SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, JULY 28, 1893. 



SYSTEMATIZED GRADUATE INSTRUCTION IN PSYCHOL- 

 OGY. 



BT E. W. SOEIPTtTRE, NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



Instruction in psycliology cannot be said to have been placed 

 on a sound basis till it consists of a series of carefully graded 

 teaching from elementary text-lmnk instruction to the highest 

 kind of original work. Haphazard work here is just as bad as any- 

 where. It is self-evident that the student of psychology should 

 properly apportion the amount of time spent in its various depart- 

 ments and in the other sciences he will have need of. The man 

 who starts with the supposition that the way to study psychology 

 is to go into the anatomical laboratory on the one band and to take 

 heavy courses in Greek philosophy on the other, is losing much 

 valuable time. It is hereby not implied that no time is to be 

 given to these subjects any more than that geometry and history 

 are to be omitted from a man's education. But when a man has 

 finished his college work and goes to the university he is supposed 

 to have received his general culture and to be ready for his life- 

 work. 



The specialist is a man of broader knowledge than the dilet- 

 tante. The difference between the two is that the latter browses 

 at random, while the former reaches over a much wider field, 

 but with a careful selection and coordination of the portions re- 

 lated to some central point. There is a maximum of energy and 

 health which a man can employ in work; if this capital is in- 

 vested in a careless way it will bring in small returns; the man 

 will never really gain a complete training in anything. 



The problem of a specialist is to go over as much ground as 

 possible; to do this it is necessary to pass rapidly over the less 

 valuable portions in order to have time for the valuable ones fur- 

 ther on. Moreover, no essentials should be overlooked, no mat- 

 ter how distant they apparently lie. This last requirement is 

 probably the most important of all. There is many a psycholo- 

 gist to-day who is fatally weak in some one or more points; it 

 would be easy to find those who, although making measure- 

 ments, know nothing of the science of measurement, or who, 

 using light, heat, etc., as tools in their experiments, have little 

 idea of the laws of the forces they are handling. To remedy all 

 these defects in the dilettante way a man would have to study 

 a couple dozen sciences; since life is too short to learn even one 

 with any respectable thoroughness, the only way to do is to 

 take just what will be of the most advantage to the psychologist, 

 always bearing in mind that an hour too much on any one point 

 means an hour too little on some other one. 



It is the first problem of the psychological laboratory or the 

 psychological department to so arrange its courses as to satisfy 

 these requirements. As my own experience may possibly be of 

 use to some one I will indicate briefly the outline of a system of 

 instruction designed to meet this want. It is to be borne in 

 mind that I am not speaking of college work with the object of 

 general culture, but of serious university work for one who de- 

 sires to study psychology. 



As the science of psychology today is based on measurement 

 and experiment, the work of the student must begin with some 

 considerations on the method of making experiments; this should 

 be followed by careful work in the theory of measurements, 

 treating of the probability integral, the mean variation, etc. 

 This work resembles somewhat the corresponding work gi'en in 

 physical measi'rerrent-, but although the mathematical princi- 



ples are the same, the treatment differs considerably. One of 

 the great differences between psychological and physical meas- 

 urements is that the conditions cannot yet be as accurately con- 

 trolled as in physics ; our mean variations are thus greater and 

 the deductions we can draw from the results are not the same. 

 In this respect psychological measurements on a single person 

 somewhat resemble measurements taken once on each of a large 

 number of persons. Partly for this reason, but mainly also for 

 the sake of mental statistics, a study of the methods of statistics 

 has to be made. The making of measurements brings in the 

 study of fundamental and derived units and the construction of 

 apparatus. The study of the various subjects of touch, sight, 

 hearing, etc., requires a consideration of the physical processes 

 used in stimulation. Thereafter the usual psychological subjects 

 are, in a lecture course, to be treated in detail. 



Hearing lectures will never make a psychologist; the funda- 

 mental course for all special instruction is the laboratory work. 

 The student must be trained by repeated exercises in making the 

 measurements explained in the lectures, including exercises on 

 touch, temperature, hearing, sight, in the graphic method, chro- 

 nometry, dynamometry, audiometry, photoptometry, colorimetry 

 (psychological), etc. This should be followed by work in the 

 construction of apparatus, elements of mechanical drawing, use 

 of tools, etc. It is of great importance not to have too many 

 men at work at the same time, at least not until psychological 

 laboratories are much enlarged. During the past year the aver- 

 age attendance on this course in the Yale laboratory has been 

 eight, an unpracticable number. Even with the enlarged equip- 

 ment for the coming academic year, the number admitted to this 

 practice course will have to be limited. 



The object of university instruction, as distinguished from col- 

 lege training, is to develop the love of research, to train the stu- 

 dent in research methods, to furnish him with the requisite 

 knowledge and skill, and finally to provide him with the appa- 

 ratus and other means of work for carrying out such investiga- 

 tions as may be best for him to undertake. The requisite knowl- 

 edge of the psychological methods is gained from the laboratory 

 course, the training in the difficulties and methods involved in 

 research is obtained by placing the newer students as helpers to 

 the advanced ones. The importance of this last arrangement can 

 hardly be overestimated. It is the one in vogue at Leipzig and 

 elsewhere. 



It is a very dangerous thing for a man to take up a problem for 

 investigation unless by previous experience with some one else 

 he has found out that research is the hardest kind of work and 

 has learned the thinking, the untiring patience, the courage un- 

 der defeat that are called for at the various stages of work. 



If we regard the research work as a means of training, it is 

 an important matter to the student that he shall not undertake 

 problems with rather indefinite boundaries or those where he may 

 perchance run wild or be led into careless work. There can be 

 no better training than that found in the investigation of a single 

 point where the most careful measurements and manipulation 

 are required. Once the student has learned the proper habits he 

 will do far better work with suggestive and uncertain problems 

 than could otherwise be hoped for. 



If a student has had the proper general culture in philosophy, 

 physics and mathematics, such a course as that outlined ought to 

 make a thorough psychologist out of him. If he has not had the 

 proper college training it behooves him to make it up as fast as 

 possible. In the first place, an acquaintance with German is ab- 

 solutely indispensable. Some acquaintance with the epistemo- 

 logical theories of the day is also necessary. A thorough scient- 

 ist in psychology could not get along without knowing some- 



