Fundamentals of child study ; a discussion of instincts and other factors in human development, with practical applications / by Edwin A. Kirkpatrick.

  • Kirkpatrick, Edwin A. (Edwin Asbury), 1862-1937.
Date:
1912 [©1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fundamentals of child study ; a discussion of instincts and other factors in human development, with practical applications / by Edwin A. Kirkpatrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    I scious intelligence of habit. The chief difference between the intellect of the child and of the man, there- fore, is that the child's actions are controlled largely by ) unconscious instinctive impulses and interests, and the man's by unconscious habitual reactions and interests. 1 The conscious intelligence of the man is not essentially different from that of the child, except that the extent of its activity is greater because of more numerous experiences, and its direction different because of other instinctive and developed interests. The problem of intellectual development is therefore simply one of determining the influence of instinctive tendencies upon its direction and vigor, and correlat- ing these truths with all that is known of the effects of experience upon the growth of intelligence. All that physiology and psychology teach us of habit and association, as well as all that child study teaches us of the development of instinct, must be utilized in explain- ing the changes that take place with age. In this study we must recognize that conscious intelli- gence may be gradually and unconsciously modified, as well as changed suddenly and consciously. This is demonstrated by Judd's experiments, in which persons who did not know the object of the experiment be- came more and more accurate in adjusting the parts of this line so as to make ac seem equal <o K >* to cb. One who recalls accurately his former mental states will also recognize without experiment that his judg- ments have been unconsciously modified in various ways. When we take into account unconscious as well as conscious modifications of mind, we realize that the enormous differences between the intellects of adults