The word «psychology» comes from Latin and was first used at the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century by the Christian humanist and poet Marko Marulic , in his work entitled «Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae» Psychology of the nature of the human soul. Although psychological notions are mainly used in evaluations and treatments of different psychopathologies, in recent decades, psychology professionals have become part of management or human resources departments in companies, in fields related to child development and aging, the world of law, sports, the media, and the forensic sciences.
On the other hand, a great part of psychologists are professionally involved in therapeutic activities such as clinical, consultancy or education. But one part is also dedicated to carrying out research from universities on a wide range of topics related to human behavior.
In our list of more than 20 books on General Psychology in PDF format , you can find everything related to the subject, its branches, applications and field of work.
We have included books in Spanish and Portuguese. Each of the books on General Psychology has been released for free distribution or is in the public domain. If you found this list useful, do not forget to share it on your social networks. Do you want more Psychology books in PDF format?
Here we present our complete selection of General Psychology books:. Beginning Psychology author Lardbucket. Our libraries are crowded. Supposedly great titles that aim to make you a swift persuaded or a mind reader are everywhere.
Books that promise to help you figure out others so you can find the ultimate way of controlling a conversation or simply calming folks when they are feeling stressed are all over the place. To find the best ones for you personally, you should stop. Stop and consider a couple of questions.
The first question you should ask yourself if you want to uncover the hidden traits in your, and others, personalities, is this one: What type of field I want to start exploring? What type of discipline do I want to get better at? There are different types of psychology. There is behavioral psychology. Cognitive psychology. Evolutionary psychology. Even the secret society of dark psychology. If this is the case, congratulations. The book covers a lot of ground. How it all started — the history of psychology.
The most recognized names, ideas, and fundamental concepts around behaviorism, psychotherapy, and developmental psychology.
Plainly, this is an easy-to-get encyclopedia of the fascinating field of psychology. People who are just getting started in the field of psychology. The pictures and the nicely designed pages will break it down for you.
Expect: lots of big ideas simply explained and backed with a lot of images, so you can familiarize yourself with all major concepts. One of the most praised books in the self-help industry.
Dale Carnegie teaches us how to win friends by focusing on a couple of simple techniques. The most overlooked technique to get others to like you and join your side? Listen to them. Really listen. This is a bestseller for a simple reason. The stories and the methods are timeless. The book is easy to understand and easy to implement. This book will open your eyes to so many possibilities.
One important thing, even if you find the advice mentioned too simple and too vague, follow them. Read my summary Get the book. Our brains are full of complex systems. The Emotional Brain is a very good introduction to the emotional side of our brains. That there are also emotions that are actually the ones that control you.
You will finally reveal your hidden motives in your daily actions and escape from what was previously almost impossible to get out of situations. So essentially, this book is for people who want to properly manage their moods and their relationships with others.
Where this leads us? Each one of a pair enhances the effect of its complementary when the two colors are brought close together.
In a similar way, light and dark tints act as complementaries. Light objects make dark objects near appear darker, and dark objects make light objects near seem lighter. These universal principles of contrast are of much practical significance. They must be taken account of in all arrangements of colors and tints, for example, in dress, in the arrangement of flowers and shrubs, in painting. If, on a rotating motor, disks of different colorssay red and yelloware placed and rotated, one sees on looking at them not red or yellow but orange.
This phenomenon is known as color-mixture. The result is due to the [Page 40] simultaneous stimulation of the retina by two kinds of ether vibration. If the colors used are a certain red and a certain green, they neutralize each other and produce only gray. All the pairs of complementary colors mentioned above act in the same way, producing, if mixed in the right proportion, no color, but gray.
If colored disks not complementary are mixed by rotation on a motor, they produce an intermediate color. Red and yellow give orange. Blue and green give bluish green. Yellow and green give yellowish green. Red and blue give violet or purple, depending on the proportion. Mixing pigments gives, in general, the same results as mixing by means of rotating the disks. The ordinary blue and yellow pigments give green when mixed, because each of the two pigments contains green.
The blue and yellow neutralize each other, leaving green. Visual After-Images. The stimulation of the retina has interesting after effects. We shall mention here only the one known as negative after-images.
If one will place on the table a sheet of white paper, and on this white paper lay a small piece of colored paper, and if he will then gaze steadily at the colored paper for.
If the head is not moved, this complementary color has the same size and shape as the original colored piece of paper. The negative afterimage can be projected on a background at different distances, its size depending on the distance of the background.
The after-image will be found to mix with an objective color in accordance with the principles of color-mixture mentioned above. After-image phenomena have some practical consequences.
If one has been looking at a certain color for some time, a half-minute or more, then looks at [Page 41] some other color, the after-image of the first color mixes with the second color.
The fact last mentioned leads us to the subject of adaptation. If the eyes are stimulated by the same kind of light for some time, the eyes become adapted to that light. If the light is yellow, at first objects seem yellow, but after a time they look as if they were illuminated with white light, losing the yellow aspect.
But if one then goes out into white light, everything looks bluish. The negative after-image of the yellow being cast upon everything makes the surroundings look blue, for the after-image of yellow is blue.
All the other colors act in a similar way, as do also black and white. If one has been for some time in a dark room and then goes out to a lighter place, it seems unusually light. And if one goes from the light to a dark room, it seems unusually dark. Hearing or Audition.
Just as the eye is an organ sensitive to certain frequencies of ether vibration, so the ear is an organ sensitive to certain air vibrations. The reader should familiarize himself with the physiology of the ear by reference to physiologies. The drum-skin, the three little bones of the middle ear, and the cochlea of the inner ear are all merely mechanical means of making possible the stimulation of the specialized endings of the auditory nerve by vibrations of air.
As the different colors are due to different vibration frequencies of the ether, so different pitches of sound are due to differences in the rates of the air vibrations. The low bass notes are produced by the low vibration frequencies. The high notes are produced by the high vibration frequencies. The lowest notes that we [Page 42] can hear are produced by about twenty vibrations a second, and the highest by about forty thousand vibrations a second.
Other Sense Organs. We need not give a detailed statement of the facts concerning the other senses. In each case the sense organ is some special adaptation of the nerve-endings with appropriate apparatus in connection to enable it to be affected by some special thing or force in the environment.
In the case of taste, we find in the mouth, chiefly on the back and edges of the tongue, organs sensitive to sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. In the nose we have an organ that is sensitive to the tiny particles of substances that float in the air which we breathe in through the nose.
In the skin we find several kinds of sense organs that give us the sensations of cold and warmth, of pressure and pain. These are all special and definite sensations produced by different kinds of organs. The sense of warmth is produced by different organs from those which produce the sense of cold. So, also, pain and touch or pressure have each its particular organ. Within the body itself we have sense organs also, particularly in the joints and tendons and in the muscles.
These give us the sensations which are the basis of our perception of motion, and of the position of the body and its members. In the semicircular canals of the inner ear are organs that give us the sense of dizziness, and enable us to maintain our equilibrium and to know up from down.
The general nature of the sense organs and of sensation should now be apparent. The nervous system reaches out its myriad fingers to every portion of [Page 43] the surface of the body, and within the body as well. These nerve-endings are specially adapted to receive each its particular form of stimulation. This stimulation of our sense organs is the basis or cause of our sensations. And our sensations are the elementary stuff of all our experience.
Whatever thoughts we have, whatever ideas or images we have, they come originally from our sensations. They are built up out of our sensations or from these sensations as they exist in memory.
Defects of Sense Organs. The organs of sight and hearing are now by far the most important of our sense organs. They enable us to sense things that are at a distance. We shall therefore discuss defects of these two organs only. Since sensations are the primary stuff out of which mind is made, and since sight and hearing are the most important sense organs, it is evident that our lives are very much dependent on these organs.
If they cannot do their work well, then we are handicapped. And this is often the case. The making of the human eye is one of the most remarkable achievements of nature. But the making of a perfect eye is too big a task for nature. She never makes a perfect eye. There is always some defect, large or small. To take plastic material and make lenses and shutters and curtains is a great task.
The curvature of the front of the eye and of the front and back of the crystalline lens is never quite perfect, but in the majority of cases it is nearly enough perfect to give us good vision. However, in about one third of school children the defect is great enough to need to be corrected by glasses. The principle of the correction of sight by means of glasses is merely this:[1] When the focusing apparatus of the eye is not perfect, it can be made so by [Page 44] putting in front of the eye the proper kind of lens.
There is nothing strange or mysterious about it. In some cases, the eye focuses the light before it reaches the retina. Such cases are known as nearsightedness and are corrected by having placed in front of the eyes concave lenses of the proper strength. These lenses diverge the rays and make them focus on the retina.
In other cases, the eye is not able to focus the rays by the time they reach the retina. In these cases, the eyes need the help of convex lenses of the proper strength to make the focus fall exactly on the retina.
Consult a good text in physiology. Noyes University of Missouri Extension Bulletin on eye and ear defects will be found most useful. The curvature in one direction is different from that in others. For example, the vertical curvature may be more convex than the horizontal. Such a condition produces a serious defect of vision. It can be corrected by means of cylindrical lenses of the proper strength so placed before the eye as to correct the defect in curvature.
Still another defect of vision is known as presbyopia or farsightedness due to old age. It has the following explanation: In early life, when we look at near objects, the crystalline lens automatically becomes thicker, more convex. This adjustment brings the rays to a focus on the retina, which is required for good vision. As we get old, the crystalline lens loses its power to change its adjustment for near objects, although the eye may see at a distance as well as ever.
The old person, therefore, must wear convex glasses when looking at near [Page 45] objects, as in reading and sewing. Another visual defect of a different nature is known as partial color blindness. The defects described above are due to misshapen eyes. Partial color blindness is due to a defect of the retina which makes it unable to be affected by light waves producing red and green.
A person with this defect confuses red and green. While only a small percentage of the population has this defect, it is nevertheless very important that those having it be detected. People having the defect should not be allowed to enter occupations in which the seeing of red and green is important.
It was recently brought to the authors attention that a partially color-blind man was selling stamps in a post office. Since two denominations of stamps are distinguished by red and green colors, this man made frequent mistakes. He was doing one of the things for which he was specially unfitted. It is easy to detect color blindness by simple tests.
So great is the importance of good vision in school work and the later work of life, that every teacher should know how to make simple tests to determine visual defects. Children showing any symptoms of eyestrain should be required to have their visual defects corrected by a competent oculist, and should be warned not to have the correction made by a quack.
There is great popular ignorance and even prejudice concerning visual defects, and it is very important that teachers have a clear understanding of the facts. Defects of Hearing. Hearing defects are only about half as frequent as those of sight. They are nearly all due to catarrhal infection of the middle ear through the Eustachian tube. The careful and frequent medical examination of school [Page 46] children cannot, therefore, be too strongly emphasized.
The deafness or partial deafness that comes from this catarrhal infection can seldom be cured; it must be prevented by the early treatment of the troubles which cause it. The mind is closely related to the body.
Especially is it dependent upon the brain, nerves, and sense organs. The sense organs are special adaptations of the nerveends for receiving impressions. Each sense organ receives only its particular type of impression. The main visual phenomena are those of color-mixture, after-images, adaptation, and contrast.
Since sensation is the basis of mental life, defects of the sense organs are serious handicaps and should be corrected if possible.
Visual defects are usually due to a misshapen eyeball and can be corrected by proper glasses, which should be fitted by an oculist. Hearing defects usually arise from catarrhal trouble in the middle ear.
Make a study of the relation of the mind to the body. Enumerate the different lines of evidence which you may find indicating their close relationship. Can you find any evidence tending to show that the mind is independent of the body? Colored disks can be procured from C. Stoelting Company, Chicago. If a small motor is available, the disks can be rotated on the motor and the colors mixed.
Mix pairs of complementary colors, also pairs of non-complementary colors, and note the result. A simple device can be made for mixing colors, as follows: On a board stand a pane of glass. On one side of the glass put a colored paper and on the other side of the glass put a different color. By looking through the glass you can see one color through transmitted light and the other color through reflected light. By inclining the glass at different angles you can get different proportions of the mixture, now more of one color, now more of the other.
Negative After-Images. Cut out pieces of colored paper a half inch square. Put one of these on a white background on the table. With elbows on the table, hold the head in the hands and gaze at the colored paper for about a half-minute, then blow the paper away and continue to gaze at the white background.
Note the color that appears. Use different colors and tabulate the results. Try projecting the after-images at different distances. Project the after-images on different colored papers. Do the after-images mix with the colors of the papers? An interesting experiment with positive after-images can be performed as follows: Shut yourself in a dark closet for fifteen or twenty minutes to remove all trace of stimulation of the retina.
With the eyes covered with several folds of thick black cloth go to a window, uncover the eyes and take a momentary look at the landscape, immediately covering the eyes again. The landscape will appear as a positive after-image, with the positive colors and lights and shades.
The experiment is best performed on a bright day. Put on colored glasses or hold before the eyes a large piece of colored glass. Note that at first everything takes on the color of the glass. What change comes over objects after the glasses have been worn for fifteen or twenty minutes? Describe your experience after removing the glasses. Plan and perform other experiments showing adaptation. For illustration, go from a very bright room into a dark room.
Go from a very dark room to a light one. Describe your experience. Take a medium gray paper and lay it on white and various shades of gray and black paper. Describe and explain what you find. Color Contrast. Darken a room by covering all the windows except one window pane. Cover it with cardboard. In the cardboard cut two windows six inches long and one inch wide. Over one window put colored glass or. By holding up a pencil you can cast two shadows on a piece of paper.
What color are the shadows? One is a contrast color induced by the other; which one? Explain the results. Make a study of the way in which women dress. What do you learn about color effects? From the Stoelting Company you can obtain the Holmgren worsteds for studying color blindness. Defective Vision. Procure a Snellens test chart and determine the visual acuity of the members of the class. Seat the subject twenty feet from the chart, which should be placed in a good light. While testing one eye, cover the other with a piece of cardboard.
Above each row of letters on the chart is a number which indicates the distance at which it can be read by a normal eye. If the subject can read above the twenty-foot line and complains of headache from reading, farsightedness is indicated. If the subject cannot read up to the twenty-foot line, nearsightedness or astigmatism is indicated. By consultation with the teacher of physics, plan an experiment to show that the pitch of tones depends on vibration frequency.
Such an experiment can be very simply performed by rotating a wheel having spokes. Hold a light stick against the spokes so that it strikes each spoke.
If the wheel is rotated so as to give twenty or thirty strokes a second, a very low tone will be heard. By rotating the wheel faster you get a higher tone. Other similar experiments can be performed. Acuity of hearing can be tested by finding the distance at which the various members of the class can hear a watch-tick. The teacher can plan an experiment using whispering instead of the watch-tick. See the authors Examination of School Children. By using the point of a nail, one can find the cold spots on the skin.
Warm the nail to about 40 degrees Centigrade and you can find the warm spots. By touching the hairs on the back of the hand, you can stimulate the pressure spots. By pricking the skin with the point of a needle, you can stimulate the pain spots. The sense of taste is sensitive only to solutions that are sweet, sour, salt, or bitter. Plan experiments to verify this point. What we call the taste of many things is due chiefly to odor.
Therefore in experiments with taste, the nostrils should be stopped up with cotton. It will be found, for example, that quinine and coffee are indistinguishable if their odors be eliminated by stopping the nose. The student should compare the taste of many substances put into the mouth with the nostrils open with the taste of the same substances with the nostrils closed. Stimulus and Response. We have learned something about the sense organs and their functions.
We have seen that it is through the sense organs that the world affects us, stimulates us. And we have said that we are stimulated in order that we may respond. We must now inquire into the nature of our responses. We are moving, active beings. But how do we move, how do we act when stimulated? Why do we do one thing rather than another? Why do we do one thing at one time and a different thing at another time? Before we answer these questions it will be necessary for us to get a more definite and complete idea of the nature of stimulus and response.
We have already used these terms, but we must now give a more definite account of them. It was said in the preceding chapter that when a muscle contracts, it must first receive a nerve-impulse. Now, anything which starts this nerve-impulse is called the stimulus.
The muscular movement which follows is, of course, the response. The nervous system forms the connection between the stimulus and response. The stimulus which brings about a response may be very simple.
Or, on the other hand, it may be very complex. If one blows upon the eyelids of a baby, the lids automatically close. The blowing is the stimulus and the closing of the lids is [Page 51] the response. Both stimulus and response are here very simple. But sometimes the stimulus is more complex, not merely the simple excitation of one sense organ, but a complicated stimulation of an organ, or the simultaneous stimulation of several organs.
In playing ball, the stimulus for the batter is the oncoming ball. The response is the stroke. This case is much more complex than the reflex closing of the eyelids. The ball may be pitched in many different ways and the response changes with these variations.
In piano playing, the stimulus is the notes written in their particular places on the staff. Not only must the position of the notes on the staff be taken into account,. The striking of the notes in the proper order, in the proper time, and with the proper force, is the response. In typewriting, the stimulus is the copy, or the idea of what is to be written, and the response is the striking of the keys in the proper order. Speaking generally, we may say that the stimulus is the force or forces which excite the sense organs, and thereby, through the nervous system, bring about a muscular response.
This is the ordinary type of action, but we have already indicated a different type. In speaking of typewriting we said the stimulus might be either the copy or ideas. One can write from copy or dictation, in which the stimulus is the written or spoken word, but one can also write as one thinks of what one wishes to write.
The latter is known as centrally initiated action. That is to say, the stimulus comes from within, in the brain, rather than from without.
Let us explain this kind of stimulation a little further. Suppose I am sitting in my chair reading. I finish a chapter and look at my watch. I notice that it is three [Page 52] oclock, and recall that I was to meet a friend at that time.
The stimulus in this case is in the brain itself; it is the nervous activity which corresponds to the idea of meeting my friend. If we disregard the distinction between mind and body, we may say that the stimulus for a response may be an idea as well as a perception, the perception arising from the immediate stimulation of a sense organ, and the idea arising from an excitation of the brain not caused by an immediate stimulation of a sense organ.
Instincts and Habits. In human action it is evident that there is always a stimulus to start the nerve-impulse which causes the action. If we make inquiry concerning the connection between the stimulus and response; if we ask how it has come about that a particular stimulus causes a particular response rather than some other possible response, we find two kinds of causes.
In one case the causal connection is established through heredity; in the other, the causal connection is established during a persons lifetime through training. A chicken, for example, hides under some cover the first time it hears the cry of a hawk; it scratches the first time its feet touch sand or gravel; it pecks the first time it sees an insect near by.
An infant closes its eyes the first time it feels cold wind blow upon them; it cries the first time it feels pain; it clasps its fingers together the first time a touch is felt inside them. The childs nervous system is so organized that, in each of the cases named, the stimulus brings forth the particular, definite response. These acts do not have to be learned.
But it is quite different in typewriting and piano playing. One must learn what keys on the piano to strike in response to the various situations of the notes as [Page 53] written in the music. One must also learn the keys on the typewriter before he can operate a typewriter. And in the case of other habits, we find, for example, that one does not respond by saying 81 for 9 times 9; nor 13 for 6 plus 7; nor 8 for 15 minus 7; nor 8 for the square root of 64; nor for the square of 12, etc.
Some connections between stimulus and response we have through inheritance; all others are built up and established in ones lifetime, particularly in the first thirty years of ones life. We have spoken of bonds between stimulus and response, but have not explained just what can be meant by a bond. In what sense are stimulus and response bound together?
A bond is a matter of greater permeability, of less resistance in one direction through the nervous system than in other directions. Nerves are conductors for nerve-currents. When a nerve-current is started in a sense organ, it passes on through the path of least resistance. Now, some nerves are so organized and connected through inheritance as to offer small resistance.
This forms a ready-made connection between stimulus and response. Muscular responses that are connected with their stimuli through inherited bonds, by inherited nerve structure, are called instincts. Those that are connected by acquired bonds are called habits. Sucking, crying, laughing, are instinctive acts.
Adding, typewriting, piano playing, are habits. The term instinct may be given to the act depending upon inherited structure, an inherited bond, or it may be given to the inherited bond itself.
Similarly, the term habit may be given to an act that we have had to learn or to the bond which we [Page 54] ourselves establish between response and stimulus. In this book we shall usually mean by instinct an action depending upon inherited structure and by habit an act depending upon a bond established during lifetime. A good part of our early lives is spent in building up bonds between stimuli and responses. This establishing of bonds or connections is called learning.
Appearance of Inherited Tendencies. Not all of our inherited tendencies are manifested immediately after birth, nor indeed in the earliest years of childhood, but appear at different stages of the childs growth. It has already been said that a child, soon after birth, will close its eyelids when they are blown upon. The lids do not close at this time if one strikes at them, but they will do this later.
The proper working of an instinct or an inherited tendency, then, depends upon the childs having reached a certain state of development. The maturing of an instinct depends upon both age and use, that is to say, upon the age of the animal and the amount of use or exercise that the instinctive activity has had. The most important factor, however, seems to be age. While our knowledge of the dependence of an instinct upon the age of the animal is not quite so definite in the case of human instincts, the matter has been worked out in the case of chickens.
The experiment was as follows: Chickens were taken at the time of hatching, and some allowed to peck from the first, while others were kept in a dark room and not allowed to peck. When the chickens were taken out of the dark room at the end of one, two, three, and four days, it was found that in a few hours they were pecking as well as those that had been pecking from birth.
It seems probable, if we may judge from our limited knowledge, that in the human child, [Page 55] activities are for the most part dependent upon the age of the child, and upon the state of development of the nervous system and of the organs of the body. Significance of Inherited Tendencies. Although human nature is very. This will at once be apparent if we consider how greatly we are influenced by anger, jealousy, love, fear, and competition.
Now we do not have to learn to be jealous, to hate, to love, to be envious, to fight, or to fear. These are emotions common to all members of the human race, and their expression is an inborn tendency. Throughout life no other influences are so powerful in determining our action as are these. So, although most of our detailed actions in life are habits which we learn or acquire, the fundamental influences which decide the course of our action are inherited tendencies. Classification of Instincts.
For convenience in treatment the instincts are grouped in classes. Those instincts most closely related to individual survival are called individualistic instincts. Those more closely related to the survival of the group are called socialistic. Those individualistic tendencies growing out of periodic changes of the environment may be called environmental instincts.
Those closely related to human infancy, adapting and adjusting the child to the world in which he lives, may be called adaptive. There is still another group of inherited tendencies connected with sex and reproduction, which are not discussed in this book. We shall give a brief discussion of the instincts falling under these various classes. It must be remembered, however, that the psychology of the instincts is [Page 56] indefinite and obscure.
It is difficult to bring the instincts into the laboratory for accurate study. For our knowledge of the instincts we are dependent, for the most part, on general observation. We have had a few careful studies of the very earliest years of childhood. However, although from the theoretical point of view our knowledge of the instincts is incomplete, it is sufficient to be of considerable practical value.
The Individualistic Instincts. Mans civilized life has covered but a short period of time, only a few hundred or a few thousand years. His pre-civilized life doubtless covered a period of millions of years. The inborn tendencies in us are such as were developed in the long period of savage life. During all of mans life in the time before civilization, he was always in danger. He had many enemies, and most of these enemies had the advantage of him in strength and natural means of defense.
Unaided by weapons, he could hardly hold his own against any of the beasts of prey. So there were developed in man by the process of natural selection many inherited responses which we group under the head of fear responses. Just what the various situations are that bring forth these responses has never been carefully worked out. But any situation that suddenly puts an individual in danger of losing his life brings about characteristic reactions.
The most characteristic of the responses are shown in connection with circulation and respiration. Both of these processes are much interfered with. Sometimes the action is accelerated, at other times it is retarded, and in some cases the respiratory and circulatory organs are almost paralyzed. Also the small muscles of the skin are made to contract, producing the sensation of the hair standing on [Page 57] end.
Just what the original use of all these responses was it is difficult now to. Whether any particular situations now call forth inherited fear responses in us is not definitely established.
But among lower animals there are certain definite and particular situations which do call forth fear responses.
On the whole, the evidence rather favors the idea of definite fear situations among children. It seems that certain situations do invariably arouse fear responses.
To be alone in the dark, to be in a strange place, to hear loud and sudden noises, to see large, strange animals coming in threatening manner, seem universally to call forth fear responses in children. However, the whole situation must always be considered. A situation in which the father or mother is present is quite different from one in which they are both absent. But it is certain that these and other fears are closely related to the age and development of the child.
In the earlier years of infancy, certain fears are not present that are present later. And it can be demonstrated that the fears that do arise as infancy passes on are natural and inherited and not the result of experience. Few of the original causes of fear now exist. The original danger was from wild animals chiefly. Seldom are we now in such danger.
But of course this has been the case for only a short time. Our bodies are the same sort of bodies that our ancestors had, therefore we are full of needless fears. During the early years of a childs life, wise treatment causes most of the fear tendencies to disappear because of disuse.
On the other hand, unwise treatment may accentuate and [Page 58] perpetuate them, causing much misery and unhappiness. Neither the home nor the school should play upon these ancestral fears. We should not try to get a child to be good by frightening him; nor should we often use fear of pain as an incentive to get a child to do his work.
Man has always been afraid, but he has also always been a fighter. He has always had to fight for his life against the lower animals, and he has also fought his fellow man. The fighting response is connected with the emotions of anger, envy, and jealousy. A man is angered by anything that interferes with his life, with his purposes, with whatever he calls his own. We become angry if some one strikes our bodies, or attacks our beliefs, or the beliefs of our dear friends, particularly of our families.
The typical responses connected with anger are such as faster heart-beat, irregular breathing, congestion of the blood in the face and head, tightening of the voluntary muscles, particularly a setting of the teeth and a clinching of the fists.
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