A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins.

  • Mary Whiton Calkins
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    107/446 page 89
    same jaw-movements whenever I eat, and I hold and move my pen in the same fashion every day. These habitual movements are, it should be noticed, of twofold origin — instinctive or acquired.1 * My pen-movements have been ac¬ quired, that is, learned. The movements which I make in eating are, on the other hand, instinctive; and this means that they are not acquired. So, a baby instinctively moves its hands and eyes, but it acquires the movements of con¬ vergence and of grasping with both hands; and a duck in¬ stinctively enters the water, but learns by imitation to drink. Instinctive reactions are racially hereditary and are severally characteristic of different animal groups. By far the greater number of them become habitual, but some instinctive acts — for example, the egg-laying of certain insects — are but once performed. Instinctive reactions may be classified, further, as movements of withdrawal or of approach ; and move¬ ments of approach are either antagonistic or cooperative. Acquired reactions are of two main types: movements learned by imitation and reactions learned through purely individual experience.2 (3) From the habitualness of the perceptual reaction follows a noticeable character: its relative immediacy. The reaction which accompanies not only perception but also many forms of imagination, and even certain kinds of thinking, is rela¬ tively immediate as compared with the reactions distinguish¬ ing reasoning and choice. The distinction between imme¬ diate and delayed activity is, to be sure, relative and not ab¬ solute, but is readily made between extremes of the two classes. Hold out an apple — or, for that matter, a caterpillar — to * These Arabic numerals, throughout this chapter, refer to numbered divisions of the Appendix, Section V.
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