ACTIVE SOCIAL ADAPTATION 291 
James has thus contributed to our subject by holding that the 
relation of a man to his age and group is not wholly due to the 
fact that he is produced by it, but even more by the fact that 
rarely does a man have available energy to break away from 
the conventions that repress him and attain new heights, and 
further that though he himself gain a new vision of the true and 
good, the spread of this depends on the sympathy he may be 
able to secure in his social environment. 
He shows further that certain emotional experiences and certain 
ideas have the power of tapping for man his ever-present reservoir 
of energy, or to change the figure of “ carrying him over the 
dam.” The true genius is the man who by heredity or by some 
inner power is able to attain levels of efficiency-energy far beyond 
those of the average of his group and inspire his fellow-men to like 
attainment. Such a man is an example, an exponent, and leader 
in active spiritual adaptation. 
Epwarp ALSworTH Ross (1866- _—=) 
The Psychology of Social Control 
Professor Ross has made contributions to our subject primarily 
along two lines: first, in his criticism of the theories of other sociol- 
ogists and second in his constructive analysis of social control. 
As a sociological critic he is perhaps without a peer among 
American scholars in this field; yet brillant and suggestive as are 
these criticisms he seems to lack the ability to “ see life steadily 
and see it whole,”’ hence the many apparent inconsistencies in his 
writings. 
As many of his criticisms have already been cited, and the rest 
are easily accessible in his Foundations of Sociology, we will con- 
sider here merely his distinction between change, adaptation and 
progress, and then discuss his analysis of social control. 
Although Professor Ross denies any place to the term progress 
in social science,! he makes large use of it in his Social Psychology 
and Social Control, and defines it, now in terms of adaptation, as 
where he says “ Progress follows the line of advantage, substitut- 
ing always the better adapted,’ ? but again in terms of mere 
1 Foundations of Sociology, pp. 75, 76. 2 Social Psychology, p. 94. 
