SECTIONAL TI^NSACTIONS— J. 381 



Tuesday, September 6. 



Dr. E. Miller. — Temperamental differences in the behaviour disorders of 

 children. 



It is important in the study of behaviour in children to determine what is 

 due to the emotional disturbance and what is due to the constitutional 

 peculiarities of the child. Every child is born into the world with a tem- 

 peramental bias, which colours its responses to life and its situations. 



Apart from this general consideration it is necessary to discover who are 

 the candidates for the varieties of behaviour disorders — that is, whether sub- 

 jective or neurotic disorders are found amongst one or other temperamental 

 groups or types, and whether delinquency occurs in those with a specific 

 temperamental make-up. A research is described which attempts to 

 discover whether descriptive clinical categories agreed with the findings 

 during test situations of temperamental peculiarities. Mobility, prudence, 

 and persistence were taken as temperamental types of reaction appearing 

 from a study of the history of a case and from the behaviour during tests 

 situations (Binet Simon and Performance Tests). It was found as a 

 result of observations and scoring during test periods that age correlated 

 poorly with mobility, but well with prudence and persistence. Further, that 

 prudence and persistence correlated with one another well, but mobility 

 less well with prudence and persistence. While there was a general agree- 

 ment with these test period findings and the clinical investigations, there 

 was room for the working out of tests for temperament of a more or less 

 quantitative type based upon clinical observation, which would show up 

 basic temperamental endowment independent of the specific emotional 

 disturbances. 



Miss L. G. FiLDES. — The relation between educational backwardness and 

 behaviour difficulties in children. 



Children who exhibit markedly antisocial or asocial behaviour are apt to 

 suffer from educational backwardness (i.e. to be more behind in their school 

 work than their mental ability warrants) much more than socially adjusted 

 children. Clinical examination of over a thousand cases of problem children 

 reveals backwardness in over 50 per cent, of the cases. 



Attempts to analyse the reasons for this situation suggest two main types 

 of relationship between backwardness and difficult behaviour : 



(a) Cases in which the backwardness itself, determined by environmental 

 factors, is the cause of unacceptable conduct ; 



(b) Cases in which the backwardness is only one form of maladjustment, 

 and is not its main determinant. 



Suggestions for the prevention and handling of backwardness rest on 

 a realisation of the causative factors in any particular case. 



Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S. — Recent evidence of the value of 

 vocational guidance. 



Nearly every civilised country is adopting ' improvements ' in vocational 

 guidance, founded on scientific experiment and systematic method. But 

 hardly any of those countries which have introduced these ' improvements ' 

 have taken steps to ascertain and to demonstrate exactly how far they are 

 really superior to the older, more haphazard methods. In Great Britain more 

 determined attempts have been made than elsewhere to fill this important 



