PROVINCE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 861 



sion of individual psychology to the phenomena of collective life, 

 we have immediately a set of important problems not included in 

 the programmes of other sciences. 



Prominent among the problems which must engage the atten- 

 tion of the social psychologist is the genesis of states of conscious- 

 ness in the social group and their modifying influence on the habits 

 of the group. In group- as in individual-life the object of an elab- 

 orate structural organization is the control of the environment, 

 and this is secured through the medium of attention. Through 

 attention certain habits are set up answering to the needs of in- 

 dividual- and group-life. When the habit is running smoothly, or 

 as long as it is adequate, the attention is relaxed; but when new 

 conditions and emergencies arise, the attention and the emotions 

 are called into play, the old habit is broken up, and a new one is 

 formed which provides for the disturbing condition. In the re- 

 accommodation there is a modification and an enlargement of 

 consciousness. Since it is through crisis or shock that the atten- 

 tion is aroused and explores the situation with a view to recon- 

 structing modes of activity, the crisis has an important relation to 

 the development of the individual or of society. 



A study of society on the psychological side involves, there- 

 fore, an examination of the crises or incidents in group-life which 

 interrupt the flow of habit and give rise to changed conditions of 

 consciousness and practice. Prominent among the crises of this 

 nature are famine, pestilence, defeat in battle, floods, and drought, 

 and in general sudden and catastrophic occurrences which are new 

 or not adequately provided against; and in the process of gaining 

 control again after the disturbance are seen invention, cooperation, 

 sympathy, association in large numbers and on a different basis, 

 resort to special individuals who have, or claim to have spe- 

 cial power in emergencies either as leaders or as medicine-men. 

 Another set of incidents, regularly recurrent and anticipated in- 

 deed, but of a nature calling for recurrent attention, are birth, 

 puberty, and death. The custom, ceremonial, and myth growing 

 up about these incidents in group-life, and the degree to which 

 special functionaries have become associated with them, indicate 

 that they have had a powerful influence on the attentive processes 

 and the mental life of the group. Shadows, dreams, swooning, 

 intoxication, and epilepsy represent another class of phenomena 

 arresting the attention and causing reflection and readjustment, 

 together with the development of ideas of causation and of a spe- 

 cial class of functionaries who act as interpreters of the phenomena. 

 Still another set of crises arises in connection with the conflict of 

 interest between individuals, and between the individual- arid group- 

 habits. Theft, assault, magical practice, and any and all invasion 



