SECTION J.—PSYCHOLOGY. 
PERSONALITY AND AGE 
ADDRESS BY 
DR. LL. WYNN JONES, 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
WE meet this year in the shadow caused by the grievous loss of our 
ex-President, Dr. Shepherd Dawson. All who were privileged to work 
in close association with him could not fail to be impressed by his genial 
personality, by his concern for scientific accuracy in psychological work, 
and by his earnest and successful endeavours to advance the study of 
important social problems which demanded expert psychological know- 
ledge and skill. His contributions have greatly enriched our science and 
_ will long remain a tribute to his memory. 
I must now turn to indicate in what respects the scope of our study 
- this morning has to be limited, bearing in mind that there are many 
_ possible approaches to the study of personality. 
On the psychical side psycho-pathologists, and especially psycho- 
_ analysts, have in recent years made outstanding contributions. On the 
_ physiological side biochemists, and especially endocrinologists, have made 
some promising advances, although there is no unanimity of opinion 
as to the exact functions of the various crino-pathologies. When 
_ psychiatric, physiological, and biochemical experts have perfected their 
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collaboration it is reasonable to expect that our knowledge of human 
personality will be enhanced. But leaving aside the approaches I have 
mentioned to their respective experts and considering only the more 
familiar approach of the ordinary psychologist, I propose to limit the 
field still further by directing your attention to one particular aspect of 
it—namely, an account of recent investigations with adult subjects. It 
will be expedient as far as possible to consider results of a definitely 
_ objective character such as would have appealed to the great pioneer, 
Sir Francis Galton, who, over fifty years ago, wrote: ‘I do not plead 
_ guilty to taking a shallow view of human nature, when I propose to apply, 
as it were, a foot-rule to its heights and depths. ‘The powers of man are 
- finite and if finite they are not too large for measurement.’ ‘To-day the 
possibility of mental measurement is continually being taken for granted 
and disputes only arise as to ways and means, or as to its feasibility in 
special domains. Thus it has been usual to distinguish between tests of 
abilities on the one hand which easily satisfy the canons of measurement, 
and tests of affective and conative traits, the so-called tests of ‘ personality,’ 
which satisfy those canons with difficulty, if at all. It may be occasionally 
