The integrity of the personality depends upon the successful maintenance of a state of equilibrium among the conflicting forces that threaten to destroy the balance. Pleasure and pain, egoism and altruism, materialism and idealism, all strive to establish themselves in experience. Needs upset the psychic stability; their fulfillment marks its restoration. Avenarius illustrates the principle of equilibrium in discussing attention. A problem arouses a man's interest; he becomes restless under the perplexity; the solution of the problem restores his peace of mind. 1 The feeling of inferiority indicates the presence of a need or problem for which compensatory activities seek a satisfactory solution. Old age, youth, wealth, poverty, health, and sickness all have their typical modes of compensatory behavior. Mental health is preserved by minimizing the disturbing influences which deficiencies exert upon the mind. Compensation is a defence reaction.Compensation is essentially a resolution of conflicting impulses. "As a mental mechanism, motivating conduct and moulding personality, compensation ranks high in importance." * Its manifestations are familiar to every observer of human nature. Socrates remarked that his flat nose permitted him to see better. The blind develop a supernormal tactual sensitivity because they must rely upon their touch sensations to guide them. A man who has poor eyes cannot read widely but where his knowledge may be lacking in the breadth of its perspective it may be superior I 8u>h, W. T., 'Avenariu« and Pure Experience,' Arch. Phil., 1905, No. *. Rignano's principle of physiological invariability and Ribot'i law of organic correUtioni are other statements along the same line. 1 Pratt, G. K., 'Your Mind and You,' p. 21.
INVESTIGATING SOCIAL BEHAVIORStudents with a background in elementary psychology have a fairly good idea as to what is meant by scientific psychology. The application of the scientific method involves (1) the formulation of an hypothesis, and (2^ the testing of this hypothesis by means of experiment under controlled conditions for verification or revision. The investigator, impartial and objective, guards himself against the inclination to prove what he himself prefers to believe. These tenets provide the frame of reference for psychology-as-a-science.The experimental approach is not limited to laboratory investigations, though persons with a naive conception of science are prone to think of the scientist as strictly a laboratory technician. Social psychologists would sacrifice their touch with reality if they were to restrict themselves to "brass instrument" research. Accurate knowledge of human behavior in society can be gained only by including the approach of the field worker: observing individual persons in their everyday contacts, in the home, in the school, in the market place. In such a world of intercourse, it is impossible to control conditions as a scientist would like to do in order to be sure of discovering the significant factors in a situation. It is difficult to establish valid principles when we are dealing with the personal variables involved in human relations. Unfortunately, crowds, strikes, elections, wars, and similar mass phenomena cannot be duplicated in the laboratory. The social psychologist is limited, too, by the fact that precise measurements in many cases are difficult to obtain. Despite these obstacles, there are encouraging features in the situation: statistical controls are available to make possible significant measurements of many kinds of social phenomena in real-life situations; descriptive methods of investigation may be used to good advantage if care is taken to be accurate. Qualitative (non-quantitative) reports may give us just as true an account of reality as that attained through the experimental methods of the laboratory.6}
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