3 This list is identical with James' list of coarser emotions except for the omission of grief, which James puts first. Grief we look upon as being a reactive state (connected with love, really) in which the object or situa^ tion which usually calls out in the subject the reactions of love is suddenly .removed. The state of grief must be looked upon as a mal-adjustment period, where the objects and situations which have usually called out both the original love responses and the conditioned reflexes built upon them are lacking. The 'state (in normal cases) disappears as soon as new objects are found or new conditioned reflexes have been entrained, 200 PSYCHOLOGY 200 PSYCHOLOGY (3) above may be looked upon as belonging under (1). The re- sponses are a sudden catching of the breath, clutching randomly with the hands (the grasping reflex invariably appearing when the child is dropped), sudden closing of the eye-lids, puckering of the lips, then crying; in older children possibly flight and hiding (not yet observed by us as "original" reactions). In regard to the age at which fear responses first appear, we can state with some sureness that the above mentioned group of reac- tions appears at birth. It is often stated that children are instinctively afraid in the dark. "While we shall advance our opinion with the greatest caution, we have not so far been able to gather any evidence to this effect (page 206). When such reac- tions to darkness do appear they are due to other causes;- darkness comes to be associated with absence of customary stimulation, noises, etc. (they should be looked upon as conditioned fear reactions). From time immemorial children have been "scared" in the dark, either unintentionally or as a means of controlling them (this is especially true of children reared in the South).
Rage. — In a similar way the question arises as to what is the original situation which brings out the activities seen in rage. Observation seems to show that the hampering of the infant's movements is the factor which apart from all training brings out the movements characterized as rage. If the face or head is held, crying results, quickly followed by screaming. The body stiffens and fairly well-coordinated slashing or striking move- ments of the hands and arms result; the feet and legs are drawn up and down; the breath1 is held until the child's face is flushed. In older children the slashing movements of the arms and legs are better coordinated, and appear as kicking, slapping, push- ing, etc. These reactions continue until the irritating situation is relieved, and sometimes do not cease then. Almost any child from birth can be thrown into a rage if its arms are held tightly to its sides; sometimes even if the elbow joint is clasped tightly between the fingers the response appears; at times just the plac-' ing of the head between cotton pads will produce it. This was noticed repeatedly when testing eye coordinations in infants under ten days of age. The slight constraint put upon the head HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: EMOTIONS 201 by the soft pads would often result in a disturbance so great that the experiment had to be discontinued for a time.
Love. — The original situation which calls out the observable love responses seemsi to be the stroking or manipulation of some erogenous zone, tickling, shaking, gentle rocking, patting and turning upon the stomach across the attendant's knee. The re- sponse varies. If the infant is crying, crying ceases, a smile may appear, attempts at gurgling, cooing, and finally, in slightly older children, the extension of the arms, which we should class as the forerunner of the embrace of adults. The smile and the laugh which Freud connects with the release of repression (we are not denying in the case of adults this may be true) we should thus class as original reaction tendencies intimately connected from infancy with the stimulation of, in our opinion at least, the erogenous zones.
These types fit fairly well the general formulation we gave on page 195. There is a reaction pattern; there is a definite stimu- lus, which has its peculiarly exciting character (the reason for which must be sought in biology); the radius of action is small; no particular adjustment is made to any object in the environ- ment. It is admitted, however, that the rpap™^^ contain both explicit and implicit components, that is, jrivnlvp thp skeletal t.hp. visppral system tfr<* girmntli rm^gles and glands.
It is probable, though, that if the exciting stimulus were suffi- ciently strong — strong enough to produce " shock" — or if con- tinued for a sufficient length of time, the subject would tend to take on more and more the purely vegetative type of existence illustrated by the example of the young tern. In rage, the child becomes so stiff, and holds its breath for such a long time, that it is often necessary to soothe it. The final ^tajo-p ir> any great eino- lj(m_would seem to be paralysis or thp "rfca-tli fei^t. ' ' Approxi- mations to this condition are seen in the paralysis of fear, in the fainting nr^pv strong emotional eyftitpTnmrh, in the stereotyped reactions of the stmfig prir| TY)artyrg wliPn fh°y rmflinfthl'Tlgly PT1- Individuals on the- battlefield, likewise, are able to withstand operations, wounds, and injuries without complaint. It must be admitted that there is a constant tendency for the 202 PSYCHOLOGY organized habit response of the individual to disappear under the extremes of emotion. So far as we can see, this tendency towards stereotypy, paralysis or_t.hft death fpint unrle¥-4ke-Jm- mediate effect of a strong emotionaLpycitemftnt ha,s no biological or^ adaptive value (see page 221, however, on post-emotional state). The organism exhibiting it is at the mercy of its enemies, whether on the battlefield or in the struggle for food among sav- age tribes, and is at a disadvantage in the race for a much-sought- after woman, or in the fight for business and scientific reputation. Negative Results of Experimental Study. — Three babies from the Harriet Lane Hospital were put into various situations, the types of which are illustrated below, for the purpose of find- ing out whether there is a wider range of stimuli that may arouse an emotional reaction than the one we cited a moment ago. These babies represented splendid, healthy types. Their mothers were the wet nurses belonging to the hospital. They were 165, 126 and 124 days of age. The first two, whose ages are given, were put through the more numerous tests. The experiments are interesting for the reason that the babies had never been out of the hospital and had never seen an animal. A summary of the tests on Thorne, a girl 165 days of age, is given below.4 A very lively, friendly black cat was allowed to crawl near the baby. • She reached for it with both hands at once. The cat was purring loudly. She touched its nose, playing with it with her fingers. It was shown three times. Each time she reached with both hands for it, the left hand being rather more active. She reached for it when it was placed on a lounge before her but out of reach.
Then a pigeon in a paper bag was laid on the couch. The pigeon was struggling, and moving the bag about on the couch and making a loud rattling noise. The baby watched it intently but did not reach for it. The pigeon was taken out of the bag on the couch before her, cooing and struggling in the experimenter's hands. She reached for it again and again, and failing, of course, to get hold of it put her hands in her mouth each time. She was allowed to touch its head. The pigeon moved its head about with 4 Those experiments on the reactions of infants to various objects should be read again in connection with the theory of positive and negative reactions, p. 248. TJ will be noted that most of the responses were positive.
HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: EMOTIONS 203 quick, jerking movements. It was then held by its feet and al- lowed to nap its wings near the baby's face. She watched it intently, showing no tendency to avoid it, but did not reach for it. When the bird became quiet she reached for it, and caught hold of its beak with her left hand.
Test with a rabbit. The animal was put on a couch in front of her. (The child was sitting on her mother's lap.) She watched it very intently but did not reach for it until the experimenter held it in his hands close to her; then she reached for it imme- diately, catching one of its ears in her left hand, and attempted to put it into her mouth.
The last animal presented to her was a white rat. She paid little attention to it, only fixating it occasionally. She followed it with her eyes somewhat when it moved about the couch. When held out to her on the experimenter's arm, she turned her head away, no longer stimulated.
April 24, 172 days old. The baby was taken into a dark room with only an electric light behind her, not very bright (faint illumination). A stranger held the baby. The mother sat where she could not be seen. A dog was brought into the room and allowed to jump up on the couch beside her. The baby watched intently every move the dog made but did not attempt to reach for it. Then she turned her head aside. The front light was then turned up and the dog again exhibited. The infant watched very closely every move the dog and the experimenter made, but did not attempt to catch the dog. Exhibited no fear reactions, no matter how close the dog was made to come to her.
The black cat was then brought in (both lights on). The cat rubbed against the baby 's feet and put her front paws in the baby's lap, touching its nose to her hand. The baby watched intently and reached for it with her left hand. The front light was then turned out. The experimenter held the cat closer to her, and she reached for it with both hands.
Rabbit. She reached for it with both hands as soon as the experimenter came into the room with it in his arms. The front light was turned on. The rabbit was held out to her. She reached for it at once with both hands, trying to put her fingers in its eyes. She caught hold of a piece of fur above the rabbit '» eye and pulled hard.
Pigeon. The front light was turned out. She reached for the bird with her left hand before the experimenter was ready to pre- sent it to her. The pigeon 's wings were released and it fluttered violently just in front of the.baby's eyes. She continued to reach for it with both hands, even when the wings brushed her face.
204 PSYCHOLOGY When the bird was quiet it was presented to her again. She reached for it even more vigorously. She tried to take hold of the pigeon's beak with her left hand, but failed, because the bird continually bobbed its head. The front light was then turned on. The pigeon again napped wildly. The baby looked at it intently with widely opened eyes, but this time did not reach. She showed no fear, however. It was then held out to her again when it had become quiet. She reached for it at once with both hands, held the feathers and tried to put her fingers into its eyes.
April 27, 175 days old. The baby was placed in a small chair and tied in, and put behind a screen, so that she could not see any of the people in the room. The dog was allowed to walk suddenly around the screen in front of her. She showed no fear when the dog rubbed against her legs. She did not reach for him, however. While she was still in the same position, the experimenter held the pigeon in front of her and allowed it to flap its wings. She reached for it with both hands the moment it was presented to her, and did not withdraw her hands while the bird was flapping its wings. She continued to reach as the bird was moved out of her range.
The cat was then brought around the screen and placed on the couch just in front of the baby's chair. She did not reach for it, but followed it with her eyes. It was held very close to her. She reached for it with her left hand and touched its head. The cat was then moved away, but she continued to reach for it. Then the cat put its front feet in her lap. She reached with her left hand and followed with her right, touching its ears.
Rabbit. She reached with her left hand at once when the rabbit was still too far away to touch. When it came close to her she reached with her left hand and touched it.
She was then taken into the dark room with both lights turned out and seated in a small chair. A newspaper was lighted before her and allowed to burn in a large metal bucket. She watched it intently from the moment the match was struck until the flames died down. She showed no fear, but did not attempt to reach.5 While being tested in the large room for eye-hand coordina- tion, the dog suddenly began to bark at some one entering the room. He was quite near the baby. He barked loudly and .lumped about at the end of the leash. The baby became per- fectly still, watching intently with widely opened eyes, blinking at each bark, but did not cry.
5 When tested seven days later with this she wet her napkin, but no general fear reaction appeared (possibly normal bladder reflex).
HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: EMOTIONS 205 May ly 178 days old. She was taken out to Druid Hill Park in an 'automobile for the first time in her life. She was wide awake the whole time. She was carried rather rapidly through the grounds of the small zoo at the park. The camel was bray- ing and came up to the fence as we approached, rubbing rather violently against the fence, coming within a few feet of the baby. This produced no fear reaction and no constant fixation. She was then taken to the cages containing the cinnamon and black bears. She gazed at them from time to time, but with no constant fixation. We then took her into the monkey house which con- tained also a large number of parrots and other smaller birds. The monkeys came to the sides of the cage, and from time to time attacked the wires. Three or four times they came up and made threatening movements, and actually caught the experimenter by the arm. The child did not seem to be in the least afraid. The peacocks were making their rather uncanny sounds within twenty feet of her, but she did not turn her eyes towards the source of the sound. She was then taken back to the camel yard, and the camel again "performed" nicely. Two camels came up to each other and rubbed noses and put their heads over the dividing fence. The baby was within two or three inches of the camel's nose on several occasions, but while she followed the movements with her eyes, she showed no pronounced reactions of any kind. She was then taken to the Shetland pony, who put his nose through the wires and showed his teeth. She was within a few inches of his mouth. Outside of following move- ments of the eyes, no reactions were observable. She was taken near two zebras. They came to the edge of the fence, within a few inches of the baby. The zebras were possibly followed slightly more intently with the eyes, but there was no other ob- servable reaction. While the baby was watching the zebras an ostrich -came close to her and brought its head to the wire but did not strike the wire violently. During approximately half of the experiment the baby was carried by her mother and the rest of the time by the experimenter's secretary. She had never been carried by this individual before. At times the mother was kept out of the range of the baby 's vision.
Baby Nixon, a girl, 126 days of age, had just learned the eye- hand coordination. She was put through exactly the same series of situations. Slight differences appeared, e.g., when the cat rubbed its head against the baby's stomach, there was a distinct start, a tendency to stiffen. While the experimenter was out of the room getting the rabbit, three persons were left with the baby in the dark room (dim light), All were sitting very quietly.
206 PSYCHOLOGY She was being held by a stranger. Suddenly the baby began to cry, and had to be given to the mother for a few moments. She quieted down immediately. Again when the pigeon flapped its wings near the baby 's face, she gave a distinct jump, but did not cry or show other signs of fear. When the dog was made to bark (lighted room), the baby blinked her eyes at every bark, but gave no other reaction. She smiled throughout most of the situations. She smiled all through the burning of the paper in the dark room.
It is thus seen that this unusual opportunity of testing chil- dren 's reactions to their first sight of animals yielded few positive results. At least we can say that the older statements which maintain that violent emotions appear must be very greatly modi- fied. Of course, it is always possible that the children were too young, but this has not very much weight, since we have tested children from birth through to 200 days. These children left the hospital shortly after the tests and further experimentation could not be made. As a control test, similar observations were made upon a colored baby girl (Lee) 200 days of age, who had been under observation from birth. She lived in the city under the usual environmental conditions. Exactly the same results were obtained. There was practically no evidence of fear.
Are There Other Original Emotional Patterns? — It is thus seen that so far our attempts to bring out emotional patterns dis- tinct from those enumerated on page 199 have been barren of result. If it were possible to continue such experiments through a much longer span of a child's life, and if we could face him with a much larger number of situations that more nearly touched his daily life activities, it might be possible to extend the list. It is realized that we are working here with very young members of the human species. A good deal of organization and development takes place after two hundred days. Some very complex situations have yet to be faced, such as masturbation (and in boys especially, the first masturbation after puberty): the first menstruation period in girls; complex situations con- nected with family life, such as quarrels between the parents, corporal punishment and the death of loved ones, all of which have to be met with for a first time. We know from later obser- HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: EMOTIONS 207 vatioii that these do become hitched up to emotional reactions; whether they are original or transferred does not appear from our studies. It would be especially desirable to study the reaction states we now designate by the names of shame and shyness and embarrassment in this connection. We are of the opinion that most of the asserted emotions are of the consolidated type (that is, i emotion plus instinct, plus habit) or emotional attitudes. These are discussed on page 216.
Attention is called here to the limitations of the genetic method. As long as we can keep the baby under constant observation, a great deal of simplification can be obtained in the study of the emotions, but the human infant is a part of a social group and must sooner or later be returned to it. Things happen so fast then that a separate tabulation of events cannot be made. Under ordinary conditions, the emotions take care of themselves in a normal child, that is, society, including, of course, the parents and the family group, furnishes its own corrective for failure to react emotionally, for wrong emotional reaction and for over or under reactions. At times, however, due either to defective en- vironment or to defective heredity, the emotions may go wrong. s The genetic method is not of service. The emotional life of the individual must then be studied by the psychopathologist. Again, in business and professional life (especially in the Army and Navy), more and more emphasis is being placed upon what may be called emotional temperament. It is thus evident that the applied psychologist must have some means of making studies of emotional activity in adults. Finally, the scientific psychol- ogist, for methodological and purely technical reasons, devises methods for the study of emotions in the hope that they will yield scientific results, or that his methods may prove of such value that they can be employed by the psychopathologist, by the criminologist and by the applied psychologist. A short ac- count of the methods which can be used where the genetic method is not applicable follows.
Methods Employed in the Detection of Implicit Emotional Response. — The explicit portions of the pattern reaction in emo- tion are, as we have tried to indicate, usually the least important 208 PSYCHOLOGY 208 PSYCHOLOGY constituent. When they appear, systematic observation enables us to note them, with sufficient scientific accuracy. In the study of criminals, of psychogenic disorders and of normal individuals, often all explicit emotional manifestations disappear. The excit- ing situation is complex. On the one hand, it inhibits overt vocal response, but initiates a train of (visceral) implicit activity. Questioning the subject may reveal nothing. He may deny that the stimulus produced any reaction whatever, and yet the next moment he may drop his cigarette, bite his nails, or hesitate or stumble over a word. Popularly we speak in such cases of deceit, concealment of the emotion, ' ' repressions, " etc. In many cases, however, the individual would report his observations upon him- self correctly, if he could observe them, but the movements may be of such a fleeting character as to escape observation, or his intellectual level may be of such a low grade that he cannot make the observation. In such cases there are often so many disturbing factors that self -observation is not possible. Several methods are in use by means of which we can detect the implicit side of emotion.
(1) The Word Reaction Method; Free Type. — The sub- ject is told to respond immediately with a word to a given visual or auditory word stimulus. The stimulus words are made up before the test. Some of the words are neutral words, the others are the "significant" words which refer to the emotional situa- tion. The indicators of implicit response or tension obtained from the subject are unduly long reactions (with occasional ap- pearance of explicit forms such as the giggle, dropping the eyes, a flush); significant response words, showing that the stimulus word was a part of the emotional setting; repetition of the same word; too rapid responses; low level responses; failure in re- sponses (there are several variations in this method).
(2) The Continuous Type.— The subject is started on any selected, word, possibly a fragment from a dream, and told to 4 'speak the words as they come." He begins. For a time the word* come freely and then they fail. There is blockage. New associated lines are begun. Sooner or later, however, in dis- turbed cases all lines seem to converge and blockage occurs HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: EMOTIONS 209 whatever the start may have been. The blockage seems to occur at the point where the words relating to the emotionally exciting object belong in the associated train of words.
(3) Dream study and analysis often reveal emotional tension. They may be studied by the common-sense method of question- ing the patient now from one angle, now from another, but they are often analyzed by employing the two methods described above singly or in combination. Dreams are a part of a person's sum total of reactions. They are as good indicators of the nature of his personality, of his stresses and strains and emotional life gen- erally, as are any of his other activities. We have already stated that we can judge the emotional level of an individual by watch- ing his daily routine of activity. To make this statement com- plete, the dream activity in sleep and day-dreams must be taken into account. These are word reactions but not isolated reactions or reactions of the muscle-twitch kind. They are connected and associated activity, fully as complete oftentimes as housebuild- ing, delivering a lecture, or putting through a big business deal. The study of dreams, since the dream language is extremely sym- bolic, requires individuals especially trained in that field.
(4) The study of slips of word or pen, poor adjustments, over and under reactions, bodily postures and attitudes. These can be studied by general observation and by the methods which are employed in the study of dreams.
In discussing these methods, it should be stated that the psy- chologist busies himself with them principally from a methodo- logical standpoint, that is, by determining the range of appli- cability, their reliability, the best technic, etc. The psycho- pathologist uses them for practical purposes. The reshaping and rebalancing of a personality often depends upon the finding of situations connected with an emotion, or upon finding out whether there is an emotion where normally there should be one. He uses all of the above methods, and in addition his common-sense, combining it all with general observation of the patient's whole personality. In gathering his data, it is often necessary and desirable for him to question the patient upon the significant events of his life history; the things he is naturally inclined to 14 210 PSYCHOLOGY 14 210 PSYCHOLOGY do and inclined not to do (positive and negative reaction tenden- cies); the books he has read, the way they affected him; the types of situation in real or dramatic life which influenced him most; his main emotional assets; the easiest way to get an emotional rise out of him; the trend of his day-dreams and the types of air- castles he builds; what his chief lines of sensitiveness are; his conflicts and temptations, and the way he finds himself meeting these difficulties. A full discussion of these factors requires more space than we can give. We return to them again on page 403. In addition to the above methods, others are being developed.
(5) The determination of increased sugar in the blood or urine before and after presentation of a stimulus when there is reason to infer that the stimulus is not without significance (6) The emotional questionary of Woodworth, and the vari- ous character analysis outlines. The subject answers by "yes" or "no" a series of questions, such as: Were you considered a bad boy? Were you shy with other boys? Do you know of anybody who is trying to do you harm? Did you ever make Ipve to a girl? Have you ever had any great mental shock? Does it make you uneasy to have to cross a wide street or an open square 1 Did you ever feel a strong desire to steal things? Did you ever have the habit of biting your finger nails? Do your feelings keep changing from happy to sad and from sad to happy without any reason? Have you ever been afraid of going insane? If there is unstable emotional temperament, the fact is supposed to be revealed by the nature of the answers.