Evening star., 1939-01-05
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

Oy 3HOUtuS ~. aCfHy.
When small boys brag, as most Of
them do, it is compensation for feel
ings of inferiority.
This is stressed in a report on per-
sonality study of the worst braggarts
among the II and IL year olds at st.
Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore
under the direction Of Catholic Univer-
sity psychologists.
Nearly all the boys came from broken
homes. In many cases they had been
placed in the custody of the school by
the juvenile court. They were, for the
most part, poorly nourished and devel-
oped when they came there and were
sometimes Of inferior intelligence. The
worst braggarts, it was found, were
among those least able to make an
impression by any actual accomplish
ment, or who felt most keenly about
desertion by their parents, their illegiti-
mate births, etc.
The study was started with guess
who" test. All the boys were asked to
name their companions who told the
most exaggerated stories about them
selves. Most agreed on certain individ-
ualS. Then a list was made up which
was checked by the teachers and their
judgments usually agreed with those of
the BOYS. Following this, detailed studies
were made of the case histories of those
VINO made" the braggarts list.
Dragging, of course, is an almost uni
versal habit of the e-adolescent boy,
almost regardless of his circumstances,
unless he is clearly leader in his own
group. It is his compensation for the
superiority of his elders which he is
bound to recognize, but which usually
Is distasteful to him. This is his way
OF kidding himself" The condition be-
comes greatly exaggerated among chill
dren who have real cause for inferiority
feelings and it is usually the smallest
boy who is the greatest braggart. He
also is often the greatest daredevil as
we'll.
The study at St. Marys Industrial
School was conducted by Sister Cyril
Blubaugh graduate student of psychol-
ogy, under the direction of DR.. John E.
Rauth She gathered together a pa
thetic collection of case histories of chill
dren putting up a brave front against a
world which had treated them none too
tenderly.
AS she describes the situation: Every
child feels himself to be more or less
insecure and inferior, even under the
most favorable circumstances. The nat
ural features of his early years, his
smallness, weakness and ignorance, make
him dependent on the adults in his
environment and he reckons this subor-
dination as inferiority. His primary i'm
pulse so self-assertion causes him so to
interpret it. II his social feeling is
developed SO that he recognizes the limi-
tatlons under which he suffers to be the
common lot OF man and not peculiar to
himself, and If he grows up in an atmos-
phere of confidence and love, the child
becomes able to adjust without serious
conflict with reality.
IF, on the contrary, conditions exist
which increase the child's natural feel
ings OF insecurity and cause him to expe-
r1ence doubt concerning his personal
worth, his inherent longing to count
for something may drive him away from
reality. The child does not resign him
self to restrictions put upon this funda-
mental impulse, but he makes increased
effort to achieve security. Concomi-
tantly with the sense of insecurity, there
develops an increased tendency to compel
attention, to push into the limelight, to
compensate himself for the want he feels
He sets goal by which he hopes to
offset the psychological sense of infe-
rlorlty and better his situation. Com
penSatlon is defense of his threatened
self-esteem and its direction will be de-
termined by the nature of the conditions
causing the inferiority feeling and by
the opportunities at hand for solution of
the problem. The setting of the goal
by the child with his immature jude-
ment is fraught with great possibility of
error because it will be built, not upon
objective reality, but upon the subjective
view which the child takes of the facts
of life
The condition most likely to sap the
childS courage and make him feel infe-
rlor are excessive severity in parents and
teachers, criticism and an attitude OF
cold disapproval, favoritism and unfa-
vorable comparison with other children
emphasis upon natural defects, and bad
home conditions of one kind or another
Sometimes overindulgence and overpro-
lection destroy the childs confidence in
himself. Whatever the source of the
feeling of inadequacy, compensatory ac-
tivity of some nature usually comes into
play.
Dragging, without doubt, provides
some compensation for the failing cour-
age by presenting picture Of what the
child makes himself believe he is and
what he hopes others will think him
This picture is always an Improvement
on the facts or else it lays undue stress
upon the facts so as to impress the
hearers and put the speaker in better
position. 1t is a vicarious compensation
because it never overcomes difficulty.
1t merely furnishes some defense against
the secret feeling that the person is in
some way inadequate. The dullest
Dragged about academic success. Those
who had the poorest backgrounds Dragged
about the home conditions"
And, she tells in one case history, the
boy who was the most persistent bragger
about the f1neness of his home and the
accomplishments of his family always
ioi,od thu <,ro,,v, x,,oif;or of 70 ~,