THE STUDY OF CHARACTER 6ii 



the issues of the interplay of desires, capacities and beliefs, by which 

 to interpret our own and (with allowance) foreign natures. Culture 

 acquired a more real and a richer meaning as a psychological product, 

 and therewith conferred a new insight and a new obligation upon the 

 psychologist. The diversity of men was thus related to their divergent 

 solutions of the problem of shaping their lives to satisfy needs, im- 

 pulses and desires; and the environment, so largely a psychological 

 one, acquired its full significance. The study of human nature em- 

 braced more than that of one time and region and status. The still 

 more recent and independent emphasis of the sociological aspects of 

 life is in the larger view an issue of the anthropological interpretation, 

 but is yet more characteristic of the attitude now dominant, and prop- 

 erly called modern. The psychology of the social relations was thereby 

 made an integral part of the study of human character. 



Two further aspects of the qualities of which character and tem- 

 perament form the realistic composite, are the genetic aspect, and the 

 abnormal — the pathological aspect. The growth of traits is an es- 

 sential part of their nature. It implies a reference to the setting in 

 which they operate, to which they are adapted, by which they have 

 been shaped. It implies equally the reference to the vital course, the 

 maturing unfoldment of native endowment, which makes the biological 

 aspect of human nature the most comprehensive and the most elemen- 

 tal. Within this compass the determination of hereditary forces and 

 their mode of operation assumes a special importance. The traits 

 forming the composite of Character and Temperament are part of the 

 biological inheritance, are the issues of forces whose fundamental sig- 

 nificance is the biological one. Accordingly (despite or in addition 

 to our more detailed interests in other aspects) they must reflect and 

 conserve the allegiance to this underlying relation. More specifically, 

 the genetic aspect differentiates the outlines of the stages of growth; 

 in its terms are described the orbit of the psychological cycle. It 

 yields the psychology of infancy, of adolescence, of maturity, of sen- 

 escence, and presents the course of the included qualities in mutual il- 

 lumination. The genetic argument emphasizes a progressive environ- 

 ment and a progressive purpose; it enlarges the scope of adaptation, 

 and it interprets the impetus and goal of varying interests and en- 

 deavors. It was never absent from the accredited psychology of human 

 nature, but in the modern view it assumes an explicitness and a 

 directive position that constitutes it a notable factor among the avail- 

 able resources. It has powerfully affected our entire view of human 

 qualities, has extended our data and enriched their interpretation. 



A parallel statement may be made of the argument from the decav, 

 the faulty development, the inherent liability to perversion, of natural 

 qualities, which are responsible for the pathological, the abnormal, the 

 divergent aspects thereof. Useful adaptation, due proportion, tem- 



