining many of the phe- nomena with which every teacher must deal, and which, unexplained, tend to irritate and confuse; and providing at least a few guiding principles that may be directly applied to the solution of troublesome prob- lems in instruction and management. It is hoped that the book may prove useful to the large numbers of young men and young women who each year enter the service of the public schools. It has, indeed, been written with a distinct recognition of the immaturity and inexperience which these beginning teachers represent Every effort has been made ( i ) to select the topics that are most closely related to the work of teaching; (2) to treat these topics concretely, enforcing each principle with a wealth of illustration drawn partly from classroom practice, and partly from the affairs of everyday life; and (3) to simplify the VI PREFACE terminology, without, at the same time, sacrificing accuracy of statement. The materials have been organized somewhat upon the "spiral" plan. The first chapter embodies a con- crete case of human behavior, described in non-technical language, and illustrating the various factors that con- dition behavior and control conduct both in customary and in unusual situations. Thus an initial " bird's- eye" view of the treatment is given at the outset The remaining chapters of Part I are also general in their nature, treating upon a simpler and more primi- tive plane the topics that are later analyzed more minutely. This plan of organization obviously involves a certain amount of repetition ; but the repetition, it is believed, will serve a useful purpose in impressing upon the student the fundamental fact that the higher and more complicated forms of behavior have grown out of the simpler forms, and involve these simpler forms as indispensable elements. The authors have emphasized certain phases of psy- chology that have hitherto been treated very briefly in textbooks for teachers. Among these are instinct, habit, feeling and emotion, memory, and the eco- nomical methods of learning. The treatment of sensa- tion is much briefer than in many other texts, and the discussion of the anatomy and physiology of the nerv- ous system has been limited to the facts of structure and function that are essential to an understanding of the mechanical modes of behavior. PREPACE Vll The " Questions and Exercises " appended to each chapter have been constructed chiefly for the purpose of encouraging the student to study behavior in the concrete, and especially to observe the factors that operate in determining his own conduct. The authors are deeply indebted to Mr. W. S. Miller, Secretary of the School of Education, University of Illi- nois, for assistance rendered in revising the manuscript. The authors further desire to express their thanks to Professors H. S. Jennings, W. B. Pillsbury, J. R. Angell, E. B. Titchener, to Dr. L. F. Barker, and to Henry Holt and Company for permission to use various illustrations accompanying the text. S. S. C. W. C. B. February 1, 1913. CONTENTS PART I GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIOR CHAPTER I PAGE Consciousness and Conduct 1 Psychology the science of consciousness — Meaning of the term " consciousness " — The service of consciousness in controlling action — Illustration of a typical set of conscious activities — Important characteristics of consciousness : (a) It varies with varying purposes — {i) Attention and interest determine its changes — (c) Affection or feeling is essential — (d) Consciousness is at a low ebb when acts are mechani- cal — («) Sensation is basal to consciousness — (/) Sensa- tion with meaning attached is perception — (g) Imagination as reconstructed experience — ■ {A) Memory and association — (»') Conception, judgment, and reasoning — Summary — Relation between consciousness and behavior — Conscious- ness is at its maximum in a thought crisis — The problem of psychology — Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER II Behavior and Learning 24 New situations make learning necessary — Learning signi- fies a modification of behavior — Methods of learning : (a) Trial and error — -(6) Imitation — {c) "Free" ideas — Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. X CONTENTS CHAPTER III FAGB Unlearned Behavior 37 Problem of the chapter — -"Unlearned" behavior and its significance • — Play as a type of instinctive behavior — The value of play as a preparation for later life : Groos's theory of play — Imitative and instinctive plays: Hall's theory — The limitations of play as an educative agency — Curiosity as an aid in learning — Definitions and explanation of tech- nical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER XV Attention and Behavior 53 Problem of the chapter — ^Definition of attention — ■ Kinds of attention : passive, active, secondary passive — l^aws of passive attention — Value of passive attention — Law of ac- tive attention — The rise of secondary passive attention — The rhythmic character of attention — Variety in unity the secret of sustained attention — Attention and fatigue — The conditions of effective work — The span or range of attention — Attention and behavior — The bodily attitude in attention — - Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER V Behavior and the Feelings 72 Problem of the chapter — The nature of feeling or affec- tion — Affection as a conscious element — The function of the unpleasant and of the agreeable — -Affection and effi- ciency — - Complex forms of affection : the emotions — Char- acteristics of an emotion — - The James- Lange theory of the emotions — Behavior and the emotions — Confused thought and abortive behavior accompany a typical emotion — Clear thought and definite action kill the emotion — Situations suddenly presented may give rise to emotions — ■ Emotions may be aroused by imagined situations — - Summary : defini- tion of emotion — A mood as the residuum of an emotional storm — Temperament — Definitions and explanation of tech- nical terms — Questions and exercises. CONTENTS xi CHAPTER VI PAGE The Practical Significance of the Affective Life . . 89 Problem of the chapter — Affection and attention — The importance of insuring pleasurable outcomes — Pleasure ac- companies instinctive and habitual activities — • The practical significance of the emotions — The value of the emotion must be sought in its outcome — Emotions induce new modes of behavior — The theory of consequences holds for all emo- tions — ■ The affective element in teaching — The emotional element in teaching — The emotional element in religious education — Moods and their use in education — ■ Should the teacher show emotion ? — ■ Questions and exercises. PART II MECHANICAL MODES OF BEHAVIOR CHAPTER VII The Nervous System as the Organ of Behavior . . 106 Problem of the chapter — The nervous system and beha- vior — The simplest type of behavior: the amoeba — Com- plex behavior requires complicated structures — The simplest form of nervous system — Complex nervous systems — Pre- ferred paths of conduction in the nervous system — The neurone as the unit structure of the nervous system — The synapse as the mode of conduction between neurones — -Classes of neurones: sensory, associative, motor — The central nervous system in man — ■ The functions of the cen- tral nervous system : (a) The spinal cord — {i} The cerebral cortex — Consciousness correlated with cerebral activity — Inhibition and facilitation as functions of neural activity — Definitions and explanation of technical terms — ■ Questions and exercises. XU CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII PACK Reflex and Instinctive Behavior 125 Problem of the chapter — Reflex movement as a type of behavior — Instinctive behavior as a combination of reflexes — Characteristics of instinctive behavior : conscious accom- paniment, reflex constituents, mechanical control, depend- ence upon inherited neural connections, affective quaUty — Types of instinctive behavior : the adaptive instincts — The individualistic instincts — The sex and parental instincts — ■ The social instincts — The religious and aesthetic instincts — Summary ajid table of human instincts, with the correspond- ing expressions, feelings, and emotions — Definitions and ex- planation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER IX The Value of the Human Instincts 140 Problem of the chapter — The value of the adaptive in- stincts — -The value of the individualistic instincts — The value of the social instincts — The value of the religious in- stincts — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER X How Instinctive Behavior may be Changed . . . 149 Problem of the chapter — All education must begin with instinct — The modification of instinct: {a) The attachment of another feeling and its appropriate response to an object which naturally arouses an undesirable instinct — The signifi- cance of the unpleasant in education — -The doctrine of nat- ural punishments — -Pleasure vs. unpleasantness in learning — The modification of instinct : {i) The attachment of another response to an object and the feeling that the object instinc- tively 'arouses — The modification of instinct : (c) The de- tachment of a feeling from its natural object and response, and its attachment to other objects and responses — The relation of attention to the modification of instincts — Ideals in relation to instincts — Definitions and explanation of tech- nical terms — Questions and exercises. \ CONTENTS XUl CHAPTER XI PAGE Habitual Behavior and the Law of Habit-building . 165 Problem of the chapter — Habitual behavior contrasted with instinctive behavior — The affective element in habit : the propensity — The importance of habit-formation — The law of habit-building : {a) focalization ; (6) attentive repeti- tion ; (c) permitting no exceptions — The importance of ini- tiative in habit-building — Value of motives closely related to the child's interests — The significance of the right start — The phenomenon of interference in habit-building — -The " practice curve " and its " plateaus " — The significance of plateaus in habit-building — The treatment of habit upon the plateau level — The importance of intense effort in habit- building — Rapidity vs. accuracy in habit formation — The specific character of habits — The "transfer" of habits: (a) through identical elements — {i) through ideals — The limitations of habit — ■ The importance of teaching the pupil how to form habits — Definitions and explanation of techni- cal terms — Questions and exercises. PART III CONSCIOUSLY CONTROLLED MODES OF BEHAVIOR CHAPTER XII Sensation and Behavior 189 Problem of the chapter — The elements of consciousness — The organs of sensation — -Definition of sensation — "Pure" sensation an abstraction — Sensation incomplete without response — The attributes of sensation : intensity, duration, quality, clearness — Classes of sensations: {a) vis- ual sensations — The color qualities — Contrast and adapta- tion — After-images — The color zones of the retina — Per- ception of form involves other than visual sensations — ■ (i) Au- ditory sensations — Tonal sensations and their characteristics XIV CONTENTS — (c) Taste or gustatory sensations and their characteristics — {if) Olfactory sensations and their characteristics — {e) Der- mal sensations: pressure, temperature, and pain — (/) Kin- aesthetic sensations — ■{^) Organic sensations — The signifi- cance of sensory defects — Color blindness and tonal deafness — The place of " sense- training " in education — Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER XIII Perception and Behavior 213 Problem of the chapter — " Meaning " as the chief mark of a perception — Meanings come from adjustment — ■ Meanings are individual — 'Objective teaching as a means of developing meanings — -Apperception — True and false perception — Behavior the criterion of true and false — Illusions and hallu- cinations — ■ Classification of illusions — ■ Hallucinations as a sjfmptom of mental disturbances — ^Definitions and explana- tion of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER XIV Imagination and Behavior 227 Problem of the chapter — Imagination contrasted with per- ception, false perception, and hallucination — -Definition of imagination — Truth and falsity of imagination — Reproduc- tive and productive imagination — Mental imagery and its significance — Concrete and symbolic imagery — Imaginal types — The educational significance of imagination — -The child does not often confuse the real with the fancied — The world of imagery a privilege of childhood — The world of fancy must be limited — Imaginary achievement must not replace real achievement — Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CONTENTS XV CHAPTER XV PAGB Memory and Behavior 243 The wider use of the term " memory " — The narrower use of the term "memory" — -Recollection — Recall and recog- nition — ^ Impression and association — The tests of memory and their employment in education : (o) The method of re- tained members — {i) The saving method — (.:) The method of right associates — (d) The method of recognition — (e) The method of reconstruction — Retentiveness and its measure — The laws of forgetting and their educational applications — Faulty observation and its relation to defective memory — Distortion and confusion as sources of weakness in mem- ory — Suggestion as a factor in distorting memory — Factors conditioning accuracy of memory — The function of forget- ting — The question of improving memory — -Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER XVI Association and Behavior 264 Problem of the chapter — "Simultaneous" and "succes- sive " associations — The primary laws of association : con- tinuity and similarity — Mental attitude or purpose determines associations — Secondary laws of association : frequency, pri- macy, recency, and vividness — Mental attitude or purpose determines operation of secondary laws — Emotional con- gruity as a principle of association — Summary: educational applications — -The importance of prejudices — Definitions and explanation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER XVII Economy in Learning 283 Problem of the chapter — Learning by wholes m. learning by parts — - Advantages and disadvantages of the " whole " method — The best length of learning periods — The impor- tance of recall in learning — The value of the recitation — The phenomenon of interference in learning — The value of XVI CONTENTS thorough learning — Rote learning vs. rational learning — The value of mnemonic devices — The " warming up " period in learning — The most favorable rate of learning — Sum- mary: a general rule for learning — Definitions and expla- nation of technical terms — Questions and exercises. CHAPTER XVIII Behavior and the Higher Thought Processes . . . 298 Problem of the chapter — The thought crisis and its sig- nificance to behavior — Real thinking always involves a real difficulty — Thinking always involves past experience revived as " meaning " — Meanings vary with the problem in hand — Meaning is fundamental to behavior — Why meanings attach to quaUties as well as to acts — The development of symbols that stand for qualities — The value of thinking in symbols — Conceptual and perceptual attitudes — The economy of con- ceptual behavior — The judgment — Reasoning and the syl- logism — Both induction and deduction characterize thinking — Inductive teaching and its place in education — Educa- tional applications : (a) The pupil should be confronted with actual problems — (b) The development of meanings is fun- damental to effective reasoning — () Sdf-assertive Self-assertion Struttmg, preen- Arrogance, su- Shame, humilia- ing, domineer- periority, pride, tion ing vanity (c) Antisocial Teasing and Torture, insult Contempt Bullying Predatory Stealing, de- stroying Vindictiveness Hate 138 HUMAN BEHAVIOR NoEMAL Feeling EUOTION AROUSED Name of Instinct Physical Expression Accompanying Adequate BY "Blocking" OF Adequate Expression Expression Shyness Withdrawal, seeking soli- tude Self-distrust Fright Sex and Parental Sex Mating Conjugal love Passion, sex jealousy Protection of Guarding, Parental love Self-renuncia- young shielding tion, grief Social Rivalry Competitive acts Emulation Jealousy, envy Gregarious Congregating in SociabiUty, kin- Homesickness, groups ship yearning for companionship Cooperative Working to- gether Loyalty Remorse Altruistic Helping others Friendliness, Sympathy, pity, solicitude grief Religious Self-abasement Subjugation Reverence, hu- mility, vener- ation Awe Esthetic Rhythmic Dancing, song, chant Harmony Ecstasy Contemplation Admiration Rapture Definitions and Explanation of Teems Used Reflex activity. — This consists in its most simple form of an excitation that is mechanically carried over, or " reflected," from a sensory to a motor neurone. Con- sciousness may or may not be present. In either case it performs no service in directing the behavior. REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR 139 Instinctive activity. — This consists of a complex series of reflex activities working together harmoniously to bring about a valuable form of behavior. Conscious- ness, while present, does not exercise control over such activities. Innate. — Something born with the individual ; dis- tinguished from that which is acquired. An innate tendency may be present at birth, or it may put in its appearance later. However, if it is innate, it is not gained through experience. Questions and Exercises 1. Define reflex behavior. How is it distinguished from in- stinctive behavior ? Illustrate both. 2. Name the four important characteristics of instinctive be- havior. 3. Why are play, curiosity, imitation, inquisitiveness, and constructiveness called "adaptive" instincts? 4. Name the principal individualistic instincts, and show the relation of each to self-preservation. 5. What instincts are included in the class called "social"? Can you give illustrations of social instincts in animals below man ? 6. What instinct may explain certain cases of truancy ? 7. Note the behavior of a child (from three to seven years old) for a period of half an hoiu:. What activities can you find that are probably due to instinctive tendencies, and to what instincts are they due ? 8. Analyze one of your dominant motives or ambitions back to a fundamental basis. Can you find a "core" of instinct ? What emotions are aroused when the realization of the motive seems hopeless ? CHAPTER IX THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN INSTINCTS Two questions of educational importance arise ia connection with instinct : (i) of what service are these primitive tendencies to behavior? what instincts must education try to confirm and sanction? and (2) how shall education go about to change the instinctive ten- dencies that are not valuable in their primitive form? The first of these questions wiU be answered in this chapter ; the second wiU form the theme of Chapter X. The Value of the Adaptive Instincts. — We have al- ready discussed somewhat in detail three of the most important of the adaptive instincts (namely, imitation, play, and curiosity) and have shown, particularly in regard to play, its value in preparing the individual with a set of acts and a stock of experiences that will be of service to him later on in Hfe. What is true of these two instincts is likewise true of the other adaptive instincts. The squirrel collects nuts for the coming winter, al- though it does not need them at present and although it has no knowledge of its future needs. A similar instinct prompts the bee to gather honey, although the insect has no idea that it will be of use at some future time. In a 140 THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN INSTINCTS 14I like manner, the human being prepares for a future that he caimot foresee. The collecting and hoarding instinct in the child has not in civilized communities so direct a value as it has in the cases of the animals above cited ; nevertheless, by means of making these collections the child may learn much that wiU be useful to him later on in his experience. Like the play instinct, the collect- ing instinct may be used by the teacher as a means of in- direct instruction. The collection of stamps and coins, for example, may awaken an interest in and give a cer- tain acquaintance with foreign countries and thus serve as a valuable aid in the study of geography and history ; the gathering and preserving of various flowers and insects may be of help in nature study, and so on. The constructive instinct is clearly of great value to the individual, and may be made of service in education. It in part explains the interest that most pupils show in manual training, and in cooking, sewing, and other domestic arts. Repetition likewise has great educational significance. Through the tendency to repeat, it becomes possible for the chUd to estabUsh those forms of behavior that are the most beneficial, and it is of no small service when in- tentionally utilized by the teacher as a means of imparting knowledge and of forming useful habits. Since repetition is important as a means of learning, it is indeed fortunate that there is a natural tendency on the part of the child to repeat. Here a sound educational method and a 142 HUMAN BEHAVIOR predisposition on the part of the learner work together to bring about the desired result. The Value of the Individualistic Instincts. — The in- stincts of combativeness, retraction, and flight have less value in present-day civilization than they possessed in the past. Among animals and primitive peoples the fear of the unknown; of the dark, of certain animals such as insects and reptiles, of objects with fetid odors, was very important in protecting the individual against the ever present dangers that lurked in the forest and the cave, that threatened life in the ambush of the enemy, the lair of the beast, and the very air that one breathed. In these earlier days the fearless must soon have perished. Combativeness and pugnacity, too, had their place in the hut and the cabin, the forest and jimgle. A calm attitude, a lack of emotion, a calculating coolness, be- long more to modern society than they did to the sava- gery of the past. Further, when there were few recognized laws and no means of enforcing them, existence de- pended largely on the ability and the will to fight. Combativeness was an essential in the struggle to sur- vive, and the fighting instinct was indispensable. While the usefulness of combativeness, retraction, and flight in the primitive stages of stress and struggle must be recognized, it is held by many that these crass im- pulses are no longer valuable and should have no place in the modern world. To an extent this assumption is right. There are many fears that humanity should have THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN INSTINCTS 143 outgrown, and these should be banished from the mind of the child as soon as possible ; certainly they should never be fostered, as they sometimes are by unwise parents and negUgent nurses. Superstitious dread, irra- tional terrors, and the like must be removed. It is wrong to tell the child that the " bogey-man " will catch him, or that a tiger is lurking in the dark ready to devovir him. Such fears as these fill the mind with dread and accomphsh no lasting good. However, it must be remembered that there are rational fears, and that due caution is extremely valuable in the affairs of Hfe. The problem here is to change tfie reference of fear, — to detach it from the objects that naturally arouse it, — and to attach it to other objects. This is the problem of the next chapter, however, and need not detain us at this point. The distinctly anti-social instincts have Uttle in their favor under present-day conditions. Teasing and bully- ing, which are common practices among boys, may serve to keep the young upstart in his proper place and to make the eccentric and peculiar child conform to the group ; in so far, this instinct is social rather than the opposite; so, too, mild forms of fagging and hazing may result beneficially, but on the whole this spirit is dangerous to the school and commxmity life, and if tolerated at all, should be held strictly within bounds. The predatory instinct combined with the gregarious instinct leads boys to form gangs and commit all sorts of offenses against property. In some of its expressions it 144 HUMAN BEHAVIOR is not necessarily an indication of moral delinquency and should not be regarded too seriously, yet it may lead to the most unhappy consequences if given free scope. This is one of the instincts that should be repressed as far as possible. The highwayman and the viking belong to the past. They are out of place in modern Ufe. The spirit of adventure, which is aUied both to the predatory instinct and to the instinct of migration, expresses itself not always in deeds of disorder and violence. It sometimes leads the young person to leave home and " seek his fortime " in the great world outside of his home environment. This impulse to rove served a very useful purpose in the earlier development of society, but it is a dangerous tendency in a boy of the school age, and sometimes ends in grave results. The Value of the Social Instincts. — The social instincts are of the greatest importance and form the clearest examples of instincts that education must foster and confirm. The desire for companionship is common to all normal human beings and even manifests itself, often in a very marked manner, in the "herding instincts " of the lower animals. Children at a very early age seek the companionship of other children. One of the greatest misfortunes that can befaU a child is to be left entirely or even largely in the society of adxilts. The lonely child deprived of actual pla5Tnates, not in- frequently creates imaginary companions with whom he plays in fancy, and thus in a way attempts to make up THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN INSTINCTS 145 in this unreal manner for the vital lack of actual associ- ates. The young person and the adult, like the child, are social beings, and bereft of society, they are generally wretched. There is no punishment so severe as that of soUtary confinement. The instinct of cooperation has been a powerful force in building up the community life. The history of civili- zation has been that of the gradual expansion of sym- pathy and understanding among ever widening groups. From the family it has extended to the tribe and then to the state and nation. The present century promises to carry it beyond the confines of national barriers and to see a real federation of mankind, based upon a mutual comprehension and a common feeling. Rivalry is to be classed as an instinct of a social nature, since through it a large amount of social progress has been brought about. Competition has sometimes been thought of as something essentially base and imworthy. It is maintained by some that it is this spirit that fills our reformatories and prisons. This point of view is so radical that it carries with it its own refutation. Com- petition is not bad in itself ; like everything else it may become an evil if carried to an extreme. If abnormally strong tendencies to rivalry have filled our penal institu- tions, it is equally true that abnormally weak tendencies to compete have filled oiur almshouses. Competition among human beings does not necessarily nor generally mean a bitter hand-to-hand struggle for existence, in 146 HUMAN BEHAVIOR which the weak are ruthlessly pushed aside and left to perish. It means rather a more or less conscious attempt on the part of the individual to achieve certain ends that have been set up as social ideals. Of necessity it is true that in the striving for these ends some wiU outstrip others in the race ; some will arrive at the goal, or at least get reasonably near it, while others will be left far behind ; and the force of rivalry in life depends upon this primitive factor. The instinct of rivalry, like the fighting instinct, must be modified if it is to be thoroughly serviceable. The Value of the Religious Instincts. — ■ Much has been said and written in recent years in regard to the innate tendency in the large majority of human beings to turn their attention toward the supernatural and to seek in another world a consolation that this cannot afford. The religious instinct is extremely complex and manifests itself under various forms. There can, however, be little doubt that there is a fundamental instinctive attitude of the normal human being toward the universe that may be called rehgious. The definite form that this instinct takes is largely the result of his surroundings, and of the specific form of religious ed- ucation to which he is subjected. The fundamental ten- dency, however, must be considered as innate and in no sense acquired, although the specific expression that the religious attitude takes is not the result of inheritance. It is due rather to the prevailing social ideals that the individual quite unconsciously appropriates and to the THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN INSTINCTS I47 kind of religious teaching the child may have received in the home and the school. One of the most important problems that the school is called upon to solve at the present time is the extent and kind of rehgious instruction that should be provided. In the United States dogmatic instruction in any form of religious belief cannot be given to the children in the public schools. The instruction must be indirect in its nature ; nevertheless it should be suf- ficiently vital to appeal to those deep-lying tendencies in himian experience that relate themselves to another world. The rehgious instinct is not decaying, as some would have us to beheve. Specific forms of religious beUef, together with certain kinds of rehgious practices, have been brought into question. But there is as strong a faith as ever in those fundamental experiences which men call religious. The religious instinct is still vital, and there is no reason to believe that in the advance of modern society the necessity for a supreme being has been put aside. The religious instinct is basal to himian progress and happiness. It cannot be regarded as a rehc of the superstition of our uncultured ancestors. Questions and Exercises 1 . What instinctive tendencies can education employ in further- ing its own ends ? What tendencies should be confirmed by educa- tion ? What tendencies should be modified ? 2. In what ways may the school employ the instinct of play? The instinct of imitation ? 3. Give illustrations of the useful and harmful employment of the instinct of rivalry. 148 HUMAN BEHAVIOR 4. It has been suggested that the school should stimulate rivalry between groups rather than between individuals. How may this be accomplished ? What instinct would be appealed to in group rivalry ? 5. What reasons can you give for considering the reUgious attitude as based fundamentally upon instinct ? 6. At what time in the life of the individual is it likely to most definitely show itself ? Do you make any distinction between the religious attitude of the child and that of the youth and adult ? CHAPTER X HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED The ability profoundly to change inherited behavior through experience is the most important human charac- teristic. It is this factor that Hfts man above the brute, for while the lower animals may modify instinctive tendencies within certain hmits, these limits are narrowly circumscribed. Furthermore, the lower animals do not have to modify their instincts profoundly in order to Kve the Ufe of their species. But man in order to he man must get beyond instinct. The behavior that is dis- tinctively human is that kind that has been changed to suit the stage of development that the race has reached. All Education Must Begin with Instinct. — But educa- tion must always start with instinct, and — however far above the primitive plane it may carry the individual — it must rest in the last analysis upon instinctive ten- dencies. In the last chapter, it was shown that certain instincts, even in a relatively immodified form, have a utility in civilized human life. Some of these (the adap- tive instincts of play, cirriosity, imitation, repetition, and constructiveness) lead the individual to modify his be- 149 150 HUMAN BEHAVIOR havior for himself, — that is, without the aid of a guide 01 teacher. The task of education here is to give these adap- tive tendencies a chance to operate in a helpful way,— to set desirable " copies " for imitation ; to provide space and companionship and leaders for healthful plays ; to give curiosity something to pry into and explore that win yield valuable knowledge; to give the con- structive instinct objects to work upon. Beyond these instincts that are useful in their original form, however, are a large number of others that must be changed or transformed. The present chapter will discuss the various ways in which desirable changes may be effected. The Modification of Instinct. — (a) The Attachment of Another Feeling with its Appropriate Response to an Object that Naturally Arouses an Undesirable Instinct. — This is the simplest method of modifying an instinct, and is in fact the only one that can be effectively employed in the training of animals and in the earliest stages of the child's education. The most common form that this method takes is that of physical punishment. The efficiency of physical punishment lies in the fact that the feeling of fear and the movement of retraction or flight are associated with an object that would naturally arouse another feeling and another movement. Thus the child must learn to repress his acquisitive instinct. Nature tells him to appropriate the object that pleases him; but civilized society is possible only when men respect HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED 151 the property rights of others. We simply cannot in this world appropriate every object that pleases us. We must learn to repress — to " inhibit " — this tendency, and to learn this thoroughly means beginning very early in Hfe to distinguish between the objects that we may take and those that we must leave. Thus when the child appropriates a forbidden object, the carefvil parent sees to it that the act results impleasantly. In the course of time, — perhaps even after the first disastrous experience, — the object that originally stimulated the desire for possession now stimulates the instinct of withdrawal or retraction, and the feeling of fear. This may be clearly observed in children during the second year of Hfe. Some objects the child will touch and play with freely. In his attitude toward others you will often note an initial reaching movement ; then the hand falls back, and perhaps the child with- draws from the neighborhood of the object. In the course of time, the actual advance and withdrawal cease. Inhibition has become a habit with reference to this particular forbidden object ; the temp- tation is no longer felt; the instinctive tendency has been effec- tively modified. This conquering of instinct probably requires no memory image of the first disastrous experience. No judgment is necessary ; the child does not say to himself, " I took this object before, and was punished ; now I will leave it alone." The unpleasant affection imme- diately colors the perception of the object, just as, before correction, a pleasant affection was a part of the immediate perception. 152 HUMAN BEHAVIOR The reader may find examples of this immediate fusion of the unpleasant experience with its object by recalling the way in which he looks upon some article of food which, through over-indulgence, or for some other reason, has caused nausea. For some time after- ward, one does not like to see the article in question, for the vm- pleasant affective coloring is immediately fused with the percep- tion. The Significance of the Unpleasant in Moral Training. — It is difficult to overestimate, in connection with the problem of moral training, the importance of this ftm- damental method of modifying instinct. Moral culture consists primarily in shifting the emphasis which nature has placed upon certain acts and activities. We no longer need to fear the dark; the feeHngs of disgust and re- pulsion no longer need attach to certain objects that were dangerous in primitive Hf e ; but we do need to fear evil, and we do need to attach to certain tendencies that may have been very important in primitive Hfe the feeling of disgust that wUl lead us to thrust them out of our presence. Aristotle, centuries ago, suggested that the primary problem of moral culture is to lead the individual to love the good and to hate the bad. Love and hate imply feeHngs and emotions that originally attach to certain instincts. Education faces the problem of detaching these feeUngs from the objects that originally stimulated them, and attaching them (with their appropri- ate responses) to other and often vastly different objects. This suggests the importance of thus modifying imdesirable in- stincts very early in the child's hfe. Unless imsocial tendencies HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED 153 bring unpleasant consequences, they are bound to become con- firmed, and the difficulty of eliminating them is increased tenfold. The years of early childhood in the home, and the first five or six years of the child's school life, are fundamentally significant in this connection. One cannot solve all of the problems of moral ed- ucation in the preadolescent period, but if the basis is properly laid at this time, the later problems wUl be greatly simplified. The child who has had a proper training in these formative years will evince a strong prejudice against lying, theft, laziness, disobedi- ence, and physical uncleanliness. He may not know why these things are wrong, but he will feel that they are wrong, and this is the fundamental and important factor ; for conduct is at basis a matter of feehng, and those in whom forbidden activities arouse disgust and abhorrence may be safely trusted to pass through the later emotional and moral crises in comparative safety. The Doctrine of Natural Punishments. — A great many misleading statements have been made by writers upon the subject of child discipHne. Some have main- tained that " nature " will look after the necessary corrections, — will associate unpleasant consequences with wrong acts and pleasant consequences with right acts. Leave the child to the operation of the environ- ment about him, these theorists maintain, and he will ac- quire the kinds of acts that are valuable, and discard those that are useless. One form of this doctrine is known as the theory of " natural punishments " and was elaborated in a very ingenious way by Herbert Spencer, with whose name it is commonly associated. The doc- trine has many points to commend it, for it is true that the child, in adjusting himself to the world about him, 1 54 HUMAN BEHAVIOR will learn to inhibit many instinctive tendencies that do not "fit in " with present-day conditions. This method of learning, however, should not be depended upon alone. It is really a process of trial and error, and like all such processes is cumbrous and uneconomical. Conscious correction by parent and teacher pro- ceeds upon the basis of inteUigence and foresight, and saves the child from undergoing too many painful experiences by seeing to it that the pain comes at the proper time. The natural method of punishing the child for careless use of matches would be a painful burn. But the careful parent will spare the httle chUd this experience by associating the handling of matches at an irresponsible age with an unpleasant consequence sufficiently strong to inhibit the tendency, but far from being so painful and dangerous as an actual burn. Pleasure vs. Unpleasantness in Learning. — Still other educational writers (and not a few parents and teachers) believe that the child may learn the necessary inhibitions of life without experiencing unpleasant consequences. These people would place the emphasis upon the positive rather than upon the negative side ; they would always reward the good rather than punish the evil. Again, there is much to be said for this point of view, and one would be foolish, indeed, to withhold the pleasure that ought to attach to right doing. But the doctrine has certain limitations and dangers that need to be held very clearly in mind : — HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED !$$ (i) In the first place, the fear of the unpleasant and the disagreeable is probably a more effective stimulus than the liking and desire for the pleasant. This is true in animal psychology, as has been abundantly demon- strated. There is no doubt that it also holds with children and, indeed, with adults. This does not mean, however, that the two should not work together, or that the pleasant sanctions should not always be used when it is clear that they will be effective. (2) Another reason for not entirely discarding the unpleasant lies in the fact that the kinds of behavior that are most significant and important in social life are the farthest removed from instinct ; consequently it is diffi- cult always to find naturally or instinctively pleasant objects with which to associate these socially-important activities. The finest things in hfe are its generosities, its sacrifices, its renunciations, its achievements that have come after persistent effort and struggle, — and all of these things — these greatest " goods " of Hfe — have but a restricted instinctive sanction. Sacrifice, for example, is instinctive or natural only in connection with the protection and care of offspring, and even then in a pronounced form only in the mother. Achievement has an instinctive basis in the powerful instincts of com- bativeness and rivalry, but persistent effort, — effort continued for a long time against tremendous odds, and in the face of contrary desires that are keen and impera- tive, — is an art that strikes against the most funda- IS6 HUMAN BEHAVIOR mental instincts. The greatest triumphs of humanity have come largely through the pain economy. The high- est ideal that man has yet conceived is represented by the agony of the cross. Struggle and suffering, the will to do the things which are not pleasant and agreeable, the ability to throw instinctive desire and immediate pleasure to the four winds, — these have been the forces which, working through the long centuries of human history, have Ufted mankind, notch by notch, to its present level. And there is no reason to believe that factors demanding less of the individual could ever have accom- plished, or will ever accomplish, a similar triumph. The Modification of Instinct. — (6) The Attachment of Another Response to an Object and to the Feeling that the Object instinctively Arouses. — This is also one of the simpler methods of modifying an instinctive tendency. The combative instinct furnishes a good example. It is naturally aroused only by some gross invasion of one's own physical " rights," and it is naturally expressed only by actual physical combat. If I ruthlessly take from the little child the object which he has appropriated and in which he finds pleasure, he wiU strike, kick, bite, look ferocious, and emit, not the cry of pain, but the cry of rage. This is the normal expression of the fighting in- stinct aroused by a normal stimulus. Primitive man similarly responds to a similar situation. Civilized life, however, compels another mode of response. If my neighbor steals my horse, I cannot well keep from re- HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED 157 senting the act keenly ; it would not be well for social life that feelings of resentment should be repressed when personal rights are invaded, for this would encourage an exploitation of the decent and law-abiding by the lawless. On the other hand, while I feel the resentment, / must not express that resentment in the primitive fashion. I must seek satisfaction, not with my fists, my teeth, and my nails, but through a due and proper process of law. Thus civilized society, while sanctioning the attachment of a primitive feeling to a primitive stimulus demands an entirely different response. Educationally, this method is important in connection with most of the individualistic instincts, with some of the adaptive instincts, and especially with the sex in- stincts. It is right that rivalry should stimulate the feeling of emulation, for in this way progress is assured through many members of the group. One individual achieves an advance over his fellows, and his fellows struggle to catch up with him. This is " good," for it tends to advance the entire group. But rivalry can easily be expressed in ways which are " natural " enough but which are, nevertheless, quite inconsistent with social welfare. It is " natural " to take an imfair ad- vantage ; primitive man had no standards of honor in combat. CivUized man has established such standards, — standards that have been wrought out of the race ex- perience through centuries of struggle and suffering. The child must be taught to Kve in accordance with their IS8 HUMAN BEHAVIOR dictates. He must be made to feel that cheating, de- ception, " hitting below the belt," tale-bearing, and " knocking " are dishonorable and forbidden means of expressing his instinct of rivalry. He must learn to " play the game " fairly and squarely and to prefer honorable defeat to a dishonorable victory; and he must generalize these standards of conduct beyond the athletic situation, and apply them to every situation in which he competes with his fellows. •It is for this reason that supervision of the games and plays of childhood is imperative; for these activities, unsupervised, are likely to confirm and sanction underhanded means of winning. It is true that the cheat will be detected, and it is true that under certaia conditions a much more effective punishment will be meted out to him by his feUows than the cleverest supervisor could devise. But these conditions do not always govern the situation. If the cheat happens to have the quaUties of leadership, he wiU infect with his virus a goodly followiag among his companions ; and the evU, which is bad enough when individually expressed, runs riot through the entire social group. It has been found that vmsuper- vised playgrounds in our large cities are veritable hotbeds of vice, and the same may be true of imsupervised recesses and noon inter- missions in the school. Where large numbers of children congre- gate, the welfare of society demands that a responsible adult be present, with full authority to check in the bud the first expression of a dangerous tendency. The Modification of Instinct, (c) The Detachment of a Feeling from its Natural Object and Response, and its Attachment to Other Objects and Responses. — Much more difi&cult than either of the methods of modifying instincts discussed above is the method which attempts to lift a HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED 1$^ strong feeling bodily out of the instinct to which it naturally belongs and to fasten it firmly to another object and to an entirely different response. This process is sometimes called the sublimation of the instinct, and its importance lies in the possibihty of thus enhsting in the service of an important social ideal the powerful force that the native feeling represents and the energy that it may set free. This is what has happened, for example, when we " stand up for what is right," " fight for a principle," " make war on evil," and do other strenuous deeds which we can adequately describe only by employing a militant metaphor. The " cause " for which we " fight " becomes in effect a part of our own personality. We have appro- priated it ; it is ours. Hence the feelings and emotions that naturally go with the fighting instinct come to attach to the cause that we have made our own if this cause is invaded, questioned, or made light of by others. But while the feeling of resentment is aroused by the invasion of our cause, the primitive method of expressing this feeling must not be permitted to operate. On the side of response as well as upon the side of the object or stimulus, there must be a modification. A very good illustration of an effective attempt to "sublimate " a primitive instinct is to be foimd in the success of the Salvation Army. Here we see a mihtary organization with innimaerable suggestions of actual physical combat enlisted in the service of the most peaceable of ideals. The Boy Scout movement (as it has been developed in America) makes a similar use of the feelings l60 HUMAN BEHAVIOR connected with several of the primitive instincts, attaching them to other objects and insuring responses that are only symbolic of the actual primitive responses. In general it may be concluded that these concrete and tangible factors that hark back in a symbohc way to an older instinct will be of inestimable service in enlisting in a worthy cause the f eeUng originally attaching to the instinct. Fortunately for us, nature did not draw fine distinctions, and when she associated feelings and emo- tions with instinctive activities, it was usually by very superficial bonds. These were sufl&cient for her purposes, and the very superficiality serves us a useful turn now that civilized life has compelled a reconstruction of so many of our native tendencies. The Relation of Attention to the Modification of In- stincts. — We have discussed three general methods of modifying instinctive tendencies. In all of these, the principles that were developed in the chapter on atten- tion are important. It wiU be remembered that " pas- sive " attention was at that time termed instinctive ; attention is naturally given to those stimuli that " fit in " with instinctive or inborn tendencies. On the other hand, " active " attention means attending by effort to something that is not attractive, that does not " fit in " with an immediate instinctive need. The early stages of active attention always represent a modifica- tion of instinctive behavior; it is only because we can give active or effortful attention that we can get above HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED l6l instinct and climb to the plane of civilized life. In the chapter on Attention, we emphasized the importance of holding in mind the remote end as a means of overcom- ing the tendency to follow immediate desire. In the chapter on Feeling it was pointed out that the only way in which the idea of a remote end can be made effective over behavior is to endow it with a feeling that will con- quer the feeling attached to the immediate tendency. In other words, we really place the gratification of the de- sire in the future and work steadfastly toward that in- stead of following the behest of immediate desire. Ideals in Relation to Instincts. — This attachment of a strong feeling to the idea of an end to be attained turns the idea into an ideal. The ideal may be closely related to an instinct, as when the boy who does not like to sell newspapers — who fears the taunts of his competitors, or the rude refusals of those whom he approaches as cus- tomers — conquers his shyness by the ideal of earning money, — of gratifying his instinct of acquisition. Another ideal that works close to the instinctive level is represented by the boy who dislikes arithmetic, but who works at his problems in spite of his distaste for them, because when he finishes them, he may gratify his constructive instinct at the manual-training bench. It is through this pushing forward of the instinct — this delayed gratification — that the first steps are taken away from primitive passive attention, and the first step is made toward active attention and the conquest l62 HUMAN BEHAVIOR of immediate desire. But education must not content itself with conquests that reach no further than this. It must start with these, but it must soon get beyond them. Other ideas, uncormected with instincts, must be endowed with feeling and thus given strength to over- come immediate tendencies. The boy must come in time to work steadfastly at a given problem or a given task, even if a primitive desire is not to be gratified either immediately or in the future. In other words, the most effective ideal that man has ever conceived is the one that is farthest removed from the primitive sanc- tions. It is the ideal of Duty, and the individual who does not form an effective ideal of duty in his early Ufe will find it hard to adjust himself satisfactorily to a world that gives its richest rewards only to those who are able to hold themselves in leash through the storm and stress of struggle and temptation. It is only when a man works from motives of duty that one can depend upon him without question. Though this ideal be strong, he may fail to carry his message and bring back an answer, but this failure will be due simply and solely to the limitations of his nature. But when a man has lived through his early life accustomed to shirk tasks that are distasteful or for which he can see no gain to himself, he is certain not to be dependable. He may carry the message and bring back the answer if he wants to or if the reward is clear and tangible ; but in the important crises, he will fail. It is one of the serious defects of HOW INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAY BE CHANGED 163 modern educational theory that it has been blind to this principle. Definitions and Explanation of Teems Used Modification of instincts. — Changing the character of an instinctive activity by (i) attaching another feel- ing and its appropriate response to an object that nat- urally arouses an undesirable instinct; (2) attaching another response to an object and the feeling that it naturally arouses ; or (3) detaching a feeling from its natural object and response, and attaching it to other objects and responses. Sublimation of instinct. — Modification of the third type described above. Doctrine of natural punishments. — The theory that the unguided experience of the child wiU lead to the essential modification of instinctive tendencies. Ideal. — An idea surcharged with feeling, and thus made an effective end or goal of conduct. Questions and Exercises 1. What is meant by the statement : " Man, in order to be man, must get beyond instinct." 2. Describe and illustrate the three ways of modifying instinct. Illustrate the following terms used in the discussion: "Object arousing instinctive activity"; "Feeling normally accompanying instinct"; "Response." 3. Find in your own experience instances of the modification of instinctive tendencies through the discipline of unpleasant con- sequences. Did the "memory" of the consequences thereafter 164 HUMAN BEHAVIOR "fuse" immediately with the object or situation, or did the painful experience have to be recalled explicitly in order to inhibit the tendency ? 4. What is meant by the doctrine of natural punishments ? With whose name is the doctrine associated? State some cases in which it may be wise to leave the discipline of the child to "nat- ural consequences.'' What are the limitations of this doctrine? 5. From your own experience, what type of incentives would you judge to be the more powerful, — • those involving fear of unpleasant consequences, or those involving hope of reward? 6. What standards of honor is it essential to develop in order to cotinteract the dangers involved in competition ? 7. Name some forms of competition that may be permitted in school work. Under what circumstances is such competition likely to become dangerous ? 8. What is meant by "sublimating" an instinct? In what ways may the energy generated by the strong "fighting" and "property" instincts be turned into desirable channels? 9. In what way does active attention mean a conquest of in- stinct? Define the term "ideal." Name the ideals that have been particularly important in the development of the race. Show how these have represented a conquest over instinct or "nature." (These ideals are typically represented by the various virtues: honesty, charity, forgiveness, chastity, temperance, industry, duty, etc.). CHAPTER XI HABITUAL BEHAVIOR AND THE LAW OF HABIT-BUILDING In the last three chapters, two t)T)es of behavior that occur without the direction of consciousness have been discussed, — namely, reflex behavior and instinctive behavior. It was pointed out that inherited connec- tions in the nervous system condition these two types of behavior. The present chapter will be concerned with another class of automatic or mechanical responses, — habits. Habit Contrasted with Instinctive Behavior. — Habit resembles instinctive behavior in two important par- ticulars. In the first place, it is not controlled by con- sciousness, and is to be looked upon as due to paths of preferred conduction in a chain of sensory and motor neurones. In the second place, hke instinct it often has important conscious accompaniments, especially of an affective character. The important difference between habit and instinct lies in a difference of origin. This difference is best ex- pressed by saying that habits are acquired, while instincts are innate or inherited. The connections between neurones which give rise to habits are made during the Hfetime of i6s 1 66 HUMAN BEHAVIOR the individual and through his own experience in react- ing to the world about him. The connections between neurones that give rise to instincts are either born with the individual or, if they appear after birth, they are due to tendencies which are inborn. Instincts, then, are fairly constant with aU members of the same species, varying only in intensity ; habits, on the other hand, vary in kind with different individuals. The animal that de- pends chiefly upon instinct is suited only to a narrow range of life ; it must live in the environment for which its in- stincts fit it. The animal that has the power to modify instincts and to form habits can adapt itself to varying or changing environments. The Affective Element in Habit: the " Propensity." — The intimate relation between instinctive behavior and feeling or affection has already been emphasized. Since habits have so many resemblances to instincts, it is not surprising to find that the expression of a habit, like the expression of an instinct, is frequently accompanied by a pleasurable affective tone. A complex habit, indeed, becomes pleasurable as it becomes automatic. The dif- ficult feats of skill which are acqmred through a period of intense and often disagreeable effort come to be sources of enjoyment; just "going through the move- ment " is often a piure delightr The fascination which games of skill possess for the initiated illustrates this principle. The beginner finds the complicated movements involved in playing golf, tennis, or billiards difficult to HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 167 master ; he becomes discouraged and is often tempted to give up the task and seek his recreation in something else. But gradually, as the art is acquired, the impleasant factors are eliminated ; and when the activities have become fairly automatic and mechanical, a real pleasure attaches to them. The same transition from a stage of unpleasantness to pleasantness and even fascination is to be observed in the growth of almost every habit. The cold morn- ing bath is ordinarily not only unpleasant but highly disagreeable to the beginner; but continued practice makes it a thoroughly gratifying exercise. The novice at the piano looks upon the weary hours of practice as the last word in drudgery ; but once the technique is mastered, — once the adjustments have become auto- matic, — playing becomes a source of pleasure. This affective " propensity" of habits is most dearly recognized, however, when the customary expression or activity is interfered with. Our routine is broken up ; the stimulus that ordinarily " sets off " a series of move- ments is prevented from doing so ; and we feel irritated, ill at ease, out of harmony with our surroundings. Indeed, if the break is sudden and unexpected, — if an unlooked- for situation comes between the stimulus and the habit- ual response, — a period of emotional excitement may ensue, precisely as it does when a strong instinctive tendency is suddenly " blocked." The Importance of Habit-formation. — In one sense, the whole process of education culminates in the for- mation of useful habits, — in the acquisition by the iu- dividual of certain forms of behavior which will adapt or adjust him to the life which he is to lead. As will be pointed out later, however, education in the school 1 68 HUMAN BEHAVIOR and home cannot form all of the useful habits that the individual will need, for the conditions of life are con- tinually changing, and neither the teacher nor the parent can predict with certainty just what habits will be needed in the mature Hfe of the individual. Hence, wMle all education may culminate in habit, it does not foUow that school education does nothing but form habits. A very important part of its duty is to prepare the child to form habits for himself when he needs them, — to furnish him with conscious guides to behavior which will permit him to meet new situations, — as well as to fix permanent and rigid habits which will control his conduct in the imchanging situations. It is with the latter problem, however, that the present chapter is especially concerned. The Law of Habit-formation. — The process of habit- forming in education may be stated under three heads : (i) focalization of consciousness upon the combination of movements to be made automatic ; (2) attentive repe- tition of this behavior; (3) permitting no exceptions to occur until the habit has been estabUshed. (i) Focalization. — This reaUy means gaining a clear idea of the way in which the different muscles must work together in order to form the habit. Very frequently the teacher gives a demonstration of the appropriate movements, making certain that the pupUs repeat the movements in the same way, and thus get the "feel " of the new adjustment. HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 169 The "Montessori" method of primary education employs some ingenious devices for insuring eSective focalization. When the child is learning to write, for example, he is given blocks upon which are pasted letters cut from a fine-grained sandpaper. With the tip of the finger the child is taught to trace the letters as they are written. He follows the sandpapered fines with the finger, the sHght "tickle" of the paper proving an effective incentive im- peUing him to repeat the movement until the proper coordination of the muscles has been mastered. Habits may also be initiated by the process of " trial and error " described in Chapter II. The individual " blunders " about in trjdng to solve a situation, and finally " hits upon " the fortunate combination of move-^ ments that wiU meet his purpose. This successful method stands out from the others simply because it is successful. He repeats it readily and the habit may be quickly established. In general, however, this method is of only sHght importance in education. As will be shown later, it is essential to economy of habit-forma- tion to begin with the most effective and economical adjustment and not to run the risk of permitting inade- quate habits to be formed. It has been said that fully two thirds of the drill work of the teacher in the elemen- tary school is given over to the breaking of inadequate habits that the child has been permitted to form. One way to reduce this waste in education is to see to it that the right habits are formed first. (2) Attentive Repetition. — No habit can be formed without repetition. The combination of movements 170 HUMAN BEHAVIOR constituting the habit must be repeated over and over again until the neurones are permanently connected. Furthermore, mere repetition, if not ineffective, is at least uneconomical. Attention must he given to the repe- titions. Among the lower animals, it is often impossible to secure such attention, and for this reason the habits that can be formed are very simple in their nature and a longer time must be spent in their acquisition. Drill is necessary in learning, but it should never be lifeless, mechanical drill. The learner must be conscious of his failures, of his inadequacies, but it is even more important that his successful efforts should be recog- nized and commended. The necessity for securing attention to the repetitions involved in habit-formation is recognized by skillful teachers in the inven- tion of demces which will insure the pupils' interest in the work, and relieve the monotony which is otherwise inevitable . A device is a means of varying the work in some of its non-essential or superficial details, while, at the same time, the fundamental adjustments or movements are preserved. Thus, in making automatic the asso- ciations represented by the "tables" in arithmetic, dififerent types of problems are introduced ; the difference, however, is in the de- tails ; the fundamental relations of the numbers are stiU preserved. Spelling, as a habit-building process, consists in making auto- matic the sequence of letters in words. In English spelling, these sequences must in many cases be mastered literally by "main strength," for there are very few rules that will aid one. The spelling of each word, then, becomes as it were a separate habit, and the problem in teaching spelling is first to focalize the form effectively, and then to insure attentive repetition until the proper order of the letters has become " second nature." Devices for sus- HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 171 taining attention are particularly important here, and one of the most effective of these devices is the spelling match. Here the strong instinct of rivalry is brought into the service of habit-forma- tion, impelling the individual to repeat attentively that he may later make a good record either for his own advancement over others or for the honor of his "side." In general, ''marks" and "grades" may be looked upon as devices for impelling the pupil to give the necessary effort to his work when the intrinsic and immediate interest in it has died away. (3) Permitting no Exceptions. — In establishing a new habit, especially when it opposes, as it often does, an old habit that must be uprooted, or when it opposes a strong instinct, it is essential that no exception to the desired behavior be permitted, and especially that there be no relapse to the older habit or to the in- stinctive response. While this principle is important in all phases of habit-formation, it has been emphasized most frequently in cormection with the so-called " moral " habits. The reformed drimkard must not allow himself to take even " one glass " ; for, if a return to the older habit is initiated, it will be harder than ever to break loose from its shackles. One of the most important applications of this prin- ciple in education is to undertake only a few habit-build- ing processes of the same sort at the same time. In spelling, for example, it is well to take up only two or three new words at a time, to focalize these adequately, and to keep recurring to them until they are thoroughly mastered. In correcting inadequate or ungrammatical 172 HUMAN BEHAVIOR habits of speech it is also essential to proceed systemati- cally, one error at a time, keeping the correct form con- stantly before the pupils, and seeing to it that it is used in place of the incorrect form. The Importance of Initiative or " Motivation " in Habit-formation. — The law of habit-formation, which is involved in the three principles discussed above, should be appHed with a full knowledge of certain general characteristics of the habit-building process and of the conditions under which habits are economically estab- lished. The first of these more general conditions is illustrated in all three of the principles just discussed. The attitude which one takes toward the habit to be formed is a fundamental factor in the efficiency of the habit-form- ing process. If one is imbued with a strong desire to master the new habit, it is clear that one will focalize it more carefully, repeat it more attentively, and avoid exceptions more zealously than if there is no particular interest in its formation, — hence the importance of insuring in the pupil a strong motive for thoroughly mastering the new adjustment. This may be accompHshed in several ways, each of which, however, is more easily described than apphed. It is sometimes possible to show the pupil the need for the new adjustment, and thus provide him with what is called a " natural " motive for making it automatic. If the pupil realizes, for example, that perfecting his speech forms wiU enable him to communicate more ef- HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 1 73 fectively, he will have a natural motive for the study and repetition essential to this end. If he can see that an absolutely automatic mastery of the addition and mul- tiplication tables will save time and money in his busi- ness relationships, he will have a natural motive for undergoing patiently and persistently the necessary drill. Motives May be Closely Related to the Child's Life and Interests. — It is obvious, however, that these nat- ural motives which relate directly to the hfe-acti\dty for which the special training in question prepares, can be used only occasionally in the lower schools, for the reason that the pupil cannot always appreciate and un- derstand the ultimate value of the material that he is asked to learn. It becomes necessary, then, to introduce other types of motive, similar to the devices referred to above. The practice approved at the present time by most educa- tors is to emphasize, as far as possible, motives that relate clearly and closely to the child's own immediate interests and childish needs. Thus the teacher who wishes to emphasize the importance of serious work in lan- guage may interest his pupils in a correspondence club formed in cooperation with another school. Or a school exhibition or entertainment may be planned, and the pupils asked to write the invitations to their parents and other members of the community. They may even work out, write, and learn the speaking parts of a drama. The importance of the arithmetic drills may be im- 174 HUMAN BEHAVIOR pressed by showing how essential is accurate and clear-cut number work to good results in manual training. In any case, it is essential to stimulate the " will to do," and the teacher who can successfully attain this end is pretty certain to accomplish good results in the habit studies. The Importance of the Right Start. — The economy of initiating the desired habit in its simplest and most eco- nomical form has already been referred to. Many teachers in the departmental work of the high school or the college prefer that, in the special subjects which they teach, the students who come to them should have had no previous training. This attitude is an imphcit recognition of the dangers that the wrong start involves. A great deal of the criticism that the schools meet from business men who employ public-school graduates is due to the fact that — along with the valuable habits that the school has implanted — certain very undesir- able modes of behavior have been permitted to become habitual. Sometimes these are represented by clumsy and uneconomical methods of writing and computation ; more frequently it is the moral habits that are defective. The boy has not been " disciplined " into habits of obe- dience, promptness, industry, and respect for those in authority ; and his bad habits must be uprooted before he can do his work properly. The Phenomenon of Interference in Habit-formation. — When habits that are in the process of formation con- HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 175 flict in certain of their elements, it is necessary that these be continued until they are firmly established; otherwise they wiU mutually destroy one another. This fact of " interference " has long been recognized, and recently an attempt has been made by actual experi- ment to find out more precisely just how this interfer- ence operates. It has been found that, at the outset of the process of forming two conflicting habits, the learning of either is not so rapid as if it were being mas- tered alone. After the lapse of some time, however, both are as firmly estabHshed as if they had not been in conflict at the outset, and in the aggregate no time is lost because of the original interference. The learning of two foreign languages during the same period of time is a case in point At the outset there is a danger of confusing the vocabularies and idioms, but if the practice in both is con- tinued, an effective mastery wiU be attained. The person who has learned both French and German until he can speak either fluently does not confuse the two tongues. For each he has a definite set of habitual associations, represented in the nervous system by separate sets of connected neurones. The practical significance of these principles may be formulated as follows : Never begin the mastery of two conflicting types of behavior imless both can be continued long enough to become permanentiy established habits. The "Practice Curve" and its " Plateaus. " — At the outset of forming a new habit, the rate of learning is rapid. It then progresses more slowly, and there are periods of no improvement, and sometimes periods of relapse when the learning goes back to an earlier and 176 HUMAN BEHAVIOR less perfect stage. If the learner persist in his effort, these periods of no progress may give place to periods of rapid growth. Periods of growth thus commonly alternate with stationary periods, giving rise to what is technically known as the " practice curve." What is pictured in this curve is the growth of the habit from its earhest beginning to a point where it has reached a fairly perfect form. The initial growth is very rapid; the later growth is relatively slow ; and the curve gradually " flattens out," representing the plane of maximal effi- ciency in the habit. The places in the curve represent- ing the intermediate periods of no growth, or of actual loss in progress previously made, are known as " pla- teaus." The Significance of Plateaus in Habit-formation. — The periods when growth is slow and halting or, indeed, non-existent, are critical for the learner, since he is likely at such times to become confused and discouraged, and to give up entirely the discipline that is essential to further growth. In practically all subjects involving habit-formation, the initial stages are interesting first on accoimt of their novelty, and secondly on account of the relative ease with which some skill — trifling in amount and yet gratify- ing to the learner — may be attained. There comes a period, however, when difficulties increase, and prog- ress is greatly retarded. The pupil who has foimd it rather easy to work out manual training projects in- HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 1 77 volving only the simplest operations, comes to a project which requires the making of nicely fitting joints. He must now climb to a higher plane of skill, and the diffi- culty of making this advance stands out sharp and clear against the relative ease of his early conquests. The stu- dent of telegraphy may have Uttle trouble in "sending " ten or fifteen words a minute, but to increase his speed to the point where he can send twenty or thirty seems to take much more than double the time and effort required for the simpler achievement. The young teacher may quickly reach the point where her supervisor will grade her instruction and disciphne as " B," but years of strenu- ous and persistent work may be necessary before the grade month after month is recorded as " A plus." The Treatment of Habit on the "Plateau " Stage.— It is a matter of controversy among psychologists whether these plateaus of growth are really essential in the prac- tice curve, or whether they may not be avoided if proper precautions are taken. In other words, if the teacher did his work perfectly, would not these halting places in the progress of pupils disappear, and would not the curve of growth be represented by a steady upward sweep, with no " flattened " places, and no periods of actual relapse? This question cannot be answered at the present time, but it should be insisted that the teacher may take cer- tain steps to render these plateaus less disastrous than they would be otherwise. In the first place, the pupil 178 HUMAN BEHAVIOR may be encouraged to persevere, even if he has reached a plateau of growth. Or, if the conditions warrant such a course, he may be encouraged to drop his task for a while and to come back to it later, for frequently lack of progress is due to fatigue, and a rest will restore the capacity for growth to its original efficiency. Again the teacher may see to it that the learning proceeds by carefully graded steps ; that the learner does not attempt a new set of habits or a new t3^e of skill until he is ready for it. It is important in this connection that the types of skill with which the school deals should be analyzed into their component habit-elements, in order that these elements may be mastered systematically. One point of excellence in the "Montessori" methods has in the fact that the complex habits, such as those involved in writing, have been carefully analyzed, the simpler habit-elements dissected out, as it were, and the means devised for insuring that the pupU masters each element in order, — the simpler before the more complex. Finally, the teacher may see to it that one of the chief factors in success has a chance to operate, — namely, self-confidence in one's ability to do the work, to solve the problem, to master the skill. There is some danger here that the child may come to depend too much upon praise and adulation, and to become discoxuraged if praise is not forthcoming when he thinks that it should be. But between excessive praise which would lead to this result and the absence of all commendation, which deadens every one save the genius, there is a happy HABITUAL BEHAVIOR 1 79 medium which the intelligent teacher will quickly rec- ognize. The Importance of Intense Effort. — In forming a new habit, the learner should, at times, put forth the greatest effort of which he is capable. It often happens that, in these periods of unusual effort, a higher degree of eflBciency is reached than could possibly be attained otherwise ; and when this level is once reached, it gives the learner confidence to persevere until he can maintain it permanently. The distinction between the expert and the mediocre workman is often found in the abiHty of the former to reach this level of maximal efficiency and to maintain himself upon this level. The difiference between the poorly paid office stenographer and the successful court reporter is a difference between these two levels of perfection. It is the circumstance of a little greater accuracy and a little greater rapidity that makes one person an expert and another a drudge. The practice of the schools to devote certain brief periods each day to intensely concentrated, "rapid-fire" drills in arithmetic and other subjects is to be commended from the point of view provided by this principle. It is the intense effort that educates. Rapidity vs. Accuracy in Habit-formation. — It is a fact of common observation that " Haste inakes waste." There is a point in every stage of learning beyond which the rapidity with which the work is done will be the source of many errors. While it is desirable to " speed up " the learning occasionally, it would be unfortunate to continue this excessive speed at the ex- l8o HUMAN BEHAVIOR pen3e of accuracy in performance. Continued errors and unskillful methods of work soon become permanently fixed, and then a high grade of attainment is impossible. The learner should be encouraged to keep to as high a level of rapidity as is consistent with accurate results, but should not be urged to work so rapidly that the results will be inferior. Slow learning does not necessarily mean that the work is being done in a careful manner. Many pupils learn slowly largely be- cause they are indolent and inattentive. These should be stimu- lated to do more rapid work. Their slowness in no way pro- motes efficiency. In the ideal school, where each teacher wiU have only as many pupils as he can teach effectively, it wiU be possible to study each pupil as an individual to determine the conditions imder which he can work best. The Specific Character of Habits. — Habits are spe- cific. They consist in doing certain definite activities in certain definite ways. The term " general habit " has been a source of confusion in educational theory ; and while there is some justification for employing the word in connection with habitual attitudes of mind and body, it wiU promote clear thinking to confine the word " habit" to the specific responses to specific situations or .stimiili. The specific character of habits might be inferred from the physi- cal basis which has been assumed for these modes of behavior, — that is, the formation of preferred paths of conduction among defi- nite groups of neurones. This implies that the excitation must move in one direction, and only one. When there is a possibility of the excitation taking various courses, then the habit has not been completely established; and hesitation and conscious direction HABITUAL BEHAVIOR l8l must intervene. A fully established habit is one in which the path between stimulation and response is fixed, and in which the resulting behavior is definite and certain. The " Transfer " of Habits. — Upon the question of the possibiHty of transferring a specific habit from the situation in which it has been formed to another situa- tion, there has been a great deal of controversy which has led in recent years to careful experiments. Much work still needs to be done in this field before we may con- fidently lay down general laws, but, pending thoroughly valid conclusions, certain hypotheses for the guidance of practice may be drawn from the facts now at oiu: com- mand. (i) Transfer through " Identical Elements." — In the first place, it has been shown by experiment that habits built up as responses to certain situations may " spread " as habits to other situations if the latter have numerous or significant points of identity with the former. By the spread of habits " as habits," we mean that the re- sponse in the new situation is thoroughly automatic and mechanical; the individual does not have con- sciously to lift the old habit out of its old setting and apply it to the new situation. Let us suppose that the child has formed in connection with his school life the specific habits of prompt and regular attendance. He goes to school "on time" and he goes each day. He does not "think" about these things, but when the time comes for going tf school, he picks up his books and starts off. It is needless to say