OUTLINE OF A STUDY OF THE SELF . 20 



(b) Mentality. What has environment had to do with your mentahty ? At 

 home; in school; among your companions ? Include social influences in envi- 

 ronment. Review the list of traits on page 1 7 and include here such as you now 

 possess. Are your social, political, moral and religious ideals inheritances, 

 acquisitions, or both ? 



(c) Social nature and vocation. Here again, attempt to distinguish what is 

 hereditary from what has been acquired. State definitely to what factors or 

 influences in your surroundings you attribute traits. If you are frank, honest, 

 sincere, cordial, agreeable of voice, a good talker or listener, is it chiefly 

 because of heredity or of influences which have acted upon you ? 



3. As A Functioning Organism, Influenced by and Influencing 

 THE World — Animate and Inanimate. The Self as Built up by 

 THE Interaction of Inheritances and Environment 



Consider especially your instincts — fear, curiosity, repulsion, attraction — 

 your chief bodily organs and their functioning. Is your body a smoothly, efl5- 

 cientiy working machine ? If not, in what respects and for what reasons is it 

 troublesome or inefficient ? Do you know how to keep it in better condition than 

 it usuaUy is in ? If so, why do you not do so ? What, with respect to bodily 

 function, do you consider the order of importance of self-reverence, self-knowl- 

 edge, and self-control ? 



Do you understand the general bodily structure and functions ? Do you 

 know the essentials of personal hygiene ? 



Use the above and similar questions concerning your self as a going-machine, 

 as aids in your discussion, not as questions to be answered briefly and separately. 



