In regard to laboratory tests it has been shown over and over again that the differences if any are very slight. Women are said to excel in such recondite activities as color naming, can- cellation tests, spelling and the acquisition of languages; the sexes are said to be equal in retentiveness, speed and accuracy of asso- ciation, mathematics, differential reactions to color; whereas men are supposed to excel in history (as judged by school marks), 384 PSYCHOLOGY • ingenuity, accuracy of movement, physics and chemistry (school marks), reaction time and speed of movement.
In so far as life 's activities are concerned the accomplishments of women are undoubtedly below those of men. There are few or no great women artists, few that have written enduring litera- ture and few that have obtained great success in instrumental music either as composers or performers. On the other hand, there are and have been as many great women singers as men. It is extremely interesting that the violin, which is an instrument well within the strength and endurance of women, has never been an instrument upon which they excel. There have been few great women scientists. Undoubtedly, the failure of women to achieve greatness in many of these vocational and artistic fields is due to social conditions; for example, it is only within recent years that the universities have encouraged women scien- tists and even then for them to have a fair show in scientific mat- ters their training in manual dexterity should start at birth, as it does for men. University positions would have to be open to women as they are to men if they are to have the same stimu- lus for achievement in scientific lines.
The insistent question arises always in discussing these prob- lems as to whether functional periodicity is a serious handicap to women. The common-sense view and the view of commercial houses is that it is a handicap. But if certain recent experimental evidence can be trusted (Hollingworth) there is no difference at such times either in speed or accuracy in the exercise of any given established habit or in the acquisition of habit.
Few or none of these observations touch the really vital ques- tion. The fundamental fact is that attractive women do not have to compete in vocational life and nearly every woman has at least one man who passes a favorable judgment upon her. Hence, when business difficulties arise, when hard training periods face them, many women choose the seemingly easier road and allow some man to earn the bread for two. Having once accepted the sheltered position, there is again neither the incentive nor the opportunity to achieve in the field that men achieve in. There are exceptions, of course, to this general statement, but no more THE ORGANISM AT WORK 385 than enough to prove the rule, notwithstanding the fact that more and more positions are open to women. The labor turn- over among attractive women is greater than among men and probably always will be. Hence, all discussion of and experi- mentation upon the relative ability of men and women are really academic.
B. FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACQUISITION OF HABITS. Generalized Statements on Habit Acquisition. — During the past fifteen years there has been a growing body of research on the acquisition of habits both in the field of human psychology and in that of animal behavior. Furthermore, it is an encourag- ing sign that the general results coming from the two fields agree in most particulars. Without any reference to the feasibility or the advisability of trying to apply these findings as yet in school systems, it seems worth while to present some general formulations on acquisition and then summarize the most char- acteristic of the researches which support them. The following general statements seem to be justified: 1. The fact of diminishing returns from practice. Within certain limits the less the frequency of practice the more efficient is each practice period.
2. The less the number of habits formed simultaneously the more rapid is the rise of any given habit. 1 is valid here also, apparently, regardless of the number of habits formed simultaneously.
3. Again within certain limits, the younger the organism the more rapidly will the habit be formed. This generalization as yet has not been completely established.
4. Word or other symbolic material which has to be learned to the point of errorless verbal reproduction, regardless of its length, should be learned by the whole rather than by the part method.
5. The higher the incentive to the formation of the habi and the more uniformly this incentive is maintained the more rapidly will the habit be formed.
1. The Fact of Diminishing Returns from Practice.— 25 386 PSYCHOLOGY conclusion has now been firmly established for both human and animal acquisitions. Several types of activity have been studied in human learning. Pyle compared the value of practicing 5 hours a day (distributed over the day) with practicing 1 hour per day (distributed over the day). Five of his subjects worked for 10 half -hour periods a day with half -hour rests between prac- tices on learning to use the typewriter. We will call this group the fast group. It worked for 9 successive days, omitting prac- tices on Sunday, putting in a total of 90 half hours, of practice. The subjects in this group did nothing else for 9 days. Five other subjects worked for 2 half-hour periods a day, 1 period at 8 A.M. and the other period at 2 P.M. or 3 P.M. We will call this the slow group. This group worked for a period of 45 days, putting in a total of 45 hours, the same as the fast group. The subjects' practice consisted in transcribing fairly homogeneous material on the typewriter. The work of the slow group was better from the start. On the tenth practice the fast group was writing an aver- age of 287 words per half hour, the slow group 370. On the fortieth practice the fast group was writing 351 words, the slow group 557. From the fortieth practice on the difference between the two groups remained nearly constant. The slow group, how- ever, made more errors than the fast group.
A similar study has been made upon the acquisition of skill in archery (Lashley). The subjects were all forced to shoot 500 times, regardless of the number of shots the individual made per day. They were thrown into the following groups: one group shot 5 timesi per day, another 12 times per day, another 20 times per day and a fourth group 40. These four groups were all care- fully selected.6 None of the individuals had had previous prac- tice in shooting with the English long bow (page 282). The final accuracy of the last 25 shots was chosen as a measure of the amount of improvement which had taken place. The learning 6 A fifth group composed of athletic youths from the Baltimore Poly- technic Institute, shooting 60 shots per day, was also formed. They differed so in their strength and development from the other groups that the results will not be considered here. The records of this group really form excep- tions to those of the other four groups.
THE ORGANISM AT WORK 387 curve of one of these groups is shown on page 284. The group shooting 5 times per day learned to shoot very much more ac- curately than the group using the more rapid methods.
Certain other activities have been studied; for example, Dearborn showed in a class experiment in drawing that 10 min- utes' practice once a day gives better results than 10 minutes' practice twice a day. Starch contrasted the following four periods: one 120-minute period, three 40-minute periods, six 20-minute periods and twelve 10-minute periods. He thus at- tempted to answer the question: what is the best distribution of time if you have only 120 minutes to practice? The 10-minute period was found best, the 20-minute nearly as good, the 40-min- ute next in value and the longest period of least value.
Pyle reports other results bearing upon economy in learning. The subjects were forced to learn new symbols to take the place of the 26 letters of the alphabet and were then practiced in ac- quiring skill in writing with this new alphabet. The subjects practiced for half an hour, then rested for half an hour and re- peated this routine throughout the day. Practice was not con- tinued for a longer period than 1 day — 14 half hours of work, 14 half hours of rest. It was found that after 3 or 4 periods of work the remaining practices showed little improvement; nor was the permanent effect from the practice any better for the persons that worked all day than for those who practiced only 4 periods and then stopped.7 Although the greater economy and beneficial effects of short infrequent practices are universally established, one cannot argue from this that concentrated practice is worthless. It depends upon the situation the human being is in. Undoubtedly a man could learn to fly better by half an hour's work every other day than by 2 hours' work every day given the same total amount of practice, but with the enemy at the door there is the necessity to train the greatest number of men in the shortest possible time.
7 It seems to be established that the permanence of habits acquired by distributed practice is slightly better than that acquired by concentrated practice.
388 PSYCHOLOGY In such cases the obvious thing to do is to force practice each day to the point where improvement from daily practice ceases. On the other hand, this principle is of very great importance in view of the fact that we can advantageously utilize short periods of time, not otherwise employed, for enormously increasing our repertoire of acts which may later be of economic importance or which may serve us for recreation or relaxation.
2. The Less the Number of Habits Formed Simultaneously the More Rapid is the Rise of Any Given Habit. — So far the only thorough piece of work grounded in experimentation which verifies this formulation comes from the study of animals (Ulrich). If we take three large groups of animals and allow each group to work upon a different problem, thereby 'establish- ing reliable norms for the three problems and then take another group and allow it to learn all three problems simultaneously, it will be found that this fourth group will require a larger num- ber of trials to learn each problem than the norm previously established calls for (it will be found also that fact 1 is.operative).
Some scattering experimental results would seem to bear out this conclusion for human learning as well, but the results as yet are by no means trustworthy. Even though it be firmly estab- lished it has little practical significance, because it runs into con- flict with fact 1 in the sense that if we try to instruct the youth by such a method and at the same time give him infrequent practice, he would be idle during the larger part of his time.
3. The Effect of Maturity Upon Learning. — No adequate experiments are at hand upon humans which will enable us to show quantitatively the differences in the speed and accuracy of the acquisition of any given act of skill among a young adult of twenty-one, a man of forty, and a man of sixty-five. In practical life there are a number of taboos, laws and customs relating to age: for example, a man cannot vote until the age of twenty-one is reached. At forty a man is expected to have shown all the originality that is in him and to have accomplished his major piece of work; he is supposed to be content at that age with the habit acquisitions at his command. Again, at from sixty to sixty-five a man's usefulness is supposed to undergo a sharp de- THE ORGANISM AT WORK 389 cline, he is supposed at that age to retire from his university, business and professional duties, to accept a pension and to live thereafter a quiet and retired life. There is hardly any justifica- tion, experimental in character, for these age distinctions. The experiments bearing directly upon the problem again come from the study of animals. Although our results from animal learn- ing are not any too secure, we have some evidence to show that a difference exists between the young animal and the old. Miss Hubbert allowed nearly 100 rats differing in age to learn a maze in which the speed of the various trips, the amount of useless running on each trip, and the number of trials necessary to learn the maze could be accurately determined. The two groups of animals beginning work respectively at 25 and 65 days of age learned in about the same number of trials, whereas the 300-day- old animals required nearly a third more trials. This difference in the number of trials between the old and young animals in learning the maze probably needs to be confirmed. However, it was firmly established that the time of the final execution of the act was very much shorter for the young animals than for the old, the young animals traversing the maze in 6 seconds, whereas the old animals required 10 seconds. Probably the most significant thing from the standpoint of middle-aged and old human indi- viduals is that even the oldest animal we could get (500 and 600 days) still had the ability to learn this complicated maze. Thus our former notions about the lack of plasticity in the old are without foundation if such results can be carried over into the human fields, as they doubtless can be. This generalization would seem to be of importance since experiments apparently show that it is possible for a man or woman who has been too busy in youth and in middle-age to form habits of play and recreation to learn to play or even to form vocationally serviceable habits after retir- ing from active business life. Such a possibility should make old age less of a bugbear and less of an affair of endless reminiscence and total redintegration of earlier experiences.
4. The Whole vs. the Part Method in Learning.-Wb prose and poetry in considerable amounts have to be 1 390 PSYCHOLOGY • the point where verbal reproduction is possible, as is the case in the schools, dramatic work, public speaking and the like, the ques- tion arises as to the most economical way of committing this material. The schoolboy, if let alone, learns one stanza, and oftentimes one line, before proceeding to the next; then after the second stanza is learned he goes back to the first and repeats both until an errorless reproduction of both is possible. He continues this routine for the whole poem, regardless of its length. This means, of course, that the early stanzas are always over-learned. With few exceptions the experimental results show that the whole method of learning is better than the part, that is, that the ma- terial, regardless of its length, should be read through again and again until reproduction as a whole becomes possible. In addi- tion to the possibility of more rapid acquisition accruing from the use of the whole method, retentiveness seems to be better where material is learned in that way than when learned by the part method (Pyle and Snyder, Lakenan, and others).
5. The Higher the Incentive and the More Uniform the Incentive the More Rapid and Steady will be the Improve- ment.— There are no separate experimental studies on the effect of different incentives upon acquisition, but the incidental results from the study of all recorded learning illustrate this law. The industries recognize the law and even during the earliest appren- ticeship period the attempt is made to give extra monetary reward, promises: of future position, advancement and the like to increase the speed of acquisition. As we have already brought out, most of the plateaux in the recorded learning curves are probably due to a failure to keep the stimulating value of the task high. Most interesting illustrations of the effect of high incentives were brought out in the recent war. The number of rivets which could be driven home in any given day by an individual engaged in shipbuilding increased by leaps and bounds as soon as the news- papers began to exploit it and to post the various scores over the country and as soon as the Government began to offer prizes for the highest score. Altitude records in flying and long-distance flying are equally illustrative of this principle.
THE ORGANISM AT WORK 391 One of the greatest difficulties in the ordinary routine of daily life is the fact that the stimulating value of any incentive soon loses its power to arouse emotion. The incentive, then, has to be changed. A good many business houses admit that their devices for offering added stimulation produce only a temporary increase in output. The attempt is now being made with better results to introduce profit-sharing, partial ownership in the business and group insurance (which is lost if the worker leaves). These de- vices offer permanent and cumulative rewards. In addition to their effect upon keeping the stimulating value of the work high they decrease the labor turnover.
\" CHAPTER XI PERSONALITY AND ITS DISTURBANCE A. THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF PERSONALITY.
Introduction. — In previous chapters we have dealt largely with the genesis and functioning of individual reaction systems. Psychologists and psychiatrists often have the task of rating the individual as a member of society, passing judgment upon him as a whole from the standpoint of how well or how poorly he functions in his present environment, to form estimates of how smoothly he would react to a new environment and to specify the necessary changes in his equipment which would make for resent and iuture llilJustment. Various practical situations if orce us constantly to examine man in this broader way. In mak- ing such estimates or inferences we use the term personality or character1 as a convenient way of expressing the fact that we are looking at the individual not from the standpoint of how well or how poorly any particular emotion, instinct or group of habits he possesses many function, but from that of how the organism as a whole works or many work under changed conditions.
A Possible Hint from Mechanics. — Several times in the text we have contrasted the reaction of parts with reactions of the individual as a whole. To illustrate this more completely it may be well possibly to turn to the world of mechanics for at least a slight analogy. A marine gas engine is made up of a number of parts, such for example as the carburetor, the pump, the magneto, the valve system, the cylinders with their pistons and xAs we use these two terms, character is really a subdivision of the broader term personality. Character is generally used when viewing the individual from the standpoint of his reactions to the more conventional- ized and standardized situations (conventions, morals, etc.). Personality includes not only these reactions but also the more individual and personal adjustments and capacities as well as their life history. Popularly speaking, we would say that a, liar and a profligate had no character, but he may have an exceedingly interesting personality.
PERSONALITY AND ITS DISTURBANCE 393 rings, connecting rods, etc.. Separate tests of each part may show that it functions perfectly when working alone. But in addition to the separate parts there are many interconnecting elements. The parts cannot work well unless the bearing sur- faces have just the right amount of play, the magneto must give the spark at the precise instant of greatest compression, the oiling system and pump system must be properly connected with some part moved by the crankshaft. Unless all of the parts are properly interconnected and timed the engine as a whole will not perform its function, that is, turn the propeller.
When we speak of the action of the individual as a whole, we mean something of this nature. It must be borne in mind that the human being has not one function to perform but thou- sands, and the adjustments of the parts must vary in each and every new duty if the work of the whole organism is to be efficient. Only a well constructed biological organism properly trained can meet these requirements. No mechanical contrivance yet hit upon approaches the human organism in its multiplicity of possible functions and in the rapidity with which co-ordina- tions of separate functions can be so rapidly shifted for each new duty of the machine as a whole.
It is interesting to push our possible analogy one step further. If we know enough about the parts of any mechanical contrivance, the nature of the interlocking systems and the various inter- dependent functions, we can make safe predictions about how it will work under new conditions or specify the changes which will have to be made if the contrivance must perform some new function. For example, in the case of our engine, we know it is good for high speed and short runs. Such and such changes will have to be made if it is to be used for medium duty or forced to pull heavy loads. We know further that with the oiling and cooling systems as they now are it will not run in a very cold climate; with the fuel system now employed it cannot be used where oxygen tension is low; that heavy fuel such as kero- sene or crude oil will not burn in it; that it will run in fresh water indefinitely but that certain parts will have to be made of bronze if it is to run smoothly in sea water for any length of time, 394 PSYCHOLOGY 394 PSYCHOLOGY This hint from mechanics should give us a clearer notion of (a) the reaction of the whqle and of parts, (b) the ppssibility of inferring from our'&atdVn parts and our rec«:ds of perform- v*> ctfnc^qf the apparatus as a whole how the apparatus will work under new conditions arid tlfe necessary changes to make in the parts and their interconnections in order to get it to take on a new function.
Practical Use of Personality Inferences. — On a smaller or larger scale we are constantly having to deal with individuals in new situations. Knowing the part reactions of individuals and how they have functioned as a whole in past situations en- ables us to draw legitimate inferences as to how they will act when the new situation confronts them. Personality study in one form or another is thus essential in every form of social life. All of us face personality problems each day of our lives. We are put face to face with serious problems of personality when we are called upon to pass judgment upon our child's selection of a mate, to select a life associate in business or universitjr work, to begin the study and re-training of some individual whose per- sonality is diseased or distorted. In less serious circumstances we face the problem when we put two people together at a dinner party or make out a list of guests for a bridge party, or even in bringing together two of our intimate friends. Clever hostesses understand the social aspect of the problem very well, but they will tell you that their success is due not to any peculiar intuition on their part but to the fact that they study and keep posted on the intimate details of the lives of their friends.
Confusion in the Concept of Personality. — While everyone' would agree that the factors we have discussed are a part of a personality study many would hold that this simple way of looking at personality is not expressive of the whole truth. They would maintain that it includes all these things but also "some- thing ' ' in addition. If one asks what this something is it will be found that no straightforward answer can be given. Instead of a working definition the term will be used with qualifying adjec- tives; ' ' I mean that his personality overpowers and overawes one, ' ' PERSONALITY AND ITS DISTURBANCE 395 1 ' that there is something magnetic about him, " " that he draws or enthralls one," "commands attention or respect," "his person- ality fills the room. ' ' This usage is easily understandable. Two elements predominate. Without going too deeply into them we may briefly state first, that the above type of description is made upon the basis of childhood and adolescent reactions to authority. In infancy and adolescence the father, also the doctor, minister, etc., stand for authority. When they speak, obedience must be rapid and implicit. The child is thrown into an emotional state and jumps to execute commands. This tendency to react to authority is never quite lost and reappears again and again in our reactions to individuals in our business and social circles. Hence in later life those speakers and associates who rearouse the vestiges of reaction to the old authority situation are the individuals who for us would be classed as having a strong personality.
The second element underlying judgments of personality in this popular sense is the sexual or emotional one, sex being used here not in the popular sense but in the modern psychopatho- logical one. When this element is strongest — that is, when the speaker or associate (the stimulus) brings out those positive reaction tendencies, the popular characterization is put in a little different words. The man or woman has a "pleasing," * ' thrilling " or " engrossing ' ' personality.2 Friendships are almost instantaneously begun largely upon the basis of this element. It must be recalled that according to modern usage this kind of reaction tendency is aroused not only by members of the opposite sex but also by members of the same sex. The author in making a statistical analysis of the factors entering into the formation of friendship found that the element of truthfulness was ranked first and loyalty second. These are of course conventionally the correct answers and the ranking obtained was the one expected in a mixed crowd. When the questionary asked for other imporaTo illustrate, take the following quotation from Arnold Bennett: " I felt that once out of the immediate circle of his tremendous physical influence, I might manage to escape the ordeal which he had suggested. But I could not get away. The silken nets of his personality had been cast, and I was enmeshed."
396 PSYCHOLOGY tant elements, such items as sympathy, congeniality and the like took a prominent place. In general the following question was answered in the affirmative: "Do you decide as soon as you meet a person whether the basis for friendship is present? ' ' The greatest difficulty was experienced by those attempting to make the analysis. They had not hitherto made the effort to phrase that factor in their lives in words. We meet the same difficulty in trying to get an answer as to why men love their wives or women their husbands, or parents love their children. The reasons advanced are conventional ones. The deeper reasons lie below the organized word level; upon unanalyzed (unphrased) emotional instinctive and early habit slants. This is the reason it is so difficult to get people to talk intelligently of what they mean by personality.
The muddled writings we have from the hands of many scientific waiters upon self, personality and character give only a slightly better working basis. Nearly every psychologist and medical writer has in the background of his early training certain religious and metaphysical premises. He finds no way to weave these into the straightforward scientific discussion of instinct, emotion and habit. Hence he brings them to the fore in a final discussion of the self and personality where problems are not usually accurately worked out and faced. Again, in the writings of scientists we also see the early reactions to authority. It shows as an unwillingness to admit that the individual has within himself all of the determining factors for action. It is found necessary to bring in to account for self and personality, if not overtly at least covertly, a nucleus, a core, or essence which resists analysis, which cannot be expressed in the plain facts of hereditary and acquired reactions and their integrations. This is illustrated all through the history of philosophy in the "spirit" of Berkley, in the "consciousness" and "self " of modern psycho- logical writers and in the "unconscious" of the Freudian mystics.