486 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 



up between himself and the psychotherapist, he is enabled to get a clearer 

 view of his difficulties and courage and incentive to overcome them. 



Difficulty of adaptation to the approach of declining bodily vigour, with 

 failure of satisfactory sublimation, may result in injudicious enthusiasm for 

 some special theory or cult in place of a real philosophy of life. 



A sound philosophy of life, practical as well as theoretical, harmonising 

 biological and psychological needs and leading up to a supra-temporal and 

 duly co-ordinated system of values and a serene and courageous spiritual 

 outlook, gives the highest degree of unity, vigour, and permanence of the 

 personality, and leads to true happiness. 



Afternoon. 

 Mr. R. Knight. — The background of the probletn child (2.0). 



There have been several attempts to classify the various psychological 

 problems to which children are liable. Such classifications are of some 

 importance to psychological theory, but for three reasons their practical 

 value is limited : (i) in remedial work we are concerned, not with isolable 

 problems, but with problem children ; (ii) different problems, such as 

 stammering, enuresis and pilfering, do not necessarily spring from entirely 

 different causes ; (iii) in practice the nature of the disorder is usually obvious, 

 and it is the cause that it is important to lay bare. 



On the other hand, classification of the main causes of children's difficulties 

 is of considerable value in helping parents, teachers, doctors and others, in 

 dealing with difficult children, to know what lines of inquiry are likely to 

 be most profitable. 



The records of problem children show that the three main causes of 

 psychological difficulties are : subnormal intelligence ; defective physique ; 

 and an unsatisfactory home environment. The third of these accounts for 

 the greatest number of cases. Within the home environment, or back- 

 ground, of the child, the conditions that the author's clinical work has 

 shown to be most productive of difficulties are : (i) parental discord ; 

 (ii) family jealousy ; (iii) illegitimacy ; (iv) conflict with step-parents ; 

 (v) emotional fixation ; (vi) desire on the part of the parents to satisfy their 

 own thwarted ambitions through their children ; (vii) excessive, inadequate, 

 or capricious discipline. 



Prof. R. B. CATTELL.^TAe inheritance of temperament (2.45). 



Mr. E. Farmer. — Social implications of vocational guidance (3.30). 



The experimental work that has been done in vocational psychology all 

 tends to show that there is a closer relation between psychological tests and 

 occupational success than between scholastic examinations and occupational 

 success. It is, however, clear from the size of the correlations that factors 

 not yet measured by scholastic or psychological tests also play an important 

 part in occupational success. 



Certain workers at Cambridge have endeavoured to explore the field of 

 some of the unmeasured factors entering into occupational fitness. 



It has been found that fundamental psychological drives play an important 

 part in determining choice of occupation and that satisfaction with work is 

 more dependent on the general conditions of employment and type of work 

 than on immediate financial gain. 



The data so far obtained in this investigation all tend to show the import- 

 ance of social factors and social co-operation in obtaining and retaining good 



