488 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



is brought out very clearly by Watson^ in his latest book. 

 He tells us that \ye may think of the human being with 

 all of his activities as analogous to a gas-engine with its 

 carburetor, its pump, its magneto, and so on. While it 

 may be highly desirable to understand the minutest as- 

 pects of human behavior, just as it is desirable to under- 

 stand the details of the pump, carburetor, and magneto, 

 it is also important to appreciate how the individual as 

 a whole operates, just as it is important to appreciate 

 how a gas-engine runs. There are unquestionably a 

 number of psychologists who would object to making 

 any distinction between a more analytic and a less ana- 

 lytic psychology. They would probably say that if one 

 really analyzes mental activity thoroughly and accurate- 

 ly, one will ipso facto have a means of understanding, 

 predicting, and controlling the activity of the individual 

 as a whole. While I doubt whether any one would in- 

 sist that analysis of mental life is at the present time 

 complete enough for us to build up the semblance of a 

 live individual out of reflexes, sensations, perceptions, 

 and the like, it would probably be urged by the stauncher 

 adherents of analysis that it is a sounder procedure to 

 concern ourselves with the simple aspects of mental life 

 until we have them well mastered, and then to proceed 

 to the more complex. Logically, such a program has a 

 certain appeal, but sciences in the direction of their 

 growth, at least, are not necessarily logical. The de- 

 mands of the clinician and the social scientist are likely 

 to have far more influence upon the development of psy- 

 chology than are the plans of the most logical program. 

 I do not know just how fortunate or unfortunate is this 

 fact. I put it forward simply as an argument for the 

 belief that the psychologists of the near future are going 

 to spend part of their time trying to observe and under- 

 stand the organism as a whole. 



Another characterization which might be made of the 

 chapter on personality is that it is concerned more with 

 the persistent trends or tendencies in behavior than it 

 is with the structure of immediate experience. Instincts, 



1. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, 1919, pp. 392 ff. 



