Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-04
CHILD RESEARCHES
EXPECTED TO TELL
INNER CHARACTER
Washington Center Starts
Third Year of Activity With
Enlarged Staff of Experts.
GROUP CLASSIFICATION
HELD FAULTY SYSTEM
Response of Personalities to Spe-
cial Situations to Be Studied
by Specialists.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

~ r.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
measured?
This will constitute one of the research
problems to be studied this year at
the Washington Child Research Center,
which has started its third year with
an enlarged staff of psychologists and
child specialists to deal with questions
of fundamental Importance in the lives
of children.
Parents and teachers, says DR.. Man
del Sherman, director of the institution,
often show a tendency to classify chill
dren in personality groups and assume
that the child'S behavior can be pre-
dicted by referring to the supposed re-
actions of this group. There is, for
example, the shy. retiring child with
few playmates, who turns naturally to
books, contrasted with the child bub-
bling over with energy, always eager
to attract attention, and always a
leader in play activities.
Patterns May Continue.
These two personality patterns may
continue through the life of the indi-
vidual and appear very early, so that
it has been assumed that folks are
born that way" On the basis of OBJ
servations already made, says DR.. Sher-
man, this is very doubtful since scien-
tific observation reveals that there is
little stability to personality in its
formative stages. such as are en- coun-
tered in the nurSey school,
A child will seem a complete intra-
vert one day and week later, under
somewhat different circumstances,
complete extravert. One tendency final
ly gets the upper hand, depending on
which sort of behavior has proved most
successful to the child in solving its
problems.
The experimental work will consist of
placing children in special situations,
calling for different personality adjust
mentS and observing the changes which
take place.
Assumptions Disproved.
One set of observations, conducted by
Mrs. Lucille Ezekiel of the research CEN
ter staff, under DR.. Sherman's direction,
already has furnished evidence, which
throws grave doubt on one of the
fundamental assumptions of psyche
analysis. This is that the child starts
its conscious life as a completely selfish,
egocentric being concerned only with
its own welfare and that this attitude
is gradually polished off, as it grows
JuStments.
Quite the contrary, Dr. Sherman says,
the child does not become markell"
egecentric until it comes in contact
with others. There is nothing inherent
In the attribute of selfshnesS, which
only develops with social training. Mrs
Ezekiel watched children placed in play
egocentricity over period of two
months.
Egocentricity, says DR.. Sherman, ap-
pears thus to be a learned reaction.
When child is placed III a group. he
points out, there are two ways of solv-
ing the problems with which it is
faced. 1t can withdraw and play by
to its will. 1t is such situations as
these that are the molds in which per-
sonality and character are cast.
Encouraging Aggressiveness.
Apparently the best policy for the
parent or teacher, DR.. Sherman says,
is to encourage the child's Aggressive
ness. It is easier to tone down too
much egocentricity later than to build
up desirable degree Of it with nothing
to start with.
Another research project which may
Rave an important bearing on educa-
ton deals with teaching specific skiils
OO CIlllOIeu WIFI reference 10 general
motor coordination. This study will be
conducted by DR.. j. A. Hicks, new
member Of the staff. 1t will! consist of
such experiments as having two groups
OF children throw balls at moving tar
gets. One group will be given con-
slant practice in this activity, while
the other group will be kept at ordinary
play activities. After a few months
they will start throwing at the moving
target and their records compared with
those Of the children given special
practice.
Previous experiments by Dr. Hicks
indicate that little Is gained by the
special training but that success de-
ponds on the development and co-or-
dination of all the body muscles such
as comes from general play activities.
The same results have been shown, DR..
Sherman says, in teaching children to
walk Up stairs. Those given special
training shortly after they began to
walk could climb stairs only little
better after few months than those
children who had not been trained.
Tests Significant.
If these conclusions are verified by
the experiments this Winter, DIR. Sher-
man says, they should be significant in
such educational processes as teaching
children to play musical instruments
They would show that nothing is gained
in the long run by drilling young chill
oren on the piano or violin. Those who
start much later in the race will do just
as well.
DR.. Cora Key is starting series of
experiments to determine the effect of
fiuctuating emotions on intelligence as
measured by standard tests. In the
past the emotional condition of the per-
son being measured by these tests has
been largely a neglected factor. It Is
possible, DR.. Sherman points out that
some direct correlation can be found
between emotional and intellectual de-
Velopment.
Children will be tested in arranged
situations likely to arouse definite emo
tional reactions. as in school situations,
where they will be led to believe that
their whole future depends on the re-
suits Of the tests, and in cases where
children are brought to the clinic be-
cause of miSbehavior, when they viii.
think that the result of the tests will
determine what Is to be done with them.
To Compare Results.
Results in these cases will be conf
pared with such results as those OBJ
tanned by DR.. Key In testing children
in Corbin Hollow In the Blue Ridge
Mountains, where there apparently was
complete apathy. The scores of these
tests. which now are being analysed at
the child research center, reveal rather
narrow limits of intelligence. There Is