Outlines of psychology : with special reference to the theory of education / by James Sully.

  • James Sully
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of psychology : with special reference to the theory of education / by James Sully. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    born 01 European parents would be higher than those of a child of a low and backward race.^ External Factor. In the second place the develop- ment of an individual mind implies the presence and co-operation of the External Factor, or the Environ- ment. By this we mean in the first place the physical environment or natural surroundings. The growth of intellect feeling and will is as we have seen conditioned by the action of the several physical agencies, by the form and arrangement of things making wp our natural habitat. The contents and the order of arrangement of the environment thus help to determine the form of our mental life. The Social Environment. In addition to what we commonly call the Natural or Physical Environment there is the Social Environment. By this we mean the society of which the individual is a member, with which he holds certain relations, and by which he is profoundly influenced. The Social Medium, like the Physical, affects the individual mind through sense- impressions (sig] .ts and sounds); yet its action differs from that of the natural surroundings in being a moral influence. It works through the forces which bind man to man, such as imitation, sympathy, and the sentiment of obedience or authority. The presence of a social medium is necessary to a full normal development of mind. If it were possible 1 This idea of a gi-adually increasing native capability is essentially a modern one, being a prominent feature of the theory of Evolution. Locke and the older psychologists argued as if all minds, whatever the stage of civilisation reached, were equally endowed at birth. For a fuller exposition of tht laws of heredity the reader is referred to Mr. Spencer's Principles of Biolofiy, Tart II., Chap. VIII., and M. Ribot's volume On Heredity.
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