Applied psychology / by H.L. Hollingworth and A.T. Poffenberger.

  • Harry L. Hollingworth
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Applied psychology / by H.L. Hollingworth and A.T. Poffenberger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    aid to the understanding of behavior, instead of the reverse. In fact, there is a more extreme stage than this, among those who call themselves behaviorists. These men ignore consciousness altogether, and maintain that no help can be derived therefrom. Psychology then becomes the study of behavior, the study of the situations in which persons find them- selves, and the responses which they make to these situations. It is evident that this kind of study can be made as well on the lowest forms of animal life as on human beings. Indeed, it can be more easily studied in the lowest organisms, where the situa- tions and the responses are most simple, and in this realm the behavior psychologist has done the greater part of his work. The reason for the great change of emphasis from consciousness to behavior is not alone the difficulty in building up a system of theoretical psychology, but the change must be due in part to demands of practical life. So far as the latter are concerned, it is the behavior of men that is important; it is human action and not human consciousness with which one has to deal. Of course, behavior is here used in a broad sense, and includes not only the gross bodily movements but also the class of bodily responses that we call language. A man’s whole life consists in a process of adjustment to his en- vironment, a series of responses to situations, of forms of behavior. To be a success or failure means to. succeed or to fail to adjust oneself to one’s en-
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