JANUAET 14, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



31 



such, cturency to pragmatism in philosophy 

 that the word might be carried over into psy- 

 chology. The dictionary, however, defines 

 " pragmatic " as " officious, occupied with 

 triiles " ; so perhaps the word shoidd be re- 

 served for philosophy. " Practical," of the 

 same origin as pragmatic, also illustrates the 

 tendency of the meanings of words to deteri- 

 orate that throws a curious light on human 

 nature. For as those who can do things have 

 come to be called cunning, crafty, scheming, 

 artful and designing, so those who continue 

 to do things are looked at somewhat askance; 

 when a famous letter used the phrase "you 

 and I are practical men," the reference was 

 not understood to be to perseverance in good 

 works. However, we must do the best we can 

 with a language imjwsed upon us when we 

 were helpless infants; in so far as practical 

 psychology means psychology based on the 

 facts of experience, applied to useful ends 

 and earning the means for its support and 

 advance, it defines the kind of psychology 

 that I wish to advocate. 



It is no longer necessary to argue that psy- 

 chology is a science resting upon experiment 

 and measurement, that it is primarily con- 

 cerned with individual differences in behavior, 

 that it can and should be applied to promote 

 human welfare. Psychology is much more 

 concerned with what people do than with 

 what philosophers think they think. Yet I 

 look back to a time when I was in a minority 

 — almost a minority of one — in urging these 

 things. We are perhaps now no less dogmatic 

 than our former opponents; as tbey once told 

 us that the things in which we were interested 

 were not psychology, so we to-day are likely 

 to excommunicate from our fellowship any 

 who hold that psychology consists of intro- 

 spections of philosophers that are universally 

 true but have nothing more to do with con- 

 duct than theology has to do with the con- 

 trol of the Being whose attributes it describes. 



But those of us who believe in applied psy- 

 chology still have to face and solve the prob- 

 lem of applying psychology to secure the sui)- 

 port and advancement of psychology, and this 

 from the standpoint of practical psychology 



is equivalent to the support and advancement 

 of psychologists; for we obviously are the 

 verce causcB of psychological research. Prog- 

 ress there certainly has been. We are no 

 longer little sisters in the house of philosophy. 

 We supply an eligible list for every vacant 

 presidency of a imiversity or endowed cor- 

 jwration. We are paid about the same sal- 

 aries and have about as many students, 

 summer courses, extension coiu-ses and corre- 

 spondence courses as our colleagues. In in- 

 numerable faculty and committee meetings 

 we share their polyphasia and their apraxia. 

 We also are permitted to devote our leisure 

 time to research. 



Psychologists are in somewhat the same 

 situation as students of other subjects; but 

 there are several distinctions. Having re- 

 cently arrived and belonging to the compara- 

 tively nouveaux riches, we are self-conscious 

 beyond the average; and as we propose to con- 

 cern ourselves with the control of conduct we 

 can be professionally occupied with the condi- 

 tions under which we work, while in this re- 

 gard others are only amateurs. If we can 

 select college freshmen and telephone girls, 

 we should begin at home and be experts in 

 selecting psychologists for the laboratory; if 

 we can determine the conditions under which 

 factory hands work to the best advantage, we 

 should be able to learn how psychological 

 research can be accomplished most effectively; 

 if we can describe and direct the complicated 

 behavior of infants and children, we should 

 be able to understand and control the simpler 

 and more naive official reactions of univer- 

 sity presidents and trustees. 



It is further the case that professional psy- 

 chologists are at the present time a group so 

 small that they can cooperate in a way impos- 

 sible for the hundred and fifty thousand physi- 

 cians or engineers of the country. The mem- 

 bers of the American Psychological Associa- 

 ,tion number 393, and there are not so many 

 competent American psychologists, for the 

 ;association does not undertake to exercise a 

 censorship over the standards of its members. 

 All American psychologists can get together 

 in a room and each can be personally ac- 



