The essentials of psychology / by W.B. Pillsbury.

  • Pillsbury, W. B. (Walter Bowers), 1872-1960.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The essentials of psychology / by W.B. Pillsbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/392 (page 3)
    simplest movements of walking or of fingering the pen to the activities involved in swaying an audience by speech or in carrying to completion some great engineering work. Certain of the very simplest acts, such as winking and other reflexes, are fairly within the range of physiology. But even these must be taken into consideration by psy- chology, because the most complicated act can be under- stood only when analysed into its components which are closely related to reflexes. Even the simplest forms of behaviour must be studied by the psychologist if he is to know the laws that govern the more complicated forms. No form of human behaviour, from the simplest to the most complex, falls outside of the province of psychology. As a science our knowledge of human behaviour must be organised and referred to a system of general principles. A science of human behaviour cannot be limited to a series of aphorisms or chance observations about man. ^Perseverance wins success’ is related to the psychology of conduct in very much the same way that * an east wind brings rain ’ is related to the science of meteorology. Each statement embodies the results of numerous observations, but it has no close connection with other facts or general laws. In a science these observations must be related to' other bits of knowledge and the whole organised into a consistent system that shall harmonise with the results of other sciences. Scientific laws are based on more carefully chosen data and in consequence possess wider validity and are less likely to be vitiated by popular prejudice or ill-founded tradition. They give each par- ticular fact a perspective and make it easy to recall and to use each new observation.