Psychological Bulletin (volume 1)

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904. Excerpt: ... THE PROVINCE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY.1 By W. I. THOMAS. University of Chicago. There is at present a tendency to agree that there is no, social mind and no social psychology apart from individual mind and individual psychology; at the same time individual mind cannot be understood apart from the social environment, and society cannot be understood apart from the operation of individual mind, and there is growing up a social psychology, whose study is individual mental processes in so far as they are conditioned by society and social processes in so far as they are conditioned by states of consciousness. If instead of claiming for social psychology a separate class of phenomena we regard it as an extension of individual psychology to the phenomena of collective life, we have an important set of problems not included in the programs of other sciences. Among these problems are the following: (i) An examination of the crises or incidents, like famine, pestilence, defeat in battle, dreams, swooning, intoxication, birth, puberty, death, theft, assault, magical practice, etc., which have changed the direction of attention and modified the habits of the group and individual; and the manner in which these crises are connected with the development of morality, religion, custom, myth, invention, and art on the one hand, and with the medicine-man, the priest, lawgiver, judge, physician, artist, philosopher, teacher, and investigator on the other. (2) The influence of the great men in breaking up old habits in the group and establishing new ones. (3) The influence of contact with outsiders in modifying the states of consciousness of a group, and the rate at which a lower race may receive suggestion from a higher without being disorganized. (4) The psychology of social or...