PAPERS OX PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 489 



as they are thouglit of by McDougall; seutiments, as tliey 

 are tlioiight of by Sliaiid ; complexes, as they are thought 

 of by the psychoanalysts; and ambitions, ideals, hopes, 

 and the like, as all of iis understand them, would be of 

 interest to the student of personality. The details of 

 vision, of space perception, of memory, would not. 



It is also fairly clear that the mental activities in 

 which the student of personality is most interested are 

 those which involve the social relationships of the indi- 

 vidual. While all mental activities are necessarily social 

 to some extent, the student of personality is usually in- 

 terested in those activities which can be adequately de- 

 scribed only by emphasizing the social character of the 

 situation. 



The desirability of getting the social view of the psy- 

 chophysical organism is hardly open to debate. The 

 proposition put forward at times, that this is really the 

 only adequate view is, however, an over-statement of the 

 case, to say the least. A social psychology undoubtedly 

 gives better promise of applicability to the solution or 

 interpretation of social problems, but we shall always 

 have with us the seeing, hearing, feeling, remembering 

 organism whose seeing, hearing, feeling, and remember- 

 ing are being handled by a non-social psychology with an 

 accuracy and adequacy which is to some degree a func- 

 tion of its lack of emphasis upon social issues. 



When the psychologist comes across problems such 

 as those of personality which require an unusual recog- 

 nition of social factors, it would be well, it seems to me, 

 if he kept in mind certain difficulties here in the way of 

 keeping his thinking upon a scientific plane. Perhaps 

 the greatest of these difficulties is the danger of mistaking 

 ethical, social, and political issues for scientific or psy- 

 chological issues. Social ethics, social hygiene, and po- 

 litical philosophy are of tremendous importance for hu- 

 man life, but the psychologist, even though his interest 

 be primarily in serving them, must recognize that un- 

 less the standards of logic be dominant over all other 

 standards his psychology will quickly become propa- 

 ganda, and cease to function as science. 



