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.

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    of these experiments are summarized by Aleehsieff in the follow¬ ing scheme adapted from Wundt: — Pulse Retarded Strengthened Pleasure Tension Quiescence Quickened Weakened Quickened Weakened Strengthened Excite¬ ment Retarded Quickened Weakened I I Relaxa- Unpleas- TION ANTNESS Retarded Strengthened Breathing The Wundtian conclusion from both sorts of evidence is the following: Experiences which are thus shown to be, on the one hand, introspectively elemental, distinct, and independently variable and, on the other hand, accompanied by clearly dif¬ ferentiated yet coordinated circulatory and respiratory phenom¬ ena, are elements of consciousness belonging in a class together. Therefore tension-relaxation and excitement-quiescence form, with pleasantness-unpleasantness, the enlarged class of the 1 feelings (.Gefuhle).’ This doctrine has, however, found little favor outside the nar¬ row circle of Wundt’s fellow-workers and students. Against the Wundtian arguments from experiment it is rightly urged that the outcome of experiment is far from conclusive in Wundt’s favor, and that even experiments undertaken from the same theoretical standpoint as Alechsieff’s issue in results of a very conflicting nature.* In default of experiment we are thrown back on introspection and, on this basis, the writer of this book agrees with the opponents of Wundt that elemental affective elements — or feeling-elements strictly coordinate with pleasant- * Cf. Aleehsieff, op. cit., p. 1752 et al, for admission of the opposing results of experimental investigations of the breathing. For Alechsieff’s attempts at explanation, cf. op. cit., p. 207; also pp. 180-200. For the report of experi¬ ments carried on in the Cornell laboratory indicating, in opposition to Alech- sieff, that the alleged elements do not vary independently, cf. Hayes and Titchener, cited below.
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