The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-20
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES.
Man Often Reaches Conclusion BY In
ference, Animals Always.

DR.. Sanford spoke on individual diff
ferences," and after giving brief re-
view of Tuesdays lecture said in sub
stance: Animals arrive at conclusions
by inference and very often men fol-
low the same method, though mathe-
matician will take an abstract method
of reasoning. Purely instructive &C
tivities are those in which there is
never any variation.
An instinct theoretically perfect is
one which needs no training and ev-
erything works right the first time.
Then it grades off to the point where
a great deal of training is necessary.
There is reason to think that an in
stinct may be inherited so far as it is
a pure instinct.
| Leaving the subject of animal psy-
| chology, we take up the subject of in
dividual differences. The idea of gen
eral psychology is to apply to general
cases. There are all sorts of individual
variations, however, in even the sim
| plest experiments. These differences
have been more or less neglected in the
! study of general psychology.
! There is very little information on
! personal psychology. 1t depends on
personal observation rather than upon
| experiments.
| We have minds suitable to adapt us
! to our environments, and in that we
are like animals, but even in the uni
| formity Of behavior brought about by
| social conditions, there are personal
| differences. In the first place there are
muscular habits. We are recognized by
| our walk; we have particular ways of
using our knives and forks at the ta-
BILE. There are differences in speaking.
| We have mental habits just as we
have muscular habits; our individual
| associations differ. Then there are
number habits and number forms
the associations of particular eolors
with certain tones.
We all of us think In terms of sight,
hearing or motion. In proportion as we
do this we have been called eye-minded,
reminded and motor minded. But all
of us are more or less eye-minded; we
each have a part Of each of these forms
of association
An equally important group of asso-
Citations is the appreciative group. AS
one goes through the world he gets
various experiences and these habitual
| associations begin to have effect on the
course of thought. Some are profession
al or business thoughts. A farmer OBJ
serves a piece Of ground from a far
| mer's standpoint, a real estate agent
I
A great deal Of our patriotism belongs
to this group, A foreigner will be stir
red by anything that reminds him Of
| his home. The same Is true in politics.
A member of one party will think the
other party can do not good. Appercep-
| tive groups grow UP by environment
| The next group we may call the
| group of natural bents. This group is
often developed by accident. Often if a
| boys father gives him some tools, the
desire to use tools may be developed
The difference between musical and I'M
musical people is not due to defect in
the ear, but to lack of interest in
musical sounds. If child las no interest
in music and has it encouraged, he be-
comes musical. So we may speak of all
natural bents in this way. There is
generally a small seed, which is built
up and developed.
| There are deeper groups than these
| natural groups, which are generally in
nate. There are the social feelings, van
| ity, Indifference. There is the love OF
| children, the love of home, sympathy
| There are the deep emotional and ac-
| tive groups which might be called the
temperaments. There have been many
discussions Of the classiiicarions of tenn
peraments. There are four which we
may put down. There are those who are
| quick, slow, of strong feeling and OF
weak feeling Those who are strong and
quick are called choleric; the strong and
slow, melancholic; the weak and quick
sanguine; weak and slow. phlegmatic.