Character And Temperament (Paperback)

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT BY JOSEPH JASTROW PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY UXIVERSITT OF WISCONSIN NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Printed in the United States of America ( 210 Chr Imtrcraig of A PIONEER IN THE ACADEMIC RECOGNITION OF PSYCHOLOGY INTRODUCTION TO THE CONDUCT OF MIND SERIES It is the purpose of the series to provide readily intelligible surveys of selected aspects of the study of mind and of its applications. In this self-conscious age, inquiring minutely into the nature of the forces that direct the endeavors of men, psy chology has come to its own. Recent advances have made possible definite and enlightening accounts of the mental processes; the psychological laboratory has refined, extended, and controlled the data; the evolutionary conception has coordinated conclu sions derived from widely different sources. Particularly has the psychology of the social relations been given a central posi tion in the practical world, where endowment, motive, and cir cumstance meet. The emotional as well as the intellectual, the aesthetic as well as the moral, the occupational as well as the relational impulses and expressions of men have been duly recognized as part of the psychological endowment as integral aspects of human nature. The desire to apply this knowledge reflects the stress of the practical temper; the need of adaptation of the mental equipment to the complex conditions of modern life is insistent. Mental economy enforces the importance of shaping career to capacity; the conservation of mental resources enters vitally into the prob lems of national welfare. The variedliability of the mind to defect and decay, to distortion and vagary, to degeneration and reversion, sets in relief the critical importance of sanity, which is a eugenic endowment exercised in a wholesome environment. From these several sources there has resulted a sense of psy chological value by which to gauge the worth of the educational and cultural provisions which society organizes for the mainte nance of its cherished ends. Furthermore, the ready intercourse of mankind has conferred a cosmopolitan and an humanitarian outlook, mingling and comparing, while yet contrasting, national and local standards and ideals. The products of intellectual, as viii INTRODUCTION of other achievements, are seen to belong not to one race or one era or to one order of culture. The beginnings of mind the animal world, the growth of mind in childhood and in tlu race, contribute notably to broaden the conception of its mature capacity and its potential future. To set forth and interpret the significant conclusions within this engaging realm forms the dominant motive of the present undertaking. The project, if too ambitiously conceived, invites failure. The practicable procedure favors the selection of a modest aspect or phase of the psychological domain, and its presentation as a concrete contribution upon which the larger illumination of a comprehensive survey has been brought to bear. The importance of principle is to be emphasized through out. In simple situations a shrewd empirical tact suffices; in complex ones sound practice is more and more dependent upon sound theory. Knowledge of principles is needed to offset the limitations of experience and the narrowness of interests; the corrective ofapplication is needed to make principles real and vital. The search for panaceas as for rules of thumb is futile; yet the desire for a royal road to learning has a strange attrac tion for the direct democratic temper. Psychology, like all science, exacts a patient analysis, which discountenances a too ready leap at conclusions and hasty application. Yet science does well to utilize the actual interests of men, to build upon them the knowledge that makes for power. To supply the foundation in principle for the guidance of practice is to be the consistent motive in the several