The psychology of special abilities and disabilities / by Augusta F. Bronner.

  • Bronner, Augusta F. (Augusta Fox), 1881-1966
Date:
1919,©1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The psychology of special abilities and disabilities / by Augusta F. Bronner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    serving power of attention and distractability, qualities which can be gauged also by specific tests for this purpose. Characteristic traits such as persistence and determina- tion, as opposed to easy discouragement, likewise may be noted. Concerning the emotions, the affective side of life, few tests are as yet in use, though most students of behavior appreciate the need for them.. Indeed, it is quite doubtful if tests will ever offer an effective means of studying these complex aspects of mentality. The situations which in real life call the emotions into play are not easily duplicated in the laboratory, and artificial stimuli for arousing them necessarily would result in totally different reactions. How can one study experimentally love and hate as they affect behavior? Or what can tests reveal concerning the formation and results of anti-social grudges? Judg- ment as to defects in emotional life, as well as in regard to will, must be based very largely if not altogether upon the individual’s social reactions. Recognition of individual differences in strength of the emotions, in powers of inhibi- tion and self-control, will probably always rest mainly upon evidence gleaned from general behavior and _ inci- dental reactions rather than upon results obtained by use of one psychological test or series of tests. As for the school subjects, we can, of course, determine more or less accurately the results that have accrued from the years spent in the schoolroom. Where failure to profit by educational opportunities is due to real defect, it becomes essential to study the processes involved. Al- though the psychology of the school subjects is as yet largely unknown, and, as we have already stated, this limits the possibility of reaching a satisfactory explana- tion of all instances of school failures, yet one must go as far as is possible in an effort to find the causes upon which alone remedial measures can be undertaken. We shall