Affective Tendencies 3907 
the definitive physiological state itself which corresponds 
to this environment. 
Only from the moment when one series of move- 
ments happens to bring the organism back to the desired 
environmental relations earlier than another one, will 
it have acquired an advantage over the others, and this 
result may be expressed by saying that the affective ten- 
dency has exercised a “choice” (James, Baldwin and the 
American school in general). 
Hence it is only from that moment that the affective 
tendency will by mnemonic association constitute a force 
which “impels” these movements toward the end, just 
as certain reflex movements “impinge” on one another 
(Sherrington). And only from that moment will these 
movements (so long as they have not become mechanical 
in the form of reflexes) be determined exclusively under 
the pressure of the corresponding affectivity or the equiv- 
alent “act of the will.” 
However, until this takes place the affectivity betrays 
no tendency at all to discharge in one path rather than 
in another, hence the great difference between the affec- 
tive tendency or act or will on the one hand, and the 
reflex movement on the other. This reflex movement, by 
means of which the act so “chosen” when often re- 
peated becomes by mnemonic accumulation gradually 
mechanical and quite independent of the whole, repre- 
sents a tendency to discharge along one single given path 
which is determined in advance. It is a force whose point 
of application and direction are known beforehand, and 
might therefore be indicated graphically by the customary 
arrow used to represent the forces of mechanics. On the 
other hand the affective tendency constitutes a force of 
which neither the point of application nor the direction 
