pi ni opICAL -ateoon | RESEARCH BULLETIN OF THE NATIONAL VOL. XII - No. 2 EDUCATION MARCH - 1934 ASSOCIATION Education for Character Part |: The Social and Psychological Background “i, nN Published by the RESEARCH DIVISION of the NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D.C. RESEARCH BULLETIN o 1 Published five times each year in January, March, May, September, and November President, JESSIE GRAY NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Secretary, J. W. CRABTREE The payment of the $5 membership fee of the National Education Association entitles one to receive for one year the Research Bulletin, the Journal, the An- nual Volume of Addresses and Proceed- ings, and certain other publications of the Association. One dollar of each $5 mem- bership fee is for a year’s subscription to the Research Bulletin. The Research Bulletin may be subscribed for separately at $1 per year. Copies may be pur- chased for 25 cents, and in quantities at a reduced rate. 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On request, the Division of Publica- tions will supply at cost mats of figures which appear in the Research Bulletin. cov oS CONTENTS Sa AES eto d a os wala gaduesb.s atew ad eee sabes arvceakss neeene. te I. A NEw INTEREST IN AN OLD PROBLEM.............. 0c cccucecccccece 45 II. CHARACTER BUILDING IN A New SociA SETTING.............0--0-00- 46 III. tHe NATURE AND FORMATION OF CHARACTER.............00--000. 49 General definitions of personality and character................0-00000 49 eee ee ee ee eee 50 Character a product of heredity and environment....................... 50 ee oe ONS SONMNOEION. 2.54 6 isaac’ a's dled od eeuweodadacnax 51 EE SI OO RE Ee SO OEE OM oe si ee 51 MTEL Scr tn akc yc Ucar tine evan Ud es eee ft ater 51 Ne iat d sth a disaliuie SAN aa hee ad 6 i SAGe clea Mara manic eis 52 PE er OE Ee Te ay ee re ee 54 RE Fe ee er ee er ee eee 55 Emotional conditions and mental health. ................ ccc cccccccae 56 ee er ee eee eee ee ee 57 I edi caliph al w: gs 0 tata RNR We le 2A che Gah. a ork ee Noose 59 DP. Pak eee we we PI eee oc 6 RS Ow ee oo odd e Se De bee eee ae 6U EE ES CE CRE ETL EE ee ae Pere 61 I 6a Bid owe keene baa hea 6 eee eI eae 6s 08) & 828 be eel Oo Rae ed 62 ca no reo Gs pice, nial ROM. oe Bk ar ove MIRED. eres aveae Wuele 62 Neighborhood, community, and geographical area ............00000ee005 65 gg oligo). 5 slatted X.0 wc oa 8S Aim @ aehio aodateue Aa 66 EEO OL Ee eee ee re? 68 es os Bis sw kk oe knee oe hae RR Ke hee ede 69 NN ne 70 ee UNIT COMIN so a caithwbo 6 i 6i6-00'e 0:6 09.04 pe Sem vaca a 71 _7Religious affiliation and religious education...............0.cc0c0eeeees 72 Public and other non-sectarian schools.............c.ccccccccceccceces 74 gt gt Sp ES ee ne a aa er ee 77 Summary of factors in character formation..............cccccccccccccece 77 Processes and principles of character formation..............0..eee00-. 77 oe cas Ben ca ba ss cekaeeddedbakeweness 78 oss da Walia Wc wie nidid «6 Ode RU. O Rhew ke 78 Learning thru direct experience and thru language.............-.ecee0008 79 Social control vs. individual reflection and self-direction...............2.. 79 [43 ] | { ! FOREWORD N 1932 the National Education Association published thru its Departments of Superintendence and Classroom Teachers two important yearbooks re- lating to character training. This bulletin and the one to follow make a further contribution to this field by presenting in relatively brief compass some of the essential features of character building in the present day. When the social and economic conditions which surround and in large measure control our lives are shifting and changing, it is essential to reappraise the work of the public schools from the viewpoint of character development. Following such reappraisal, educators must endeavor to improve the school program in the light of all available facts. But character education is not merely the work of the school ; the home and the community have large influences, good or bad, upon the developing char- acter of boys and girls. The schools must not shirk their responsibility in this field, but those who criticize the schools for failure to develop the highest type of citizen should inquire to what extent the constructive work of the school is being torn down by destructive forces in the community. Recognition should be given also to character-building agencies and influences outside the school. Our profession may well give attention to all those phases of our contemporary life which tend either to supplement or counteract the wholesome influences of classroom and teacher. This bulletin presents evidence concerning a variety of personal and social factors which are involved in character development. It also reviews some of the psychological processes and principles upon which any program of char- acter education should be based. These basic considerations will be followed, in the bulletin for May 1934, by a constructive discussion of character building in the school. Both of these bulletins should be useful to all who are actively interested in improving education for character. Character building is not a new undertaking. It has occupied an important place in the affairs of men since the beginning of human history. It is, however, a problem which must be met by each new generation in the light of the conditions which confront it. J. W. Crastree, Secretary, National Education Association re [44] quat com ociety thei ed of were 1, but then 5 not duct de help pier not es of nore > sit- rem lem- h ise lenry 4 p Taw sd th er cde es ane 7 ence Sai ihe hep Di A i te i well stated in the committee report referred to above: In a stationary and simple society such as is often found among primitive peoples the conditions of life are much the same from generation to generation. A father knows about what the conditions of life will be for his son and his son’s son. Rules of con duct can be worked out in great detail. They become tested by experience and can be applied minutely to specific situations. The authority of the past is mighty. There is majesty in the law. In a changing heterogeneous society such as ours, many situations are new. Specific detailed rules of guidance based on the past are difhcult to apply. Rules are worked out but they are abstract and tend to be too general for detailed guidance. The author- ity of the past tends to fade. A major task of education is to correct the mistaken idea that basic ethical principles are no longer useful. Education must aid the indi vidual in rediscovering and accepting these principles. It must guide him in applying them wisely to new and changing problems. Above all, it must inspire him to utilize these princi ples in directing social change itself for the greater welfare of society. Social integration—The second important feature of industrial civilization is the rela tively close integration of human life every- where. Efficient production of goods and serv- ices requires increased specialization in every field. This specialization in turn necessitates a high degree of cooperation for the exchange and distribution of products. While specializa- tion has created a new interdependence, the necessary cooperation has been made possible by an astonishing development in means of transportation and communication. For exam ple, miles of railroad in the United States in creased from 4000 in 1842, to 260,440 in 1930. From 1895 to 1930 the number of telephones in use increased from only 339,500 to 20,201,. 000. In 1899 there were fewer than 4000 mo tor vehicles of all kinds, while in 1929 more than 26,500,000 automobiles were in opera- tion.* These factors, together with the im- provement of roads and development of the 3 President’s Research Committee, op. cit., p. L. *U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce steamship, airplane, telegraph, motion picture, and radio, have greatly facilitated the move ment of commodities, ideas, and people from place to place Our new interdependence and freedom of movement call for broader loyalties and more cooperative outlooks in both politics and eco nomics. he need for increasing emphasis upon large group consciousness is concisely stated by Kilpatrick : As men and their affairs become more and more interrelated, each individual with other individuals, one group with other groups, one nation with other nations, there is a corresponding demand for an outlook adequate to take care of this far-flung and Nothing than world growing connectedness. less mindedness will suffice—the ability to see social problems on the scale on which they exist The importance of cooperative relationships among individuals is further stressed in the Tenth Yearbook of the Department of Super intendence: Individualistic and competitive impulses must be subordinated increasingly to social and cooperative tendencies. In the day of the pioneer, because of the directness of the struggle with nature, the simplicity of economic enterprise, and the prevailing condition of personal or family independence, a rugged indi But gone. In industrial society practically all tasks are vidualism was socially defensible that day is cooperative in character; interdependence rather than independence is the rule of life; and the road to power leads through the organization of men as well as the conquest of the resources of nature.® Power cation is the tremendous power which has en His nature, over life and death, and \ third source of concern for edu- abled man to transform his environment power overt over the human mind must be controlled wisely if society is to benefit rather than suffer therefrom. To illustrate, we now have, for practically the first time in history, the know] edge and the physical power for producing more goods and services than are needed; yet the present worldwide depression painfully at- tests our previous inability and unwillingness 1932 Statistical Abstract of the United States Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office. 1932. p. 367, 338, 358. 5 Kilpatrick, William H. Education for a Changing Civilization. New York Macmillan Co., 1926. p. 71 * National Education Association, Department of Superintendence. Tenth Yearbook, p. 13. {47 ] to control production and distribution in the interests of all the people. Mastery of nature has given man such power over life and death that he is capable of de- stroying himself as a race. Recent progress in the application of chemistry to warfare will, we are told, make the last war seem like a mild Fourth-of-July celebration in contrast to the next. Such a menace calls for a kind of social education which is all too uncommon in our schools. Power over matter is no more significant than power over the human mind. The press, the movies, and the radio now make it possible to plant ideas and instil beliefs in millions of people within a very short time. Are these agencies of education (and of propaganda) wisely controlled? Do they promote the best interests of the people as a whole? No unbiased observer can fail to agree with the following appraisal of the situation: In every society there are powerful minority groups struggling for the control of these instru- ments and bent on conserving or grasping special privileges of all kinds. The end sought may be the protection of a particular property interest, the sell- ing of a certain brand of toilet soap, or the provok- ing of a war with a neighboring people. If the wel- fare of the many is to be safeguarded in this welter of forces, the ordinary citizen must be trained to be skeptical of all that he reads and hears. He n taught to weigh evidence and to arrive at when a large part of the evidence is false.’ Responsibility of the school—Under th ditions outlined above, the older forms «: cial education and control are becomin riously weakened. Our population is in ingly concentrated in cities, where cro conditions, excessive stimuli, and weak munity morale often tend to encourag: wholesome and anti-social behavior. Adul: turning from agricultural pursuits to i: try in increasing numbers, but indust: longer has much place for children. The : ily has practically ceased to function as a for economic production, and children « quently have relatively few activities o: sponsibilities in the home. These facts plac: creased responsibility for moral education the school. The foregoing statement does not imply : in a complex machine civilization the schoo the only suitable agency for character ed tion. It certainly is not the only agency, an! it may not be the most important. Nevert}y less, one cannot escape the conclusion that mankind is to progress toward perman: peace and more constructive social livi: every effort must be made to increase the s effectiveness of the school.* ™ National Education Association, Department of Superintendence. Tenth Yearbook, p. 15. ® For further discussion of the school’s increased responsibility for moral and social education, see: Barnes, Harry “Education for Social Progress.’’ Journal of Adult Education 4: 373-77; October, 1932. Briggs, Thomas H. ‘‘The Changing \\ and the Curriculum.”’ Teachers College Record 35: 33-55; October, 1933. Counts, George S. Dare the School Build a Nev Order? John Day Pamphlets, No. 11. New York: John Day Co., 1932. 56 p. Johnston, J. B. ‘‘Education Geared to a C! World.”’ School and Society 38: 193-202; August 12, 1933. Kilpatrick, William H., and others. The Educational Frontier York: Century Co., 1933. 325 p. National Education Association. The Social-Economic Goals of America. Washington, the Association, 1933. 22 p. G ENERAL and public repudiation of the doctrine of laissez faire in behalf of the principle and practise of general social control is necessary. Education has a responsibility for training individuals to share in this social control instead of merely equipping them with ability to make their private way in isolation and competition. The ability and the desire to think collectively, to engage in social planning con- ceived and conducted experimentally for the good of all, is a requirement of good citizenship under existing conditions. Educators can ignore it only at the risk of evasion and futility.—Kilpatrick, William H., and others. The Educational Fron- tier. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1933. p. 69. [48] Ge danent living S¢ BN Sate Nate III. The Nature and Formation of Character General Definitions of Personality and Character Personality” may be defined as the compos- of the individual’s tendencies to behavior, including mental as well as physical activity. Psychologists differ somewhat in their views concerning the relative significance of conscious and unconscious processes in the development and manifestation of personality, but they gen- erally agree in the use of this term to designate the individual’s whole self. This is a psycho- 1 log cerned with moral or ethical standards. ‘“‘Char- ical definition, and as such it is not con- acter,’ on the other hand, usually implies the evaluation of behavior tendencies with refe: ence to standards of right and wrong. There are two ways of defining character in relation to the total personality of the in- dividual. The first of these limits the field of character to certain areas of personality, or cer- tain behavior tendencies, which seem to be es- pecially significant for human living. For ex ample, tendencies to honest or dishonest behav ior may be considered a part of character, while tendencies to do work accurately or inaccu- rately may be omitted because they are not thought to be sufficiently crucial with respect to the mores of society.! The proponents of this point of view believe that the problems of building desirable character are sufficiently dis- tinct and important to warrant their separa- tion in our thinking from the numerous other problems of personality development. The second point of view extends the mean- ing of character to include practically the en- tire area of personality. Its advocates contend that any narrower definition is unwise in ap- proaching the task of improving human con duct. They believe that altho some kinds of behavior may in general be more crucial than others, there are probably few if any activi- ties which are not of considerable significance under certain conditions. The significance of any act is said to depend largely upon the na- ture of the particular situation to which the act is a response. If the situation is crucial, the individual's response will be highly significant, whether it consists of adding a column of fig Is ures incorrectly yr robbing a bank. The content of this bulletin and the one t ) follow is based upon the broader conception of character. This involves no real conflict with the more restricted definition. From the latte: point of view the bulletins simply cover more territory than is usually implied in the term “character.’’ We are here concerned with the development of the whole personality with reference to suitable standards.” The majo: emphasis, however, is upon those aspects of personality which have thus far been most neglected, both inside and outside the schools. There is a corresponding lack of emphasis upon the learning of routine skills and factual sub jectmatter, because these have already received a major share of attention in school practise and in educational literature. Character revealed by inner experience and by conduct—In evaluating an_ individual's character, many people attach more importance to his purposes and ideals than to his actions. A man may make mistakes, but if his intentions are good he is often forgiven. Within certain limits this viewpoint is justified by experience. Conduct cannot be interpreted satisfactorily without reference to the experiences and mo- tives which underlie it. The crucial facts re- garding a child’s personality may often be ob- scured by his overt behavior. Serious errors are likely to be made by persons who attempt to treat a child’s misconduct in the light of their own experiences and attitudes alone.* On the other hand, many psychologists question the validity of an individual’s own statement of his motives as the chief cue to his character. ‘They point out that introspective reports are subject to bias, and that the individual is unlikely to be aware of all significant aspects of his personal ity. These workers believe that it is impossible to determine what a person is without studying carefully what he does. Character, therefore, cannot be satisfactor ily described either in terms of a person’s inner 1 Charters, W. W. The Teaching of Ideals. New York: Macmillan Co., 1928. p. 41. 2 The question of specific standards of conduct and aims of character building will be discussed in the next issue of the Research Bulletin, May, 1934. * Johnson, Buford J. Child Psychology. Baltimore, Md.: C. C. Thomas, 1932, p. 364 [49 ] nature alone, or in terms of his outward activ- ity alone. These are two aspects of the same thing, and both must be considered in any ade- quate study of the individual. The Organization of Character Much of the literature on character educa- tion discusses character in terms of general traits, such as honesty, altruism, courage, loy- alty, and the like. Such terms are useful in everyday life because they are convenient sym- bols for types of behavior which people exhibit in varying degrees. Recent studies, however, indicate that the attitudes and conduct of school children are governed more by the de- mands of specific situations than by any gen- eral principles corresponding to the usual lists of traits or ideals. Hartshorne, May, and others‘ discovered from extensive investigation of children’s ten- dencies to act honestly or dishonestly, helpfully or selfishly, persistently, and with self-restraint, that these tendencies consisted of specific re- sponses to specific situations, each without much relation to the others. Specific actions seemed to be predictable in situations which were very similar. It was impossible, however, to predict the specific behavior of most children in any given situation from a knowledge of their con- duct in widely dissimilar situations. Thus, whether a child’s conduct is judged good or bad according to the ethical standards of adults, it appears, as a rule, to be unorganized with reference to such standards. Such findings do not mean, of course, that a more thoro integra- tion of behavior in accordance with ethical standards would be undesirable. Newcomb * found that certain traits sup- posed to be closely associated under “intro- vert” and “extrovert” types of personality cor- related fairly well when measured by ratings, but much lower when measured by actually ob- serving boys’ conduct day after day. Only a small percentage of the boys responded consist- ently to various situations calling for the same trait. Moreover, consistency in any single trait gave no indication of consistency in any other trait. In short, very few of the boys respond in a consistently introvert or consistent], trovert manner in the majority of situation In spite of such evidence, every individu recognized as exhibiting a pattern of beha tendencies which is characteristic of that ind vidual. Some of these tendencies may be judged good while others are judged bad. Some of them may appear in certain situations but not in others. There is, however, an essential unity of personality which helps to distinguish the individual from his fellows: It has been necessary to recognize the lack of con- sistency in trait measures. Yet anyone who has studied people knows that there is a uniqueness in each person which is consistent. One does not fal! in love with a person conceived as a heterogeneous assortment of situation-responses. The person js known and experienced as a unit. Inconsistencies appear, of course, but are felt to be part of an inner whole and, indeed, with better knowledge of the individual, fewer behaviors are felt to be “out of character.” It would be easy to multiply illustrations all pointing in the same direction to the conclusion that people are regarded as generally true to them- selves, to the type of person they are, and not merely to the situation which stimulates the particular re- sponse. After all due allowance has been made for a tendency to unwarranted generalization from a few instances, to misjudgment of persons in accord with our preconceptions, there still remains a sub- stantial body of observations supporting the idea of a unified personality.° This unity of individual personality is as yet very imperfectly understood. That it evidently does not consist of a series of traits which in evitably call forth the same general type of con- duct in all situations that are ethically similar is, however, of great significance for characte: education. Character a Product of Heredity and Environment Both heredity and environment play a part in determining the personality of the individ ual. Heredity provides the basic potentialities from which character develops. Environment furnishes the stimuli which cause the individ ual to respond and consequently to change. The relative influence of these two groups of i * Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character. New York: M millan Co., 1930. p. 371-76. See also: Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I. New York: Macmillan Co., 1928. p. 380-90. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control. New York: Mac- millan Co., 1929. p. 442. © Newcomb, Theodore M. The Consistency of Certain Extrovert-Introvert Behavior Patterns in 51 Problem Boys. Contributions to Education, No. 382. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1929. p. 108-15. * National Education Association, American Educational Research Association. “Tests of Personality and Character.” Review of Educational Research 2: 255; June, 1932. [ 50 ] whi of | his I nur min thir pro tha! you typ to | and uli of t call beh old spec can sho env § for or | factors in the mature and highly developed per sonality has not been completely determined. It is seldom if ever possible to analyze a single act or attribute into component parts, and to state definitely which elements are the product of heredity and which are the results of en vironment. In general, however, it may be said that heredity determines the individual's basic capacities and fundamental urges or desires, while environment determines the application of his capacities and the specific ways in which his desires are satisfied.’ Psychologists formerly believed in a large number of specific instincts as the chief deter Within the last thirty years, however, this viewpoint has been miners of human behavior. profoundly changed. Recent studies have shown that the young child, are relatively few,* and that those instinctive reactions, even in very types of animal behavior which appear offhand to be inborn and invariable, such as tropisms and reflexes, may be associated with new stim uli by “conditioning” or training.®° While much of the activity of the new-born infant may be called instinctive, the proportion of unlearned behavior becomes less and less as he grows older. In fact, there is probably not a single specific act of the normal adult person that can be considered a purely instinctive reaction, showing none of the conditioning effects of the environment. Such findings throw the major responsib/lity for the development of desirable personality or character upon environmental agencies. Factors in Character Formation The following pages present some of the available evidence concerning the relation be tween character development and a wide va riety of factors. Since there are factors within the individual which cannot be classified as en- tirely innate or as entirely environmental in * For further discussion of the influence of heredity New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1928. Chapter H. W. Social Heredity and Social Evolution. New York Life of School Children. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., Daniel, Educational Psychology. New York: Macmillan C 8 Watson, John B. Behaviorism. New York: W. W. Norton Beginnings of Emotional Reactions,”’ p. 120-31 ® Pavlov, I. P. Conditioned Reflexes. Trat Milford, 1927. 430 p. 1 For recent theories of invariable behavior see and er Organic slated and edited Bernard, I Holt and Co., 1924. 550 p. Ogden, Robert M. Psychology and Education. New York Educational Psychology 116-27 “Original Forms of Behavior,” p. 18-40. Sandiford, Peter Chapter 6, ““Non-Variable Behavior: Reflexes and Instincts,’”’ p. Viront Inheritance’ Abingdon Press 1913 1927. and Co Ine 1925 Evidence for by G. V. Ant origin, the classification used here is not base on these terms. Instead, a general distinction is (1) factors, within the individual and (2) made between personal or those present factors, or those existing outside the individual The list ot tactors discussed here is ob iously not complete, but it probably includes most of the more important types as well as some which appear to have relatively little influence. There especially where certain idy is some overlapping, subordinate factors have been isolated for st by certain investigators. In reviewing research studies of factors in exvel relation to character, great care must be to cause and effect. ‘che existence of relationship between cised in drawing conclusions as two things does not prove that one is a cause of the other. A third both. field are often inadequate, and the results are factor may be causing Furthermore, research technics in this frequently incomplete or conflicting. On the whole, the available evidence warrants only general and tentative conclusions. Such conclu sions are presented on page 77 of this bulletin Personal Factors Some of the factors included under this head ot itself, rather than influences bearing upon chat ing may be considered aspects characte acter. Such factors are discussed here because they seem to have a fundamental relationship to certain other aspects of character. Fundamental drives—Instead of instincts which are specific and little subject to modifi cation, it is more accurate to speak of native impulses or fundamental drives, all of which are subject to training in some degree.'®° Among the most important of these are hunger, sex, curiosity or the desire to explore and to manip ulate objects, desire for success and recognition, desire for relief from pain and discomfort, de sire for stimulation, and disposition to relieve Henry D. Heredity and Child and Chapter 3 Social Inheritance Sandiford, Peter. The Mental Heredity and Environment Education to Native Endowment Three Type nent see: Chapin 1914 Chapter | Relation of 348 p p. | Oxford University ep. London Study in Social Psychology Harcourt, Brace and Co New York: Longmans, Greet L. Instinct: A [51] the distress of others.'' Equally fundamental, adolescence, and to have had six or seven Jove but of somewhat different type, are the innate affairs. His study also indicated, however, tha: emotional reactions of fear, rage, and love.’* happiness in marriage is associated to some ex Some of these appear very soon after birth, tent with sex desire no stronger than the aye, while others do not develop until much later. age. All of them serve the great common needs of Krasnogorski’s laboratory study ™ sheds lich; the individual and the species, and all are great on the importance of the desire for success and underlying forces in the formation of person- achievement. It showed that nervous children ality. They must find some form of expression given too difficult a task tend to “go to pieces,’ if the individual is to remain healthy, but they exhibiting a general breakdown of personality. may be directed into a wide variety ef activi- ties which are desirable rather than objection- able. Whatever kind of character is developed, the fundamental drives provide the force with which that character is expressed. The danger in ignoring or thwarting these drives is shown in many studies, especially in the field of behavior problems. King ™ found that unsatisfied desires for affection, recogni- tion, and praise were among the most frequent causal factors in the difficulties of forty-four delinquent girls. Menninger '* compared an emotionally healthy group of college students with an emotionally unhealthy group. He found, among other things, that 64 percent of the emotionally healthy students had been much praised during childhood in contrast to only 18 percent of the unhealthy students ; and . ? ; that 75 percent of the former group had had the consequences of his behavior, but it does many love affairs, whereas only 23 per cent of "Ot guarantee that he will act in desirable the latter group had had many such affairs. rather than undesirable ways. Moreover, t! Vigorous expressions of the sex drive are individual of low intelligence may be unable considered by many people as representing the. to appreciate subtle aspects of situations or t worst type of character. Undoubtedly this drive, "eason his way thru difficult problems of con is often misguided, but this does not mean that = duct, but it is often no more difficult for him it should be entirely repressed until adulthood. to learn good reactions than to learn bad ones. Hamilton *® found that it was statistically Hartshorne, May, and others ** found intel “normal,” among a rather select group of mar- ligence to have considerable correlation with ried men and women, to have been much occu- performance on certain tests of honesty and pied with sex daydreams in middle and later moral knowledge, but very little correlation Pavlov ** has demonstrated a similar tendency in dogs. The underlying motive forces of behavior are especially significant for teachers and schoo! administrators. Altho these drives cannot with safety be completely repressed, they need nor be permitted to operate uncontrolled. ‘Thy school should help to guide them into whole some and useful activities. The next issue ot the Research Bulletin will discuss principles and procedures for providing such guidance Intelligence—That general intelligence has some influence upon character development | indicated by a number of studies. That it is not the major factor in many cases also seems to be evident. Superior intelligence enables its pos sesser to understand and to foresee more clearly ™ National Education Association, Department of Superintendence. Character Education. Tenth Yearbook. Washington, D. C the Association, 1932. p. 66-67. 1 Watson, John B., op. cit., p. 120-31. King, Anna Elizabeth. Changing the Delinquent Attitude: A Study of Effective Treatment in the Cases of Forty-Four Delinquent Girls. Cleveland, Ohio: School of Applied Social Sciences, Western Reserve University, 1927. 80 p. ™ Menninger, Kar! A. ‘‘Adaptation Difficulties in College Students.’ Mental Hygiene 11: 519-35; July, 1927. % Hamilton, G. V. A Research in Marriage. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., 1929. p. 210, 307-08, 310, 418-20 538-39, 18 Krasnogorski, N. I. “The Conditioned Reflexes and Children’s Neuroses.’’ American Journal of Diseases of Children 30 753-68; December, 1925. 17 Pavlov, I. P. Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes: Twenty-five Years of Objective Study of the Higher Nervous Activity (Behavior) of Animals. New York: International Publishers, 1928. 414 p. 18 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I. p. 181-89. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Maller, J. B. Studies in Service and Self-Control. p. 139-43, 371-74. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. & Studies in the Organization of Character. p. 113-17. [52] ab in ani Nev nes. tel vith and tion with performance on tests of helpfulness, self control, or persistence. Cheating, however, was not associated with low intelligence alone, but with numerous other handicaps as well. Many children without these additional handicaps were not inclined to cheat. Slaght’s study *® showed intelligence to be relatively negligible factor in truthfulness. The slight difference observed between a group of children who consistently lied and a group who consistently told the truth was in favor of the truthful group. Healy and Bronner *° uting factors and results of treatment in the cases of 4000 juvenile delinquents in Chicago and Boston. Only 23 percent of these young- sters were mentally subnormal or feeble- minded, whereas 72 percent were normal or above. Remedial much more successful with the latter than with the former. Every supernormal girl was successfully readjusted. studied the contrib- treatment, however, was group In a somewhat similar survey, Starr 2! dis covered that of 7664 juvenile delinquents ex- amined at the Neuro-Psychiatric Clinic of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia, 41 percent were . least normal in intelligence, whereas only 25 percent were morons. Those in the normal group were more readily adjusted, but even the subnormal cases proved capable of considerable social adjustment. Glueck and Glueck *? found that of 466 prisoners released from the Massachusetts Re- formatory in 1921 and 1922, one-third were of normal intelligence or above, about one-half were dull or of “border-line” intelligence, and about one-fifth were feebleminded. Murchison ** found no significant difference in mental level between white men in prisons and the large sampling of white men included The sligl noted was in favor of the criminal ger in the | Army draft. Calhoon ** compared one hundred normal and one hundred subnormal delinquent boys, and discovered that the delinquencies of the brighter group were much more serious than those of the duller group. The normal boys did almost two hundred times as much property damage, appeared in court much more often, and were guilty of stealing, forgery, burglary, and larceny considerably more often than the subnormal boys. The latter were guilty of tr ancy and sex immorality somewhat more often than were the normal boys. Burt’s classic study *> of delinquents and non-delinquents in London revealed a condi tion of mental deficiency in 7.6 percent of the delinquent cases as compared with 1.2 percent of the non-delinquents; mental dullness not amounting to mental deficiency in 27.9 percent of the delinquents as compared with 9.7 per cent of the non-delinquents; and education: backwardness in 59.9 percent of the delinquents in contrast to only 15.7 percent of the non delinquents. Superior intelligence appeared as a factor in a few of the delinquent cases, but it was less frequent among such cases than among the non-delinquents. A study by Foster,”® comparing one hundred non-jealous children with fifty jealous children who had been referred to habit clinics in Bos ton, showed no significant difference in intel gence between the two groups. Tilson 2? studied habit problems in relation to mental level among 225 preschool boys and girls who had been referred to habit clinics. No cases of feeblemindedness were included. Most of the problems studied were found more fre quently among children of average intelligence than among those having either above-averag ® Slaght, William E. A. Untruthjulness in Children: Its Conditioning Factors and Its Setting in Child Natur: Iowa Studies in Character, Vol. I, No. 4. Iowa Cty, Iowa: the University, 1928. 79 p : ™ Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F. Delinquents and Criminals, Their Making and Unmaking. New York Co., 1928. 317 p. * Starr, Anna Spiesman. ‘“‘A Problem in Social Adjustment.” *2 Glueck, Sheldon, and Glueck, Eleanor T. 500 Criminal Careers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. p *8 Murchison, Carl A. Criminal Intelligence. Worcester, Mass.: Psychological Clinic 17: 85-96; May, 1928. Clark University, 1926. 291 p. 74 Calhoon, C. H. “A Follow-up Study of 100 Normal and 100 Subnormal Delinquent Boys.” Journal of Ju = 40; September-December, 1928. ** Burt, Cyril. The Young Delinquent. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1925 p. 287. ™* Foster, Sybil. “A Study of the Personality Make-up and Social Setting of Fifty Jealous Children.’ 53-77; January, 1927. ’ Mental Hygiene * Tilson, Marie Agnes. Problems of Preschool Children: A Basis for Parental Education. Contributions to Education, No New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1929. 90 D. {53 ] or below-average intelligence. This difference was especially marked with respect to temper tantrums, food habits, and fears. Among the chief exceptions were problems arising from too much attention from adults and too little opportunity to play with children of the same age, which occurred with highest frequency among the above-average group, and very rarely in the below-average group. None of the fourteen most common problems appeared as frequently in the below-average group as in the average group, and only two of these oc- curred more often in the below-average group than in the above-average group. Blatz and Bott ** found that the frequency of misdemeanors committed by children, as re- ported by teachers in a Toronto school with an enrolment of 1400, varied inversely with the intelligence quotient among the boys but not among the girls. Misbehavior occurred among the girls with about the same frequency at all levels, except that there was some decrease in the superior group. Very few girls in the school had 1.Q.’s below 70, however. Several studies have compared the intelli- gence of college students having liberal or radi- cal ideas and attitudes with that of students having reactionary or conservative viewpoints. Moore *® found practically no difference be- tween the two groups, while Orata*’ and Jones *' observed slight differences in favor of the liberal or radical group. Such studies as these should encourage in teachers an optimistic and constructive attitude toward children of all degrees of intelligence. The dull pupil should not be looked upon as inevitably headed for delinquency, nor should it be assumed that the bright pupil needs no guidance in matters of conduct. Teachers may need to adapt their procedures to various lev- els of intelligence, and administrators should provide types of organization which make dif- ferential treatment possible. These problem, will be discussed in the next Research Bulletin under the following head ings: ‘The Case Method of Studying the Ma| adjusted Pupil,” “Suggestions for Diagnosis and Treatment of Behavior Problems,” ‘0; ganization of the School Guidance Program,’ and “Contribution of School Organization.’ Issue of the Special mental abilities—As in the case 0! general intelligence, the evidence as to the re lation between other mental capacities and character is incomplete and somewhat conf! ing. In general, however, such capacities pear not to have a very close relation to thos aspects of character which have been studied in connection with them. Slaght ** observed little relation betwee truthfulness or untruthfulness and children’ performances on tests of memory for word memory based on visual perception, imagina tion, and judgment of perceptual relations, found the untruthful children more suggesti)! and quicker in reaction. Hartshorne, May, and others ** found ve: little correlation between ability to resist sug gestion and tests of cheating at home, helpful ness, persistence, or inhibition. They found considerable negative correlation, however, be tween resistance to suggestion and school cheat ing, and a somewhat lower positive correlatio: between resistance to suggestion and mor knowledge and attitudes. Part of these rela tionships seemed to be due to such associated factors as intelligence and environmental in fluences. (Note: The term “positive correlation” in dicates a tendency for the two things measured to increase or decrease together. A “negativ: correlation” indicates a tendency for one thing to increase as the other decreases. ) Moore," altho finding very little difference between radical and conservative students with *8 Blatz, W. E., and Bott, E. A. “Studies in Mental Hygiene of Children: I. Behavior of Public School Childre: Description of Method.’’ Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 34: 552-82; December, 1927. 2° Moore, Henry T. “Innate Factors in Radicalism and Conservatism.’ Journal of Abnormal and Social Psycholog) 234-44; October, 1925. ® Orata, Pedros T. “Race Prejudice.’’ Welfare Magazine 18: 766-75; June, 1927. 8 Jones, Edward S. “The Opinions of College Students.’’ Journal of Applied Psychology 10: 427-36; December, 1926. % Slaght, William E. A., op cit. 83 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 277-80. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Ma Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 233-35, 428-33. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. 5 Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 120-21. * Moore, Henry T., op. cit. [ 54] OER thd i # gl in n di tw en sit ed pr by of pe Wi on she ation nor | ured ative hing rence with respect to intelligence or ability in code learn ‘ng, found the radicals quicker in reaction time and in making decisions, superior in learning a new habit like mirror drawing which requires breaking established habits, more unusual in their associations, and less susceptible to ma jority opinion. Evidently the schoo! need not be concerned greatly about special mental capacities either as indicators or as Major causes of the more sig nificant character tendencies. A child’s behav- ior may, however, be significantly affected by the extent to which he is given opportunity and encouragement to exercise in desirable ways any special ability which he possesses. To pro vide such opportunity and encouragement is an important function of the school. This point will be elaborated in the next issue of the Research Bulletin, especially in the sections entitled “Building Character thru the Curricu- lum,” and “Building Character thru Individual Guidance.” Philoso- phers once believed that an idea held firmly Knowledge and understanding in the mind necessarily resulted in a corre- sponding action. This notion is no longer gen erally held; in fact, there is a tendency at pres ent to minimize the influence of ideas upon con duct. The truth probably lies between these two extremes. Ideas undoubtedly exert some in- fluence in several ways: (1) by affecting the emotional response thru interpretation of the situation, (2) by stimulating effort thru knowl edge of desirable character objectives and of progress made toward achieving them, and (3) by forecasting the results of alternative kinds of action.*® On the other hand, merely giving people knowledge, either general or specific, will not assure any particular kind of conduct on their part, as many of the following studies show. } Slaght’s study *° indicated that his group of consistently truthful children had somewhat greater moral comprehension as well as a wide range of information than the consistently un truthful children. These results were obtained in spite of the fact that the two groups were not significantly different in general intelli gence. Taylor and Powers ** found a significant positive correlation in one small, progressive high school between Bible information and character ratings by teachers. When the intel ligence factor was held constant, however, this correlation became insignificant altho it re mained positive. A much more extensive and adequate study of the relation between Bible knowledge and \ large battery of tests was given to 3316 pupils in £ puy character was made by Hightower.** twelve different localities and in grades seven to twelve inclusive. The groups included both sexes, various intelligence levels, various social, economic, and cultural levels, different types of communities, different occupational levels, and delinquent children as well a§ non-delin quents. No relationship of any consequence was found between Biblical knowledge and any of the phases of conduct studied. King’s study of forty-four girls who had been delinquent °° showed that early knowledge of bad sex practises was among the most fre quently occurring factors in the case histories of these girls. May, and found only slight positive correlations, when Hartshorne, Shuttleworth * the factor of intelligence was held constant, between performance on tests of moral know] edge and performance on tests of honesty, co operation, inhibition, and persistence. There appeared to be no certain correspondence be tween specific items of information and specifi exhibitions of honest or dishonest conduct, re *® National Education Association, Department of Superintendence. Tet 3 Slaght, William E. A. Untruthfulness in Children: Its Conditioning Facto Iowa Studies in Character, Vol. I, No. 4. Iowa City, Towa: the University, 1928 * Taylor, Howard R., and Powers, Francis I Psychology 35; 294-302; June, 1928. ‘Bible Study and Character ! Seminary 8 Hightower, Pleasant Roscoe. Biblical Information in Relation to Character and Conduct. University Character, Vol. III, No. 2. Iowa City, Iowa: the University, 1930. 72 p ® King, Anna Elizabeth. Changing the Delinquent Altitude: A Study of Effective Treatment in the Cases Forty-F our Delinquent Girls. Cleveland, Ohio: School of Applied Social Sciences, Western Reserve University, 1927. 80 p “ Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 153-68 [55 ] gardless of whether or not the information was related to the behavior involved. These inves- tigators concluded that the common factor of classroom morale was probably the most im- portant, except for intelligence, in causing the observed correlations between moral knowl- edge and conduct. A number of studies have thrown light on the relation between the knowledge possessed by individuals and their attitudes, opinions, and prejudices. Allport *' found that a group of college students with radical political attitudes had more information and less misinformation than a similar group with conservative politi- cal attitudes. More than 50 percent of the anti- socialist students showed a lack of knowledge of the socialist platform. Watson,*® Orata,** and Diggins,** found knowledge positively cor- related with liberal attitudes toward national and racial questions, altho the relationships were slight except in Watson’s study. Watson obtained rather high positive correlations be- tween being well informed and being favor- ably disposed toward Japan and toward Chi- nese nationalism, but a very low negative correlation between being well informed and being favorably disposed toward missionary en- terprises. In Diggins’ study, familiarity with the language of a given nation tended to raise slightly the rating given to the people of that nation by college students, including both for- eign and American students. From these studies it is apparent that altho knowledge and understanding are essential to intelligent action, they do not guarantee such action. Hence the teacher or school which re- lies upon intellectual mastery of facts and rules by children cannot expect to achieve much suc- cess in developing effective character. The school should make reasonably sure that the in- formation which it teaches is of value in life situations, and then give children practise in applying this information in activities are closely related to life. This viewpoint w; be elaborated and illustrated in the next of the Research Bulletin. Emotional conditions and mental hea There is considerable evidence that condit) of mental and emotional health or disease an important bearing upon character fi tion. People can be mentally and emotio: healthy, however, and still develop undesi behavior tendencies. Burt * discovered certain emotional c tions, such as an unusually strong sex temperamental deficiency, and temperament instability, more than four times as often i) linquent children as in non-delinquents also observed certain acquired interests complexes more than three times as frequen: in the delinquents as in the non-delinquent Starr’s study * of 13,385 clinical cases cluding both children and adults, showe percent as having psychoneuroses, that is hibiting excessive fears and being emotio: overactive and unstable, but still capable ot coming socially adjusted to some degree. 5 cases constituted 3 percent of the juvenil: linquents; 16 percent of the adolescent g: which was composed of incorrigible boys unmarried mothers ; and 39 percent of the adul: group, which consisted of cases from the domes tic relations court and those involving cru to or neglect of children. In addition, eac! these groups contained a number of psyc! and psychopathic cases which were consid: non-adjustable. Healy and Bronner ** obtained eviden similar to that of Starr in regard to juve: delinquents. They found only 5 percent of - cases to be psychopathic or psychoneurotic, \'t another 7 percent having mental conflicts 0 one kind or another. Willey’s survey *® of white male refor *t Allport, Gordon W. “The Composition of Political Attitudes.’’ American Journal of Sociology 35: 220-38; September “2 Watson, Goodwin. “Orient and Occident: An Opinion Study.” Summary in Religious Education 24: 322-28; April, *3 Orata, Pedros T. ‘‘Race Prejudice.’’ Welfare Magazine 18: 766-75; June, 1927. 44 Diggins, Elmer. A Statistical Study of National Prejudices. Master’s thesis, Columbia University, 1927. * Burt, Cyril. Tae Young Delinquent. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1925. p. 51, 407, 492, 521, 540. * Starr, Anna Spiesman, of. cit. «? Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F. Delinquents and Criminals, The Making and Unmaking. New York millan Co., 1928. 317 p. «8 Willey, G. C. “The Mental Handicaps of Delinquents: A Preliminary Study of the Neuro-Psychiatric Findings i: 1,700 White Male Reformatory Prisoners.’’ Journal of Psycho-Asthenics 34: 100-11; 1929. [ 56] prisoners showed that of the 40 percent who were defective in intelligence, 89 percent ._ some complicating nervous or mental con- ditions. Of the 60 percent who were above the defective grade in intelligence, 64 percent had other mental troubles. Cushing and Ruch * compared a group of delinquent girls with a similar group of non delinquents, and found the former exhibiting ereater number of emotional symptoms on 1 the Woodworth questionnaire. Studying emotional conditions in relation to . quite different phase of character, Moore ° observed no difference, on the average, between college students with radical attitudes and those with conservative attitudes. Hartshorne, May, and others *' found only slight correlations be tween emotional stability and tendencies to ward deception, helpfulness (except in cases of exceedingly unselfish pupils), and inhibition. They found somewhat higher relationships, however, between emotional stability and per sistence, and between emotional stability and moral knowledge. The relation other aspects of health and sufficiently between mental personality is marked to warrant careful attention on the part of teachers and other school workers. Probably the most essential condition for men- ‘tal health is the drives to work themselves out in ways that are freedom for fundamental satisfying to the child and to his associates. There is danger of future maladjustment, how- ever, if the child is allowed to indulge his every whim or selfish desire. Principles and procedures for maintaining mental health and preventing maladjustments in the school will be presented in the next bulletin under the heading ‘“‘Building Character thru the Curriculum,” while the problems of discovering, diagnosing, and treating malad- justments of personality in children will be dis- ** Cushing, Hazel M., and Ruch, G. M. “An Investigation of Character Psychology 11: 1-7; February, 1927. ® Moore, Henry T. ‘“‘Innate Factors in Radicalism and Conservatism.”’ October, 1925. St Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 192-93. Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 162-68, 387-89. Hartshorne, Hugh F. K. Studies in the Organisation of Character, p. 119-20. 52 Folsom, Joseph Kirk. ‘‘A Statistical Study of Character.” 8 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 190-92 158-62, Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Sel{-Control, p K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 119 cussed im the section entitled ‘Building Char- acter thru Individual Guidance.” Physical and physiological conditions—Bod- ily health has long been considered a prerequis ite for the development of a wholesome and vigorous personality. Moreover, there is some evidence that behavior tendencies, as well as physique, have a chemical basis. Important as such factors may be, research carried on thus far indicates that character as a whole depends more upon a variety of other factors, largely social, than it does upon the individual’s phy- sical condition or physiological and chemical processes. In one of the earlier studies, Folsom ** ob- served little or no relation, in a group of col- lege senior men, between such physical charac teristics as stature, strength, or stoutness, and tendencies toward aggressiveness or cheerful- ness. More recently Hartshorne, May, and oth ers °° found a lack of correlation between the physical condition of children, as measured by physical ability on certain tests with reference to age and weight, and performance on tests of deception, helpfulness, persistence, inhibition, and moral knowledge. Even in tests involving physical ability and condition, there was no tendency for the oversized but understrength- ened children to compensate by telling false hoods concerning their abilities. Very superior physical condition was associated with a high degree of helpfulness and cooperation, but for groups containing children of all degrees of physical condition the correlation between these two factors was very slight. A similar tendency was noted in the case of inhibition, but persist ency showed absolutely no relation to physical condition as measured by the Hartshorne-May tests. Results of special examinations with re- spect to vision, nutrition, and dental defects Traits in Delinquent Girls Journal Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 20: 234-44 Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth Pedagogical Seminary 24: 399-440; September, 1917. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.:; and 385-86. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, [ 57 ] showed little or no correlation with either per- sistence or inhibition. In the case of both vision and dental defect, children with very good rec- ords and those with very poor records surpassed in persistence those children who were only average or poor in these two physical attrib- utes. On the other hand, children who were only average in nutrition showed considerably more persistence than those who were either high or low in nutrition. Studies of juvenile delinquency often pre- sent data as to the physical condition of delin- quents, but these data are difficult to evaluate because comparisons are seldom made with fig- ures for non-delinquents. Healy and Bronner ™* found 63 percent of delinquent boys and 78 percent of delinquent girls in normal physical condition. Seventy percent of the girls were above normal weight for their ages. Of some significance is the fact that excessive smoking, masturbation, and the use of tea or coffee had no bearing on success or failure in the treat- ment of these delinquent cases. Willey °° found physical diseases or defects in only 10 percent of 1710 white male reformatory prisoners. Bridges and Bridges ®* reported physical ail- ments in about 30 percent of 104 delinquents in the Boys’ Farm and Training School at Quebec. Burt’s*’ comparison of delinquents and non-delinquents showed certain unusual conditions with respect to physical development occurring rather infrequently in both groups, but nearly four times as often among the de- linquents as among the non-delinquents. Path- ological physical conditions were present in 69 percent of the delinquents and in 55 percent of the non-delinquents. & Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F., op. cit. Menninger’s ** comparison of 102 emotion ally healthy college students and 117 emotion ally unhealthy students revealed that on! percent of the former had suffered poor phys cal health in childhood, whereas 64 percen: the latter had had poor physical health Davis’ study ®® indicated that happiness jp marriage is somewhat associated with health before marriage. Several studies have been made regarding physiological factors in relation to tempera ment and personality, but the field is still rela tively unexplored. Kretschmer °° studied bod) build in relation to type of mental disorder, ob taining results which seem to indicate some glandular factor common to both structu development and emotional type. Lange Luckina *' found that a certain reflex dation of heartbeat when pressure is applied to the eyeball) was strong in children of no: mal behavior but usually somewhat reduced in children with conduct problems. Proescher and Arkusch * from an examination of 1525 cases in California hospitals for the insane, con cluded that persons having certain blood cha: acteristics are four times as likely to develo; a psychosis as are persons of another type Rich’s ** extensive study indicated that alka linity of saliva and of urine is quite definitel) associated with general excitability, and that intelligence, good-naturedness, and leadership are other characteristics which appear to have some biochemical foundation. Matee: Timme ™ have indicated a rather definite as sociation between calcium deficiency and irrita bility or incorrigibility in children, and have % Willey, G. C. ‘“‘The Mental Handicaps of Delinquents: A Preliminary Study of the Neuro-Psychiatric Findings 1,700 White Male Reformatory Prisoners.’ Journal of Psycho-Asthenics 34: 100-11; 1929. 5° Bridges, J. W., and Bridges, K. M. Banham. “A Psychological Study of Juvenile Delinquency by Group Methods Genetic Psychology Monographs 1: 411-506; September, 1926. ® Burt, Cyril, op. cit., p. 51, 203, 240. 58 Menninger, Karl A. “Adaptation Difficulties in College Students.”’ % Davis, Katharine Bement. Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-Two Hundred Women. 1929. 430 p. 519-35; July, 1927 New York: Harper and Brothers Mental Hygiene 11: ™ Kretschmer, Ernest. Physique and Character: An Investigation of the Nature of Constitution and of the Theor Temperament. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1925. 266 p. ® Lange, M. W., and Luckina, A. M. ‘Nervous System, Aschner’s Symptom and Behavior of Children.’’ Reflexological Study of Bisocial Groups of Children. Reflexological and Neurophysiological News 2: 256-81; “Blood Groups in Mental Disease.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseas: * Proescher, F., 569-84; 1927. and Arkusch, A. S. Essay tow 1926. *8 Rich, Gilbert J. “‘A Biochemical Approach to the Study of Personality.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 23 158-75; July, 1928. ™ Detailed results are not available in published form, but are referred to in the Tenth Yearbook of the Department ef Superintendence, p. 128. [58] PEE PRI AE AE CRONIN 9g ake; wir PNe obtained some noteworthy results with their clinical treatments for such deficiency. Altho the evidence of causal relation between physical factors and important behavior ten dencies is somewhat conflicting, there can be little doubt that physical health provides a bet ter foundation for good character than does poor health. The school can help to safeguard the health of pupils by maintaining wholesome conditions with respect to light, heat, ventila tion, and sanitation, and by providing a com prehensive program of physical education un der competent supervision. It can assist in the diagnosis and treatment of physical disorders by regular health inspection and by close coop eration with parents and physicians. For fur ther statements on these points, see the sections entitled “Ath letics,” and “Significance of School Plant Ad “Specialists as Counselors,” ministration” in the Research Bulletin for May. Chrémglogical age—In considering age in relation to character, one must not think of it as a simple factor which in and of itself might be expected to exert influence. Within certain limits, increases in age are accompanied by physical and physiological changes, increases in mental ability, and increases in social expe rience. Only because the individual’s age has some relation to these other factors is there value in considering it as a factor in character growth. The Hartshorne-May data“ indicated only a slight correlation with age in the case of de- ception, helpfulness, persistence, inhibition, and moral knowledge and attitudes, altho their re sults varied somewhat for different groups of children and for different specific tests. Of the areas of character mentioned, persistence and moral knowledge seemed to be a little more closely associated with age than did the others. The slight correlation between age and help fulness was negative, indicating a tendency for *S Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Be and Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p Frank K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 109-12 ® Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F., op. cit Bridges, J. W., and Bridges, K. M. Banham, of. cit *§ Glueck, Sheldon, and Glueck, Eleanor 7 * Borden, Howard G. November, 1928. 7 Riddle, E. M. April, 1928. 500 Criminal Care “Factors for Predicting Parole “Stealing as a Form of Aggressive i $9 120-25, oucce Behavior.”’ the younger children to be more helpful. Pe sistence and moral knowledge tended to in crease somewhat with age. This was especially true of moral knowledge when the factor of intellectual brightness was held constant. juvenile de The relation between age and linquency seems to be somewhat greater than the relation between age and behavior tenden cies which do not fall within the jurisdiction found that 1000 repeat of the courts. Healy and Bronne: a large majority of crimes among offenders in Chicago and Boston were commit ted between the ages of eighteen and twenty three. The boys began to appear in court in large numbers at age eleven, and thé girls at age fourteen, but the average age of first court fourteen to fifteen vear to appearance was boys, and fifteen sixteen years for girls Bridges and Bridges *’ found a range of ten to eighteen years, with an average of fourteen vears, in the ages of boys committed to the Boys’ Farm and Training School at Quebec. Glueck and Glueck ®* found the average age at commitment among 510 prisoners in the Massachusetts Reformatory to be a little over twenty years, about one-third being under eigh teen years of age. Borden,®® from a study of numerous factors in relation to the success of male reformatory prisoners on parole, observed that the older boys tended to succeed slightly better than the younger ones. Riddle,’° study ing the records of children referred to the Ps) chiatric Clinic at the Department of Publi Welfare in St. Louis, found a close relationship between age and the aggressiveness of the form of stealing committed. For example, stealing from home and pocketpicking were committed at earlier ages by these children than were burg lary, highway robbery, and forgery. In the realm of attitudes, opinions, and pre} udices among college students and adults, the younger people seem to be somewhat more lib wok T 361-67 p. 170, 172, 179-80. Hartshorne, Hugh: Ma Mark A Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.:; and Shuttle t! New York: Alfred A. Knopf ers. ss.’ Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Journal of Abnormal and Social eral. Watson *' found liberal attitudes toward the Orient more characteristic of students than of adult men and women. Woolston ™ and Orata*® both found younger college students more liberal, on the whole, than older students. Anderson and Dvorak ™ noted a rather sharp difference in the types of standards of conduct preferred by college students and those pre- terred by parents and grandparents. The latter result may, of course, have been due to changes in social conditions rather than to differences in maturity of the individuals concerned. The students preferred to make decisions in accord- ance with the standard of prudence or intelli- gent ju€gment, with the esthetic standard as second choice, whereas members of the older generations strongly preferred the standard of right-and-wrong, with the standard of pru- dence as second choice. The standard of public opinion or approval was fourth choice in both groups. Recent studies of marriage have indicated that the age factor is of some importance in this field. Davis ™* observed that happiness in marriage tended to go with the delay of mar- riage until later ages. Hamilton *® found some tendency for happy marriages to be associated with similarity in age of husband and wife. From the limited evidence available, it seems clear that increasing age does not in itself change a person’s character in any particular way. Character is constantly being modified, but this modification occurs in accordance with the interaction of hereditary and environmen- tal forces. As the individual grows older, he tends to follow more and more completely the ways of life which his particular social environ- ment has encouraged. The school has a great opportunity and a heavy responsibility for help- ing to make this influence continuously con- structive from early childhood to maturity. |’) character problems of children may be ditte ent at different ages, but they are eq worthy of attention at all ages. Sex—Like chronological age, sex cann: considered a unitary factor entirely sep from physical and mental development o: vironmental influences. Whatever effect may have upon personality is undoubted], to a composite of numerous other factors lated to sex. However, in view of the w known fact that the sexes do not differ n rially in intelligence or in school achievement one would not expect to find important diff: ences between them with respect to soci: anti-social behavior. Hartshorne, May, and others ‘ appreciable difference in age, mental age, emo tional stability, suggestibility, or intelligent participation in school and home life betw the boys and the girls included in their stud) They observed no consistent difference betwee: the sexes in tendencies to cheat, except that on one test which was taken home the girls tended uniformly to cheat more than the boys. On ¢! other hand, the girls were found to be some what more cooperative, somewhat more persist ent, considerably better controlled or inhibited and consistently superior in moral knowledg and social attitudes. In some cases more }: than girls exhibited extreme generosity 0: treme selfishness, but on the average the cir! appeared somewhat superior in this resp: The investigators concluded that on the su: face, at least, girls are more sensitive to both conventional and ideal social standards than are boys. Foster "* observed a tendency for jealous) to be more common among girls than among boys, while Blatz and Bott *® found teachers found "Watson, Goodwin. “Orient and Occident: An Opinion Study.”” Summary in Religious Education 24: 322-38; April ™ Woolston, Howard. “‘Stepbrothers: A Study of Prejudice and Convention.” Social Forces 6: 368-75; March 1928 78 Orata, Pedros T. ‘“‘Race Prejudice.’ Welfare Magazine 18: 766-75; June, 1927. ™ Anderson, Alice, and Dvorak, Beatrice. “Differences between College Students and Their Elders in Standards of Conduct Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 23: 286-92; October, 1928. ® Davis, Katharine Bement, op. cit. * Hamilton, G. V. A Research in Marriage. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, Inc. 570 p. 7 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 168-81. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 146-57, 380-85. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttlew Frank K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 117-19. "§ Foster, Sybil. “A Study of the Personality Make-up and Social Setting of Fifty Jealous Children.” Mental Hygiene 53-77; January, 1927. _ ™ Blatz, W. E., and Bott, E. A. “Studies in Mental Hygiene of Children: I. Behavior of Public School Children—A De tion of Method.’ Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 34: 552-82; December, 1927. [ 60 ] «] bo n than lous) nong chers [oronto school recording a larger number + school misdemeanors for boys than for girls. Orata *° found practically no difterence be tween college men and women in the degree ind kind of race prejudice exhibited. Jones’s * study of opinion among college students showed certain sex differences depending upon the na ture of the topics considered. Men appeared more conservative than women on economic questions but less conservative on religious questions, while on matters of social relation- ships there was little difference. Woolston *? found a small group of university women more restrictive than a similar group of men in their willingness to accept certain types of charac ters as superiors, equals, or inferiors in specific issociations. The women were less severe than the men in their ostracism of beggars, invalids, illegitimate offspring, and inadequate persons, ut were more intolerant of libertines, Negroes, \Mohammedans, and Hungarians. The study of delinquency and crime by Healy and Bronner ** greater success in dealing with female delin- quents than with male delinquents, the differ ence being most marked among Jews. showed significantly To the extent that sex differences in charac ter occur, they should be taken into considera- tion by the school. Such differences seem to be much smaller, on the average, however, than the differences observed between various indi- viduals of the same sex. Doubtless the most satisfactory procedure is to treat each child as an individual rather than as a member of a sex- croup. At the same time, physical conditions, interests, and experiences which have been di- rectly or indirectly determined by the child’s sex should be carefully considered in attempt- ing to guide and evaluate his character devel- opment. For an outline of the factors to be studied in connection with individual behavior problems, see “The Case Method of Studying the Maladjusted Pupil,” in the May Research Bulletin. Race and nationality—Race and nationality might be classed as social factors rather than as % Orata, Pedros T., op. cit personal factors because they are often so closely bound up with certain social standards cultural opportunities, and religious beliefs However, altho these associated factors are probably dominant in whatever relation exists between nationality and character, there is no evidence which precludes the possibility that biological factors in nationality exert some in fluence on character. Hartshorne and May “* favor a social inte: pretation of national and racial influence, bu: admit the possibility of biological characteris tics as contributing factors. These investigato found that, when the intelligence factor was equalized among the children of various na tionalities, the greatest relative amount of cheat ing on one particular test was done by Scandi navian, British, and Italian children in a city school, and by Italian, Negro, and Slavic chil dren in a suburban school. The least cheating on this test, relative to intelligence, was done by \merican, French, German or Austrian, and Jewish children in the city school, and by Scandinavian, British, American, French, and German or Austrian children in the suburban school. When all classroom cheating tests were combined, however, these differences tended to disappear, only the Jewish children standing out as slightly superior to the other children in honesty. The differences observed were ascribed largely, but not entirely, to variations in the intelligence and the economic and cul tural background of the groups studied. The same series of studies showed children of American-born parents to be slightly more cooperative than children of foreign-born par ents. The least cooperative foreign groups were those whose parents were born in Ireland or Italy, while the most helpful were those of whom one or both parents were English or Scandinavian. On the tests of persistence the children of foreign parentage were generally superior to those of native parentage, but on the inhibition tests as a whole there was little dif ference between the two groups. The diffe: 81 Jones, Edward S. ‘‘The Opinions of College Students.” Journal of Applied Psychology 10: 427-36; December, 1926 ®2 Woolston, Howard, op. cit. 88 Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F. Delinquents and Criminals, Their Making and Unmaking. New York: Macmillan ‘o., 1928. 317 p. ®™ Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 248-53. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.: and Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 189-94, 397-401. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 127-28. [ 61] ences observed with respect to service and self- control were attributed by the investigators to some factor or group of factors other than in- telligence, religious background, and cultural influences. The children of native-born par- ents were superior in moral knowledge and attitudes, a fact which may have been due partly to the nature of the standards used in scoring the tests, and partly to such associated factors as intelligence, suggestibility, emotional stability, and cultural level. In his study of political attitudes among col- lege students, Allport ** found that Jewish students were the least prejudiced and among the most radical in their opinions. Vetter *® found liberals more likely to be Jewish than otherwise. Lapiere ** interviewed 428 people in France and 315 people in England in regard to their attitudes toward the Negro. He found very little color antipathy among the French, on the whole, altho it was considerably greater in the upper economic class than in the lower eco- nomic class, and somewhat greater in urban than in rural areas. The English people, how- ever, showed a high degree of race prejudice, irrespective of their economic level or the lo- cality in which they lived. Davis ** compared American and Russian children in their attitudes toward forty-five occupations. The American children ranked the banker highest, with college professor, doc- tor, clergyman, lawyer, and auto manufac- turer next, while the Russian children ranked the peasant first, giving high places also to members of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Party, mechanic, civil engineer, teacher, doctor, and aviator. The American children ranked the ditch-digger lowest, with coal miner, janitor, waiter, teamster, hod car- rier, and street cleaner also very low. The Rus- sians classed as least desirable the minister, prosperous business man, manager of small fac- tory, small storekeeper, banker, waiter, owner of a store, house porter, and salesman. Healy and Bronner *® found Italians Negroes twice as often in a group of 4000 de linquents as would be expected from the p; portion of these groups in the general popu tion of the cities studied. The numbers 0; Slavs, Germans, and Scandinavians were somewhat disproportionate. Shaw,®° howeve; uncovered the highly significant fact that w] the delinquency rates in certain areas of Ch; cago have remained high and constant ove: period of a generation in spite of major chanves in population from German to Irish, to Polis! to Italian, and to Negro, the delinquency of these national groups have decreased app. priately as they moved out into new subu: areas. The significance of race and nationality the school’s program of education for characte: is still obscure. The public school must, of course, take children of any nationality and d its best toward making good citizens of them In so doing, it should adapt its procedures wherever necessary to such national or ra peculiarities as may appear in any individual pupil or group of pupils. Social Factors Home and family—lt is undoubtedly t: that the average American home no longer ex ercises the same type of influence upon children as it did in pioneer days. Great economic and social changes have weakened or destroyed many of the ties which formerly bound the members of a family together as a unified and mutually dependent group. It should not be assumed, however, that the character influences of home and family are uniformly less whole some than in earlier generations. In spite of social changes which have affected home life generally, there is much evidence that some home environments are far superior to others, and that the home is still one of the major influences in the formation of character. ‘The effect of home influence depends, of course, upon a variety of factors in the home. It prob “Allport, Gordon W. ‘‘The Composition of Political Attitudes.’”” American Journal of Sociology 35: 220-38; September, | ** Vetter, George B. “The Study of Social and Political Opinions.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 25 April, 1930, ** Lapiere, Richard T. “Race Prejudice: France and England.” Social Forces 7: 102-11; September, 1928. ** Davis, Jerome. ‘Testing the Social Attitudes of Children in the Government Schools in Russia.’’ American Journa Sociology 32: 947-52; May, 1927. ® Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F., of. cit. * Shaw, Clifford R., and others. Delinquency Areas: A Study of the Geographic Distribution of School Truants, Juvenile Delinquents, and Adult Offenders in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929. 214 p. [62] ome TS, jor 1e ably is not determined primarily by such fa tors as material wealth and social standing. Of the many factors examined in Slaght’s study,®: unfavorable home surroundings stood out as the only one highly related to untruth- fulness in children. Hartshorne, May, and others *? found sig nificant altho not high correlations between home environment and deception, cooperation, persistence, inhibition, and moral knowledge. [hey considered several aspects of the home environment, including occupation of parents, socio-economic level of the family, and general cultural background. The strongest evidence of home and family influence, however, was found in the fact that siblings (brothers and sisters) performed somewhat similarly on all tests of behavior and moral knowledge. In the case of honesty, service, persistence, and inhibition, the authors attributed this similarity partly to the environmental influences of the home, partly to the similarity in intelligence among mem- bers of a family, and partly to some obscure biological factor or factors. In the case of moral knowledge and attitudes, however, the simi- larity of siblings was ascribed almost entirely to the fact that they had been exposed to the same environmental influences. Busemann “* studied the behavior manifesta tions of about four hundred children in rela tion to the number of children of each sex in the family and the chronological position of each child among the siblings. His conclusions were as follows: 1. In general, it appears that children are more industrious and able at school the more siblings they have up to four. 2. Lack or fewness of siblings strongly favors “re- flectiveness” or introversion, feelings of self-dis- satisfaction, hyperactivity and unrest, conditions which are unfavorable to school success 3. The eldest sibling has on the average a higher class position than the median sibling, the youngest a lower position than the median. 4. Having siblings of the opposite sex seems dis- advantageous for school success, but has no effect on “reflectiveness.” Docility shows a reciprocal sex modification 5. Poverty of siblings apparently favors varia- tions, for the most part, in the direction of less school accomplishment and unfavorable traits, but occa- sionally (in the case of girls) variations are in a favorable direction. An average size of family ap- pears to encourage the appearance of average, effective behavior. 6. Sibling status affords an operative influence in every cast Similar investigations by Fenton ®* and by r ’ Goodenough and Leahy vielded somewhat different results. In these studies the only child in a family seemed to be a little more self-con- fident, aggressive, optimistic, original, and bet- ter adjusted than the child in a family having two or more children. The youngest child in a family also appeared to have some advantage in adjustment, while the oldest child was defi nitely handicapped. In Tilson’s study ** of pre school children who had been referred to habit clinics, however, those having the most com mon behavior problems were more frequently the only or youngest children than the older or oldest children in the family. Foster °* found that 40 percent of a group of jealous children came from homes where op- portunity for social relationships was lacking, whereas only 23 percent of a group of non jealous children came from such homes. Chassell ** made an intensive study of one hundred students afflicted with shyness or self consciousness. From his analysis of related fac- tors, certain suggestions appear with regard to ® Slaght, William E. A. Untruth{ulness in Children: Its Conditioning Factors and Its Setting in Child Nature. University of Iowa Studies in Character, Vol. I, No. 4. Iowa City, Iowa: the University, 1928. 79 p "2 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 213-45. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.: and Maller Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 181-89. 200-07, Shuttleworth, F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 123-24, 126 * Busemann, A. ‘“‘Geschwisterschaft, Schultuchtigkeit und Charakter.”’ (Sibling Status, School Ability, and Char 395-97, 407-10, 417. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A ind Zsch. §. Kinderforsch 34: 1-52; 1928. Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts 2: 450; July, 1928 ™ Fenton, Norman. ‘“‘The Only Child.”” Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 35: 546-56; December, 1928 ® Goodenough, Florence L., and Leahy, Alice M “The Effect of Certain Family Relationships upon the Development of Personality.”’ Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 34: 45-71; March, 1927. * Tilson, Marie Agnes. Problems of Preschool Children Basis for Parental Education. Contributions to Education, No. 356 New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1929. 90 p. * Foster, Sybil. ‘A Study of the Personality Make-up and Soc ial Setting of Fifty Jealous Children.’’ Mental Hygiene 11 C199 “id ; January, 1927. *§ Chassell, Joseph O. Experience Variables: A Study of the Variable Factors in Experience Contributing to the Formation of Personality. Doctor’s thesis, Teachers College, Columbia University. Rochester, N. Y.: published by the author, University of Rochester Medical School, 1928 [ 63 | the type of treatment which the chi'd should comfort level and 68 percent at the luxury | receive from his family as well as from persons made a successful adjustment. The same inve. outside the family. Evidently, if the child is tigators also found the treatment of young to develop into an adult who is free from self- _linquents in selected foster homes to be hig consciousness and who enjoys social relations, profitable.‘°' This procedure was successfu he should not always be expected to sacrifice about 80 percent of the cases where the c! his wishes for those of the parent; the father was not seriously deficient or pathologica should develop intimacy and display affection mind. freely with the child; less than the average Among the most frequent factors reve amount of obedience may well be required; a by King’s study of forty-four delinquen: kindly rather than persecutory attitude must girls ‘°? were a desire for affection not fo be developed among brothers and sisters; a at home, lack of home training, homes wi: sincere religious life but one free from a sense repressive or foreign atmosphere, over-ind. of guilt or sin may be cultivated; a natural at- gence at home, being reminded by parents titude toward sex should be encouraged, and past mistakes, and conflicts with step-parents attachments to persons of either sex be permit- Bridges and Bridges*** and Glueck ted to flourish; and plenty of opportunity for Glueck '°* found broken homes in 60 per: association with persons of similar age and for of the cases studied by them. The latter st the attainment of social recognition should be showed that over 80 percent of the men had provided. the parental home, prior to sentence to the r The influence of strong religious home train- formatory, for long periods and for reas ing upon college sophomore men was studied which indicated a serious breach in child-paren: by Shuttleworth.*® He found that such training relationships. Half of these had left hon was associated to some extent with present re- the age of fourteen years or earlier. ligious activities of the students, but that it had Burt’s ‘> comparison of delinquents little or no relation to cheating on a test, to non-delinquents revealed the following fac: reproductive imagination, or to intelligence. with respect to home conditions and deli: Studies of delinquency rather uniformly quency: have indicated various home conditions as im- Percent portant factors in this category of misbehavior. Percent of of not Healy and Bronner?®° reported that of the delinquents delinqu« 4000 repeated offenders studied in Chicago and Poverty in the home.... 38.2 Defective family relation- Boston, 40 percent came from homes where dies parental control was lacking. Success in the Defective home discipline... 60.9 treatment of 675 cases in Chicago was not Vicious home much affected by whether or not they came from broken homes, but was significantly af- Several studies have indicated the imp fected by factors associated with the economic tance of suitable sex instruction in the home status of the family. Of those in destitute cir- as well as the inadequate extent to which man cumstances, only 34 percent made a successful parents give such instruction. Peck ani adjustment, while 50 percent of those at the Wells’ obtained replies to questionnaire: * Shuttleworth, Frank K. “Influence of Early Religious Home Training on College Sophomore Men.’’ Religious Educa : §7-60; January, 1927. ™ Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F. Delinquents and Criminals, Their Making and Unmaking. New York: Macn Co., 1928. 317 p. 1 Healy, William; Bronner, Augusta F.; Baylor, Edith M. H.; and Murphy, J. Prentice. Reconstructing Behavior in Yout/ A Study of Problem Children in Foster Families. New York: Alfred A, Knopf, 1929, 325 p. 2 King. Anna Elizabeth. Chang ng the Delinquent Attitude: A Study of Effective Treatment in the Cases of Forty-! Delinquent Girls. Cleveland, Ohio: School of Applied Social Sciences, Western Reserve University, 1927. 80 p. “8 Bridges, J. W., and Bridges, K. M. Banham. “A Psychological Study of Juvenile Delinquency by Group Method Genetic Psychology Monographs 1: 411-506; September, 1926. 1* Glueck, Sheldon, and Glueck, Eleanor T. 500 Criminal Careers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. 365 p. 1 Burt, Cyril. The Young Delinquent. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1925. p. 51, 62-63. 1 Peck, M. W., and Wells, F. L. “On the Psycho-Sexuality of College Graduate Men.” Mental Hygiene 7: 697-714: October Heng Peck, M. W., and Wells, F. L. “Further Studies in Psycho-Sexuality of College Graduate Men.”’ Mental Hygiene 9: 502 uly, 1925. [ 64] from two groups of college graduate men. A majority of these men felt that they would have been helped by fuller information on sex hygiene than they had received. In one group, only 27 percent had received their principal in- formation at home, whereas 56 percent be lieved that such information should be given by the home. In the other group, 9 percent and 8 percent had received such instruction from their fathers and mothers, respectively, whereas 47 percent thought it should be given by the father and 14 percent thought it should be given by the mother. Other agencies than the home were mentioned as best fitted for this responsibility by smaller proportions of the groups. In a study of 120 high-school students, Heaton '°? found that among those who were receiving no sex instruction at home, 87 per- cent of the boys and 61 percent of the girls re- ported that they were reading maga- zines, while among those who were receiving sex instruction and help in their problems, only 43 percent of the boys and 45 percent of the girls were reading such magazines. obtained the following results from sex Davis *°* a questionnaire study of one thousand unmar- ried Women: 1. Sixty-two percent of the parents who gave their children sex information had been anticipated by other children or servants. 2. Only about 13 percent of the girls ever received complete information about reproduction from parents. 3. Whatever the sort of sex information received from parents, only 3 percent found it harmful, 60 percent found it helpful, and 37 percent found it merely a stimulus to get more information elsewhere. Hamilton’s study of marriage ‘°* indicated that a married person is likely to be somewhat happier if he or she has grown up equally fond of both parents, and if frank and free sex edu- cation was received from parents before the age of six years. The foregoing studies leave little room for doubt that the home is still an important in- 107 Heaton, Kenneth L. A Study of the Recreational Life of High School Students Chicago, 1931. p. 207. 106 Davis, Katharine Bement. Factors im the Sex Life of Twenty-Two Hundred Women 1929. 430 p. 1° Hamilton, G. V. A Research in Marriage 0 See p. 61-62 of this bulletin. New York 11 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 285, 294 Albert and Charles Boni, In 1 fluence in character formation. This influence seems to depend partly upon the cultural and economic status of the parents. A more signifi cant factor, however, is the care and intelli gence with which parents guide their children in desirable ways of living. This is precisely the phase of home influence in which teachers and other school workers can be of most assistance By tactfully discussing with parents the needs of individual children, and by suggesting spe cific ways of meeting these needs, the school can often help to improve the home environment from the standpoint of personality develop ment. The school’s relation to the home will be referred to in the next issue of the Research Bulletin under the following headings: “The Case Method of Studying the Maladjusted Pupil,” “Suggestions for Diagnosis and Treat Behavior Problems,” “Specialists as and ‘Relation of the Agencies.” ment otf Counselors,” School to Outside Neighborhood, community, and geographi cal area—The relation of very broad geograph ical groupings to the character of individuals has already been touched upon under “Race and nationality,” '’° and the complexity of such factors has been pointed out. ‘The smal'er areas considered here, such as neighborhood and com munity, are also complex. Such areas often dif fer from one another not only with respect to material conditions, but also with respect to the personal and social characteristics of the people and the schools, and other institutions which they pro types of homes, churches, vide. That differences in these component fac tors affect the character development of chil dren can hardly be doubted. The specific con tribution of each factor to the total influence of community or neighborhood, however, is far from clear. In one limited phase of their investigations, Hartshorne and May '"! compared extremely honest children with extremely dishonest chil dren in regard to the general physical condi tions of the neighborhoods in which the chil Unpublished doctor's the New York: Harper _ 1929. 570 299-301. [65] dren lived. The average neighborhood rating of the honest children was somewhat higher than that of the dishonest ones who lied about their cheating, and very significantly higher than the rating of the dishonest children who freely admitted their cheating. The same investigators ''? found that differ- ences in the general economic and cultural lev- els of three distinct neighborhoods were asso- ciated with differences in the performance of the children of those neighborhoods on tests of cooperation, persistence, inhibition, and moral knowledge. The children in the poorest neighborhood on the social scale were found least generous and cooperative, but those from the middle neighborhood were more generous and cooperative than those from the best neigh- borhood. On the tests of inhibition the most favored social group did best and the least fav- ored did poorest, but the differences were small. In persistence the least favored group sur- passed the other two on the whole, altho not on every test. In moral knowledge and atti- tudes, however, the most favored children were far superior to both of the other groups. Shaw’s study '** of delinquency areas in Chi- cago showed a striking tendency for certain neighborhood environments to produce large numbers of delinquents regularly, and for oth- ers to produce relatively few delinquents, in proportion to the total population of the same age and sex. A distribution of delinquents by mile-zone areas, beginning with the “Loop” and working outward, revealed a pronounced decrease in delinquency rates corresponding to an increase in distance from the “Loop.” That these differences were due largely to the gen- eral cultural patterns of the different neigh- borhoods was indicated by the tendency for the delinquency rate of a given group to change as the group moved from one neighborhood to an- other, while the delinquency rate of a given neighborhood remained relatively constant in spite of shifts in population. Two studies showing the relation of graphical area to national or race prejudi may be mentioned. Watson ''* graphic factors of relatively little importan in determining the attitudes of Americans : ward the Orient. For example, students Ohio were more like students in Californi than they were like labor unions in Ohio. Rein hardt ''® likewise found little difference be tween university students in West Virvgini and those in North Dakota, both being read to exclude two or more of nine national group from business or neighborhood equality. The character influences of neighborhood found and community have great significance for thy schools. There ought to be intelligent coope ation between the schools and all communit agencies which are working to improve social conditions. Moreover, teachers and school ad ministrators need to perform more serious!) than ever before their duties as citizens of com munity, state, and nation. It is quite possible that teachers eventually will be able to exe; as much influence upon the character develop ment of children by their activities outside th: school as by the performance of their scho duties. For additional discussion of school and com munity relations, see “Other community agen cies in relation to the school,” in the Ma Research Bulletin. Friends and associates—The results of search point to the individual’s friends and associates as among the most important influ ences in the development of his character. Ce: tain aspects of this influence have already been considered in discussing the relation of chara ter to family, neighborhood, and communit conditions. The following paragraphs deal mainly with personal associations outside the family and in smaller units than the neighbo: hood or community. Hartshorne, May, and others 8 to measure the influence of friends upon thie undert 10k 12 Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 177-80, 390-95 Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 122-23. "3 Shaw, Clifford R., and others. Delinquency Areas: A Study of the Geographic Distribution of School Truants, Juvenil Delinquents, and Adult Offenders in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929. 214 p. 44 Watson, Goodwin. ‘Orient and Occident: An Opinion Study.” Summary in Religious Education 24: 322-28: April, 192 "8 Reinhardt, James M. “Students and Race Feeling.’’ Survey 61: 239-40; November 15, 1928. "6 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 274-76. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 237-39, 436-37. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; Shuttleworth, F Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 99-101. K [ 66] com sibie -xert lop honesty, helpfulness, self-control, and moral knowledge of school children by correlating the test scores of one group with those of other children mentioned as friends by members of the first group. They observed a general ten dency for these children to make scores simi lar to those of their friends on the same tests. especially when the friends were members of the same classroom in school. The results va ried somewhat, however, in different groups and on different tests. Classmates in one school especially resembled one another in deception and this tendency persisted even when the classmates were not friends. With the tests of service the correlations were somewhat lower and indicated that in this phase of character the association of individual friends was probably ot more influence than mere classroom associa tions. Friends tended to resemble each other in persistence to about the same extent as in service, but in inhibition to a considerably les ser extent. In persistence, especially, friends from the same classroom showed far more re- semblance than friends from different class. rooms. A positive altho not high correlation was also found between friends on the tests of moral knowledge. This resemblance tended to increase with the age of the children, but seemed to be independent of the influence of similar age or sex among the paired friends. The investigators ranked the child's friends second in importance as a source of his knowl- edge of right and wrong, giving only the home a higher place as a source of such knowledge. Several studies have shown a relation be tween undesirable behavior tendencies and a lack of opportunity for normal association with 7 Tilson, Marie Agnes. Problems of other persons of similar age. Tilson found that preschool children who had little chance to play with other youngsters were often unduly dependent emotionally upon adults. Mennin ger ''S discovered a marked difference between emotionally healthy and emotionally unhealthy college students with respect to the number of love affairs which they had had. Chassell’s study indicated that one way to help prevent the development of shyness or self-conscious ness is to encourage friendship with desirable persons of similar age and of both sexes Liberal or conservative attitudes toward other people and institutions seem to be defi nitely affected by acquaintance or friendship with the persons involved. Watson '*° and Orata Orient more likely to characterize those w found liberal attitudes toward the had friends or acquaintances among members of other races, especially Orientals Manry colleges which select their populations from all showed that students in certain over the country generally had more liberal in ternational attitudes than those. in colleges where most of the students come from the same state. Children evidently about sex more frequently from their com cet their information panions than from any other one source. Peck and Wells found that 34 percent of two hundred male college graduates had received such information principally from companions. Davis swered by one thousand unmarried women, * discovered from a questionnaire an that in 62 percent of the cases in which thei: parents had given them sex information, such ' ber ~ instruction had been anticipated by other chil dren or servants. Preschool Children: A Basis for Parental Educati New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1929. 90 p. 8 Menninger, Karl A. ‘Adaptation Difficulties in College Students.’’ Mental Hygie 1° Chassell, Joseph O. Experience Variables: A Study of the Personality. Doctor’s thesis. Teachers College, Columbia University. Rochester, N. Y f Rochester Medical School, 1928 Variable Factors in Experience Contributine to the Formation published by the author, University 12° Watson, Goodwin. “Orient and Occident: An Opinion Study.”” Summary in Religious Education 2 8; Apr 1 Orata, Pedros T. ‘‘Race Prejudice.’’ Welfare Magazine 18 766-75; June, 1927 Manry. James Campbell. World Citizenship: A Measurement of Certain Factors Determining Information and Judgment { International Affairs. University of Lowa Studies in Character, Vol. I, No. 1. Iowa City, Iowa: the University, 1927. 67 p 123 Peck, M. W., and Wells, F. I 20; July, 1925. ™* Davis, Katharine Bement “Further Studies in Psycho-Sexuality of College Graduate Men.”’ M ental Hygiene 9 Among the studies of delinquency, Healy and Bronner ‘** found “bad companions” to be one of the contributory conditions in 62 per- cent of the delinquent cases investigated. King '*° found the same conditions among the most frequent causative factors in the delin- quency of forty-four girls who later became satisfactorily adjusted. Burt **’ discovered a much larger proportion of delinquent children than of non-delinquents involved in unwhole- some companionships outside the home. Hendry '** reported the work of one com- munity in locating unsupervised gangs and en- gaging them in a constructive leisure-time pro- gram before they had a chance to become se- riously delinquent. The influence of such groups upen their members is coming to be recognized as a serious problem calling for so- lution along the soundest of modern educa- tional lines. In view of the strong influence of friends and companions upon individual character, it is important for teachers to know the kinds of persons with whom their pupils associate out- side as well as inside the school. The school should help to substitute wholesome compan- ionships and desirable activities for unwhole- some gang loyalties and anti-social behavior whenever the latter are exhibited by children. Group and expert opinion—The influence of other people’s opinions upon individual judg- ments or attitudes has been demonstrated by the experiments of Moore '*° and of Wheeler and Jordan.'*® Moore gave tests of linguistic, moral, and musical judgment to a group of students without warning, and then repeated the tests after the influences to be measured had been introduced. Care was taken to de- termine the percentage of reversals of judg- ment which might be attributed to alone. After being told the majority opinions as revealed by the first testing, the studens reversed their original opinions as follows: op linguistic questions, 62 percent; on moral que: tions, 50 percent ; and on musical questions. 4s percent. After being told the opinion of expert in each field with respect to the va questions, the group was tested again showed further reversals of judgment as { lows: linguistic, 48 percent ; moral, 48 percent and musical, 46 percent. The number of time majority opinion and expert opinion caused 4 reversal of judgment as compared with chance reversal is indicated below: Moral Musica Majority opinion ; 4.9 Linguistic Expert opinion 4.6 Wheeler and Jordan’s study was limited : questions on campus affairs and politics, an was concerned with the influence of maj: opinion only. The results showed that group opinion facilitated agreeing individua opinions to an extent almost three times great as could have been attributed to char and (2) group opinion inhibited disagreeing opinions to almost one-half the extent wh could have been accounted for by chance. That there are wide differences among indi- viduals in degree of susceptibility to group opi: ion was shown in another study by Moore in which college students characterized as | cals made only a 12-percent change in the judgments while students classed as conserv: tives made a 3l-percent change, on the ave: age, after being told how the majority had re sponded on an earlier test. “* Healy, William, and Bronner, Augusta F. Delinquents and Criminals, Their Making and Unmaking. New York: Mac: Co., 1928. 317 p. _** King, Anna Elizabeth. Changing the Delinquent Attitude: A Study of Effective Treatment in the Cases of Forty ! Delinquent Girls, Cleveland, Ohio: School of Applied Social Sciences, Western Reserve University, 1927. 80 p. ** Burt, Cyril. The Young Delinquent. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1925. p. 125. 8 Hendry, Charles E. A Study of Unsupervised Neighborhood Groups and Gangs in Kenosha, Wisconsim. Research and Studies II. New York: Association Press, 1930. *2® Moore, Henry T. “The Comparative Influence of Majority and Expert Opinion.” American Journal of Psychology 32 16-20; January, 1921. 1 Wheeler, David, and Jordan, Howard. “Change of Individual Opinion to Accord with Group Opinion.” Journal < Abnormal and Social Psychology 24: 203-06; July, 1929. 81 Moore, Henry T. “Innate Factors in Radicalism and Conservatism.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 20 234-44; October, 1925, [ 68 ] In the light of the preceding evidence, one might expect well-organized discussion groups to have considerable influence on the partici pants. Direct evidence on this point, however, is relatively meager. Lamb '** attempted to ap praise the effect of an older boys’ conference in terms of changes in the racial attitudes of those attending, and concluded that there had been a small but genuine improvement in such attitudes during the course of the conference. In Collins’ questionnaire study of fifty rela tively unprejudiced white Southerners, sum- mer religious conferences were indicated most frequently as a factor in overcoming the preju dice of these people against negroes.’** Discus- sion groups and other meetings under religious auspices also were mentioned as significant in fluences. The apparently significant influence of group and expert opinion upon individual judgment may be utilized by the school thru pupil dis- cussion of opinions concerning social and moral problems. The character values of the social- ized discussion will be further considered in the Research Bulletin for May. Agencies of communication—Before the de- velopment of modern industrial civilization, with its unprecedented application of science and machinery to the fulfilment of human wants, the ideas, opinions, and attitudes which influenced a person’s character were largely those of members of his own family and local community. Modern methods of communica- tion have helped to change this situation pro- foundly. Thru such agencies as the telephone, the telegraph, the radio, the press, and the mo- tion picture, most people today are not only able but often compelled to take notice of ideas, opinions, and activities originating in all parts of the world. That this new multiplicity of stimuli is having an effect upon character for- mation cannot be doubted. The specific nature of its influence and the relative potency of its various phases, however, are still very obscure. 182 Lamb, C. S. Press, 1930. 133 Collins, George L. “How Race Prejudice Is Overcome.’ Appraising the Results of an Older Boys’ Conference World Tomorrow 11: Research to date has barely scratched the sur face of this complex problem. Data concerning the influence of newspapers and magazines are somewhat conflicting. Lund berg '°* interviewed 940 men and women in Seattle in regard to their attitudes on four public questions which had been before the electorate within the preceding eight months. He found no significant relationship between the attitudes of these people and the viewpoints of the newspapers which they read most fre quently. About half of those interviewed spent more than thirty minutes each day in reading newspapers. In a ranking of newspaper depart ments on the basis of reader interest, general news and editorials were first and second, with radio and puzzles seventh and eighth, respec tively. Types of news according to reader intet est ranked as follows: politics, disasters, graft finance, crime, theater, marriage, and society. Watson, ' markably high correlation between the num on the other hand, found a re ber of magazines read and a favorable attitude toward Chinese nationalism and the Soviet. This relationship was increased by considering the kind of magazines read as well as their number. Sullenger *** found the newspaper to be an important contributing cause of juvenile delinquency by suggesting details of criminal procedure to immature readers. During the last five or ten years much has been written concerning the influence of mo tion pictures and radio programs, both as tools of instruction in the school and as general cul | here is considerable scientific evidence as to the eftect tural factors in life outside the school. of motion pictures upon personality and char acter, but very little in regard to the cor responding effect of radio programs. Probably search with respect to the personality influences the outstanding program of re of motion pictures was that initiated by the Motion Picture Research Council and conduct- ed by the Committee on Educational Research Research and Studies II. New York: Association 410-12: October, 1928 ™ Lundberg, George A. ‘‘The Newspaper and Public Opinion.”’ Social Forces 4: 709-15; June, 1926 ™% Watson, Goodwin. ‘Orient and Occident: An Opinion Study.’’ Summary in Religious Education 24: 322-28; Apr ” Sullenger, T. E. Social Determinants in Juvenile Delinquency. Omaha, Nebr Douglas Printing Co., 1930. 8 [69 ] of the Payne Fund.'** The results of this group of studies were too numerous and varied to permit an adequate summary here. In general, the investigators discovered that children of all ages attend commercial movies once a week on the average, and that the pictures which they see do have definite effects upon their attitudes and behavior. In his statement of introduction to the popularized summary of the studies, Charters states: I agree with the author in the fundamental posi- tion that the motion picture is powerful to an unex- pected degree in affecting the information, atti- tudes, emotional experiences and conduct patterns of children; that the content of current commercial motion pictures constitutes a valid basis for appre- hension about their influence upon children; and that the commercial movies present a critical and complicated situation in which the whole-hearted and sincere cooperation of the producers with par- ents and public is essential to discover how to use motion pictures to the best advantage of children.” Hartshorne, May, and Maller **® also re- ported significant relationships between mo- tion pictures and children’s attitudes and con- duct. These studies compared the perform- ances of pupils on tests of honesty, cooperation, persistence, and inhibition with the frequency of attendance at motion pictures. On each of these groups of tests there was a general ten- dency for pupils who attended less often to score higher than those who attended more often. The authors were inclined not to as- sume a direct causal connection, however, be- tween seeing the pictures and behaving un- desirably. They concluded that the relation- ships observed might be accounted for, to con- siderable extent at least, by a third factor or group of factors, such as intelligence and social- economic status, which were associated with 187 For a popularized summary of these investigations, see: Macmillan Co., 1933. 288 p. The technical reports of the several investigations are found in the following volumes: Herbert. Movies and Conduct. New York: Macmillan Co., 1933. both attendance at movies and undesi conduct. The problems of making the motion pic: and the radio contribute positively rather tha; negatively to personality development should not be overlooked by the school. ought to exert an organized influence upon Teac ers public opinion in regard to the types of pro grams produced by commercial agencies jn these fields. They can also help to improy; children’s tastes in movie and radio entertain ment by suitable discussion and, if facilities permit, by presenting good programs to pupils in the school. Transportation and travel—Modern meth ods of transportation and travel must also b reckoned with as potentially important fac- tors in character development, altho there is a lack of objective evidence in regard to the precise nature of such influences. ‘Che tremen dously increased speeds with which people can move from one locality to another enable them to experience at first hand innumerable ideas and modes of behavior which otherwise they could only read or hear about. Progress in transportation is perhaps best typified in th automobile, whose widespread availability, sim plicity of control, and inexpensiveness of ope: ation make it the almost universal mode of get ting away from home for young and old alike The opportunity thus provided to escape tly surveillance of family and community may en courage departures from codes of conduct th which are approved by these groups. On other hand, cheap and rapid transportation ot fers fully as great opportunities for desirabl experiences as for undesirable ones. “The valu of the experiences obtained doubtless depend: more upon other factors than upon the mer availability of improved facilities for travel New York Biumer 257 p. Blumer, Herbert, and Hauser, Philip M. Movies, De‘i Forman, Henry James, Our Movie Made Children quency, and Crime. New York: Macmillan Co., 1933. 233 p. Charters, W. W. Motion Pictures and Youth: A Summary. York: Macmillan Co., 1933. (Combined with Getting Ideas from the Movies, by P. W. Holaday and George D. Stoddard.) 1¢ Cressey, Paul G., and Thrasher, Frederick M. Boys, Movies, and City Streets. New York: Macmillan Co. In press. Dale, Edzai The Content of Motion Pictures. New York: Macmillan Co. (Combined with Children’s Attendance at Motion Pictures, by Ede Dale.) In press. Dale, Edgar. How to Appreciate Motion Pictures. New York: Macmillan Co., 1933. 243 p. Dysinger, W. S.. 4 Ruckmick, Christian A. The Emotional Resp s of Children to the Motion Picture Situation. New York: Macmillan Co (Combined with Motion Pictures and Standards of Morality, by Charles C. Peters.) 407 p. Peterson, Ruth C., and Thurstor L. L. Motion Pictures and the Social Attitudes of Children. New York: Macmillan Co., 1933. (Combined with The Social Con duct and Attitudes of Movie Fans, by Frank K. Shuttleworth and Mark A. May.) 217 p. Renshaw, Samuel; Miller, Verno: and Marquis, Dorothy. Children’s Sleep. New York: Macmillan Co., 1933. 242 p. 18 Forman, Henry James. Our Movie Made Children. New York: Macmillan Co., 1933. ‘Introduction,’ p. viii 1 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 281-82. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark \ Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 228-32, 425-27. [70] (Pag fly he CO an Boy Ma Sti AT ac FRE fd. hg Neb oe Practically the only point at which scien tific investigation has touched this field is the relation of certain types of travel to the opin- ions, attitudes, and prejudices of individuals. Studies by Watson,'*° Manry,’*! and Patter- son and Durgin '* lationship between amount of foreign travel revealed no significant re- and liberalism of attitudes toward foreign peo ples. Diggins,’** however, found the experi- ence of such travel somewhat conducive to liberalism in a group of students which in cluded a number of foreigners attending an American university. The school can contribute to the character values of travel by encouraging children to visit interesting places for purposes that are personally and socially valuable. It can ac quaint children with the kind of manners and conduct appropriate for trips away from home. The present tendency toward an_ excessive amount of unsupervised travel by young people in automobiles and otherwise may be counter- acted somewhat by providing more interesting activities in the school and local community. Organized recreational facilities—The in- fluence of recreational activities upon character has been implied in the foregoing statements concerning home and family, neighborhood and community, friends and associates, and agencies of communication and transportation. This brief section is concerned primarily with the influence of specially organized but non commercial facilities for recreational purposes, such as summer camps, clubs, and other organ- izations for young people. There is no lack of organizations designed to meet the recreational of children. Nearly forty national agencies, such as the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, the Y.M.C.A., and the Y.W.C.A., are endeavor- needs 140 Watson, Goodwin. “Orient and Occident: “1 Manry, James Campbell. World Citizenship: A An Opinion Study.” Measurement of Certain Factors Determining Information and Jud ing to-xfoster sound physical development and desirable character growth. Pangburn ‘** re ported more than 110 kinds of activities as being carried on by these agencies, from wood craft and athletics to airplane construction Including every sort of public and_ private recreational agency in operation, it has been estimated that about sixteen million of thx twenty-two million children from eight to eighteen years of age participate in some form of organized recreation.'* The character-building values of most wel! established recreational organizations are usually taken for granted; yet there is ver) little scientific evidence reflecting either favor ably or unfavorably upon their work. Good ‘© obtained others responses to a man and questionnaire from two thousand Boy Scouts in several large cities with respect to the values had received from the Scout pro which they gram. According to these boys, the features of the program which helped them most in living up to the Scout Oath and Law were (1) passing the Scout tests and requirements, (2) entrance into Scouting, preparation and investiture, and (3) the good-turn habit and the program of civic service. Least value was found in the patrol system and program, the council or district activities, and the troop camp. These findings, altho doubtless of value to leaders in the organization, can hardly serve as a basis for evaluating the Boy Scout move ment as a whole. Many of the boys’ responses were probably sincere, but the collection of children’s statements concerning their own character growth is open to serious question as a scientific procedure Some evidence as to the relation between character and membership in certain clubs was presented by Hartshorne, May, and others.** 299 9 Summary in Religious Education 24: 3 8; April J of International Affairs. University of Iowa Studies in Character, Vol. I, No. 1. Iowa City, Iowa: the University, 1927. 67 p 142 Patterson, George S., and Durgin, R. Educational Values in Friendship Tours—1928. Research and Studies, No. 173. New York: Association Press, 1929. 43 Diggins, Elmer A Statistical Study of National Prejudices Master’s thesis, Columbia | niversity, 192 4 Pangburn, Weaver. “The Child and Organized Recreation.” League Scrip (Minneapolis Teachers’ League) 12 December, 1931. 43 Pangburn, Weaver, op. cit., p. 23. 46 Goodman, E. U., Boy Scouts of America (2 Park Ave.). 47 p. ™? Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 102, 132-34 and others. Report of the Commission on Character Values Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. 362-67 224-48, 421-25. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. K »f Scouting and How Obtained. New York Hartshorne, Hugh: May, Mark A and [71] ‘They concluded that one well-known organ- ization for boys was either neutral or dele- terious with respect to one of its major aims, the inculcation of honesty, insofar as the spe- cific groups of children studied were concerned ; that the members of several organizations, both of boys and of girls, were on the average significantly more cooperative but no more per- sistent or better inhibited than non-members ; and that in certain groups the members made somewhat higher average scores than non- members on tests of moral knowledge. It was impossible to determine, however, whether the apparent superiority of members in helpfulness and in moral knowledge was due to the in- fluence of the organizations or to the selection of superior children as members. A special comparison of children and their club leaders indicated little if any relationship between the scores of the children and the scores of their leaders on tests of moral knowledge. Several studies '** have attempted to meas- ure the influence of boys’ camps upon conduct and attitudes. Most of them have shown no very significant improvement on the average. Some of the boys appeared to improve during their stay at camp while others actually seemed to lose ground. Some types of behavior showed improvement, while other types did not. The most comprehensive of these studies was prob- ably that by Dimock and Hendry,'*® who used a variety of measures. The camp program in question was of the “project” type, in which control was shared by the boys and their lead- ers, and artificial incentives played little part. In general, the greatest gains appeared in the following kinds of behavior: (1) friendly ap- proach to unlikeable boy, (2) volunteering for a service task inconspicuously, (3) practising musical appreciation, (4) friendly approach to those of other social, economic, or racial status, (5) shouldering responsibility, and (6) facing disagreeable facts. The loss exceeded the gain on such items as (1) laziness and indifference (2) irregular sex behavior (increased num ber of observed offenses), (3) hurting an other’s feelings, and (4) disinterest in reliy ious services. Parents were more optimistic than camp leaders as to gains in care of prop erty, initiative, resourcefulness, and absence of grouching, while the leaders were more in clined to report gains in shouldering respon sibility, displaying courage, and practising good table manners. Hartshorne, May, and Maller **° found small group of children who had had summe: camp experience no better than the average tests of service and self-control. The school, of course, should have recrea tional facilities and a well-developed program for their use outside as well as inside of schoo! hours. In many communities, however, ther are other non-commercial agencies equally we! or better equipped than the school for pro viding certain kinds of recreation. With such agencies the school ought to cooperate in lead ing children to appreciate the finer recrea tional values, and in strongly opposing the ugly or vicious type of commercialized amuse ment. These points will be discussed furthe: the May Research Bulletin under “Out-ot Class School Activities” and ‘Relation of the School to Outside Agencies.” Religious affiliation and religious education —Some relation between church affiliation and certain behavior tendencies has been indicate: by several studies. Orata**' found somewhat more prejudice against Orientals among col- lege students with some church affiliation than among those without such affiliation. Woo! ston **? obtained similar results in his stud 148 Dimock, Hedley S. An Appraisal of Behavior Changes in Boys at Camp Ahmek. Research and Studies Il. New York Association Press, 1930. Dimock, Hedley S., and Hendry, Charles E. Camping and Character: A Camp Experiment in Character Education. New York: Association Press, 1929. 364 p. Hein, L. H. Experiment with Behavior Frequency Tests at the Hastin: Lake Camps of the Chicago Y. M. C. A, Research and Studies II. New York: Association Press, 1930. Ure, Roland. Report on the Use of Parent Information Blank and Judging Camp Results Blank in Camps during the 1929 Season. Research and Studies |! New York: Association Press, 1930. Watson, Goodwin. Some Accomplishments in Summer Camps. New York: Association Pres 1928. 25 p. ™® Dimock, Hedley S., and Hendry, Charles E. Camping and Character: A Camp Experiment in Character Education. New York: Association Press, 1929. 364 p. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 228, 425. 181 Orata, Pedros T. ‘Race Prejudice.” Welfare Magazine 18: 766-75; June, 1927. 183 Woolston, Howard. “Stepbrothers: A Study of Prejudice and Convention.” Social Forces 6: 368-75; March, 1928. [72] of prejudice and convention in a wider range of situations. Allport *°* found a group of col leve students with radical political attitudes to be only 69-percent Protestant, those with conservative attitudes were 98-per- whereas cent Protestant. In judging the issues of the 1928 presidential campaign, nearly all stu- dents in these groups stated that they con- sidered religion a negligible factor, but only 7 per cent of the Catholics were in favor of the Protestant candidate. In an analysis of 669 cases of delinquency in Chicago, Healy and Bronner *°* found that success in readjustment was slightly greater among the Catholic men than among the Protestant or Jewish men, but greater among the Jewish women than among the Protestant or Catholic women. Hartshorne, May, some evidence of relationship between the re- and others*® found ligious affiliation of parents and the perform- ance of their children on tests of honesty, co- operation, and moral knowledge. In the case of honesty and moral knowledge, most of the observed differences were attributed to the as- sociated factors of intelligence cultural background of the particular groups studied. Even when the factor of intelligence was controlled, however, the children of cer- and social tain denominations tended to cheat somewhat more than others. On the tests of cooperation or service, the children of Protestant parents did uniformly better than the Catholic chil- dren, and generally better than the Jewish children. These differences did not appear to be closely associated with differences in intel- ligence or cultural level. No significant dif- 188 Allport, Gordon W. “The Composition of Political Attitudes.’’ American Journal of Sociology 35 14 Healy, William. and Bronner, Augusta F Co., 1928. 317 p. 155 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book 1, p Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 194-99, 401-05. Hartshorne, Hugh Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 128. 156 Hightower, Pleasant Roscoe. Biblical Information in Relation to Character and Conduct Delinquents and Crimina T heir terences were found among these the tests of persistence and inhibition In the tield of religious education. availabl the ch if evidence gives reason for doubt as to acter values of the traditional type of instruc been made to the f} ivlor which indicated practically no cor tion. Reference has already studies of Hightower *® and and Powers, relation between character ratings or conduct scores and knowledge of the Bible, and to Shuttleworth’s study of religious home in fluence, which showed no relation between such influence and scores on tests of cheating and moral judgment. Clarke dred pupils in a daily vacation Bfble school, found 56 the and 68 percent of the girls cheating on at least one gave a ‘“‘peeping”’ test to five hun and percent of boys of three trials. Amount of Sunday-school ex perience seemed to exert no influence on the amount of cheating. A second test given neat the end of the school session showed a 17 percent improvement among the boys and a 31-percent gain among the girls. Of the pupils who were perfectly honest on the first test, 75 percent were honest on thé closing test, while of those who were completely dishonest on the first, 50 percent remained dishonest on the closing test. May, revealed no significant relation The investigations of Hartshorne, 0 and others *' between character tendencies and Sunday- school attendance that could be definitely at tributed to the influence of the latter. Neither length nor regularity of attendance seemed to be associated with children’s tendencies to de ceive either at school or at home, or with their )-38 Vaking and Unmaking. New 253-56 Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark May, Mark A.; and Shuttlew University Character, Vol. III, No. 2. Iowa City, Iowa: the University, 1930. 72 p 17 Taylor, Howard R., and Powers, Francis F. chology 35: 294-302; June, 1928. 158 Shuttleworth, Frank K. “Influence of Early Religious Home Training on Col 57-60; January, 1927. 4° Clarke, Frank A. ‘‘Some Character Tests.’’ American Educational Digest 4¢ 16 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I. p. 357-62 Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 219-24, 418-21 F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 103, 128-32. “Bible Study and Character ’ Pedagogical Seminary and Journal lege Sophomore Men.” Religi 225-26: January, 1927 Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A.; and Hartshorne, Hugh: May, Mark A.; and St eworth [73] scores on tests of inhibition. In service and per- sistence the children who had attended Sunday- school longer appeared very slightly superior, while in moral knowledge and attitudes those who had attended regularly were definitely altho not greatly superior to those who had not. Superiority on the moral-knowledge tests was considered a possible cause of regular at- tendance, and not necessarily a result of it. No correlation was found between the moral knowledge of the children and that possessed by their Sunday-school teachers. The generally negative results reported here should not be interpreted as an unfavorable criticism of all types of religious education. Some types of instruction most approved by leading thinkers in this field have not yet been tested, and the tests used thus far probably do not measure all of the desired outcomes. It is perhaps safe to say, however, that the type of religious education usually given probably has not been producing certain expected re- sults. Knowledge of this fact will be appre- ciated fully as much by workers who are in- terested in improving religious education as by any other group. The proper relation between the church and the public school in character education is a problem which, within certain limits, must be solved separately by each local community. The school can undoubtedly help to make religious organizations more effective by main- taining a fundamentally religious outlook its own work. Members of the school staff may also be encouraged to participate in worthy church activities, including church programs of religious education. It should be pointed out also that in some communities the churches are given a certain amount of school time each week for instructing the pupils in religious and moral principles. Public and other non-sectarian schools— The character influence of public and private schools which have no sectarian bias is being questioned by many people today. The evi- dence thus far presented indicates that the school is not, and perhaps cannot be, primarily 155-56 responsible for the character growth of chi! dren. There are innumerable other facto; which, altho not predominant individually, ¢o gether produce a resultant influence which tend to overshadow the influence of any sing}, agency like the school. This fact is corroborated by a few studies which have attempted to obtain some measure of the social effectiveness of the school itself, or of specific phases of the schoo! program. Studies of rather general nature are mentioned here. Others dealing more specit cally with school methods in relation to cha: acter are referred to in the Research Bulletin for May. It is usually difficult or impossible to stud, school influences independently of other in such as intelligence and economic status. This difficulty has been en countered in studies of crime and delinquen which have shown that certain groups of crim inals had less schooling, on the average, than persons in the general population. For exam ple, Glueck and Glueck '*' found that onl) 9 percent of 454 prisoners in the Massachusetts Reformatory had gone beyond the eighth grad: and only 55 percent had gone beyond the fift! grade, whereas the proportions of Boston public-school children progressing beyond these grades were considerably larger. The study showed, however, that nearly 75 pe: cent of the prisoners’ families were either de pendent or in marginal circumstances eco nomically, that 60 percent came from broken homes, and that nearly 70 percent were eithe: feeblerminded or of “border-line’”’ intelligence. Such data do not indicate that lack of school- ing was the major factor in the downfall ot these individuals. On the other hand, there is no evidence whatever that education tends to encourage crime, altho the better-educated and more intelligent criminals probably are more successful in escaping arrest and convic- tion.**? To the extent that early withdrawal from school has been a significant factor in the de velopment of delinquent or criminal tenden cies, the school itself may frequently have been fluences, social same 16t Glueck, Sheldon, and Glueck, Eleanor T. 500 Criminal Careers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. p. 116-17, 132-33, 12 For a further summary of research concerning the relation of crime tc schools and education, see: U. S. Department o! Commerce, Bureau of the Census. The Prisoner's Antecedents. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1929. p. 19 Division. ‘“‘Crime Prevention Through National Education Association, Research September, 1932. Washington, D. C.: the Association. [74] Education.” Research Bulletin 10: 159-61; fact ] inf oth -_ WO! Ta tew not evel beer the care I defi low Cort pro\ Sma peat scho flue siste in s¢ in o able feric beha ally the 1 some ticul it fault. Brill *®* concluded from his study of causes underlying conduct disorders of forty bovs referred to a habit clinic, that misgrading was the chief factor in causing difficulty and dissatisfaction at school. It was the motive for both truancy and misbehavior in the class room in 50 percent of the cases studied. Glueck ‘ revealed a_ greatet and Glueck’s study *° amount of school retardation among the re formatory group than among the general popu lation as represented by Boston public-schoo! children. Retardation may be due partly to low intelligence and other factors outside the control of the school, but too often the schoo! program fails to take sufficient account of such factors. Probably the most extensive studies of schoo! influence are those of Hartshorne, May, and others.®° In interpreting their data, however, it must be borne in mind that most of their work grades, five to eight inclusive, and in only a Final involved pupils in only four school tew school systems. conclusions could not be drawn from such a restricted sampling, even if the tests and other technics used had been entirely adequate. Nevertheless, some of the findings are highly suggestive and deserve careful consideration. Hartshorne and May found a small but definite increase in moral knowledge from the low er to the higher grades, but observed no corresponding general tendency toward im- the Small but consistent increases in inhibition ap proved performance on conduct tests. peared from grade td grade, suggesting - that school experience may exercise a definite in- fluence in this direction. On the tests of per sistence and service, however, the upper grades in some schools did better than the lower, while in one school located in a decidedly unfavor- able environment the upper grades were in- ferior to the lower. With respect to deceptive behavior, the upper grades were rather gener- ally inferior on certain tests, while on others the upper grades were sometimes superior and sometimes inferior, depending upon the par- ticular school involved. It was impossible to 4 Glueck, Sheldon, and Glueck, Eleanor T., of. cit., p. determine definitely the relative importance of school and out-of-school influences in produc ing these results. Quite obviously, however, the schools included in this study did not uni formly make their pupils either better or worse in the kinds of behavior measured. In the same investigation, differences ir conduct from one school to another were at tributed partly to school atmosphere or morale, which in turn was thought of as a product ot general administrative policy, type of super The nature of this morale appeared to be partly vision, and teacher-pupil relationships. dependent upon whether the school used pro gressive or conventional methods as a general policy. Schools using progressive methods were significantly less deceptive than those using conventional methods, even when such fac tors as intelligence and home background were equalized. With regard to the specific influence of the teacher, the Hartshorne-May study was rather inconclusive. Wide differences among various classrooms were observed, even within the same grade level and within the same school Such be ac counted for by measurable differences among differences, however, could not individual teachers. No correlation was found between teachers’ scores on the moral knowl edge tests and the relative mean scores of their pupils on the same tests. Only occasionally did a teacher seem to diverge enough from his fellows in the same school to induce marked changes in honesty among the children in his class. It is probable, of course, that certain types of teacher influence were not measured at all. The observed differences among comparable classrooms were attributed largely to a so called “group morale,” produced not so much by the personality or methods of any one teacher as by the continuous association of pu pils as a group year after year. The influence of this association may have come ultimately from sources outside as well as inside the school. At any rate, the investigators concluded that each school classroom tends to develop its own 3 Brill, Marion S. “Motivation of Conduct Disorders in Boys.’’ Journal of Delinquency 11: 5-22; March, 1927 133-34. 1 Hartshorne, Hugh, and May, Mark A. Studies in Deceit, Book I, p. and Maller, Julius B. Studies in Service and Self-Control, p. 125-39, 143-45, 367-71, Mark A.; and Shuttleworth, F. K. Studies in the Organization of Character, p. 257-73, 313-38. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, Mark A. 375-79, 410-17. Hartshorne, Hugh; May, 101-02, 125, 112-13. [75] ana sa characteristic morale, whether good or bad, and that this morale grows stronger from year to year. Numerous other studies have touched upon the relation of school experience to the atti- tudes, opinions, and prejudices of individuals. Symonds *® gave an attitude test and an in- formation test to high-school pupils in the Honolulu public schools and to students in the University of Hawaii. He found that al- tho the more advanced students were some- what better informed, they were not signifi- cantly more liberal in their attitudes on social questions. Manry,*** however, found liberal international attitudes more prevalent among college seniors than among college freshmen. His data also indicated that an orientation course given to freshmen produced some in- crease in liberalism. Jones’s study showed differences between senior and freshman classes to be partly dependent upon the field of atti- tude considered. Seniors appeared more liberal on religion, while freshmen were more liberal on economics.*®* Woolston’s study of one hundred university students revealed that those in liberal arts were more liberal in attitude than those in professional schools.**® Orata‘"® found that the liberal students were somewhat more ac- tive in cultural courses and societies than were the conservatives. Jasper '"? found that the general optimism of college students was greatest among the freshmen in an institution having a great deal of school spirit, and least among the seniors in a college with a strong intellectual tradition and little social life. Among this investigator’s conclusions were the following: 1. Students from different college environ: differ greatly in their characteristic social atti and personality traits. 2. Naive, unsophisticated enthusiasms are ciated with optimism; and intellectual sophi tion is associated with pessimism to some ext: 3. There seems to be no support for the co belief that college students have a tendency to a dangerous depression. Watson ?** obtained statements from college students as to why, in their own opin ion, they had certain attitudes. Of 717 ¢ periences listed, only 21 percent were scho experiences. In one hundred replies deali; particularly with war, the school was me: tioned in only 10 percent of the instance, where a definite influence was referred to. author suggests, however, that the great pr domination of dramatic incidents reporte probably somewhat misleading. Kornhauser *** and Young ‘** found, spectively, that a college course in econon and a course in American race problems | duced relatively little increase in liberalisy of attitude in either field. The influence such courses doubtless depends upon the spec! nature of their content and upon the methods by which they are taught. Bamesberge: found, for example, that in a group of pu schools in Oklahoma City, a certain type ot activity program covering historical and geo graphical aspects of ancient civilizations pr duced moré new interests, more outside re ing, and more constructive enterprises t did a control program of more formal text book instruction covering the same field 0! knowledge. 1 Symonds, Percival M. “A Social Attitude Questionnaire.” Journal of Education Psychology 16: 316-22; May, 1925 ? Manry, James Campbell. World Citizenship: A Measurement of Certain Factors Determining Information and Ju of International Affairs. University of Iowa Studies in Character, Vol. I, No. 1. Iowa City, Iowa: the University, 1927. 67 | 18 Jones, Edward S. ‘‘The Opinions of College Students.” Journal of Applied Psychology 10: 427-36; December, 19? “ Woolston, Howard. ‘‘Stepbrothers: A Study of Prejudice and Convention.”” Social Forces 6: 368-75; March, 1928 70 Orata, Pedros T. “Race Prejudice.’’ Welfare Magazine 18: 766-75; June, 1927. 171 Jasper, Herbert H. “Optimism and Pessimism in College Environments.’’ American Journal of Sociology 34: 85 March, 1929. 172 Watson, Goodwin. ‘‘Does World-Mindedness Depend upon Good-will or Information? Upon Character or Intelligen Religious Education 21: 188-94; April, 1926. 173 Kornhauser, A. W. “Changes in Attitudes Resulting from a College Course in Economics.”” Paper, 1927 meeting American Psychological Association. Abstracted in Psychological Bulletin 25: 195-96; 1928. 174 Young, Donald R. “Some Effects of a Course in American Race Problems on the Race Prejudice of 450 Undergraduates a! the University of Pennsylvania.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 22: 235-42, October, 1927-28. 48 Bamesberger, Velda C. An Appraisal of a Social Studies Course in Terms of lis Effect Upon the Achievement, Activities and Interests of Pupils. Contributions to Education, No. 328. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1928. 91 | [76] Studies like those mentioned in this section clearly do not furnish a sufficient basis for evaluating the school’s contribution to the formation of character. There seems to be lit- tle room for doubt, however, that the influ- ence of the school can be increased and im- proved in the future. The May issue of the Research Bulletin will discuss ways and means of attacking this difficult problem. Other factors—Many social factors in char- acter development have been mentioned only indirectly or not at all in the preceding pages. Among the most important are the ideals of business and industry, their methods of deal- ing with employees and consumers, their modes of advertising, their attitudes with respect to service and profit, and their viewpoint regard- ing child labor and education. Governmental institutions are doubtless exerting increased influence upon young people’s ideas of equal- ity and justice. Still other factors are found in the great variety of amusements now so popular and so widely available, and in the many organizations of social, fraternal, eco- nomic, civic, professional, political, military, religious, scientific, and esthetic nature which characterize modern life. Summary of Factors in Character Formation The studies cited in the preceding pages suggest a wide variety of influencing factors in the formation of personality and character. Some of these factors, such as the fundamental drives, general intelligence, emotional condi- tion, physical condition, and knowledge or un derstanding, are personal in nature altho not necessarily innate. Other factors, such as the home, the community, friends and companions, agencies of communication and travel, recrea- tional facilities, and religious and educational institutions, are essentially social in their in- fluence. The available evidence does not permit defi nite conclusions as to the relative importance of the numerous factors mentioned. Most of them are so complex and interrelated that it is impossible to isolate them for separate study. Moreover, the individual’s character is so complex and ever-changing that no entirely valid and practicable means of measuring it has yet been devised. These difficulties are reflected in research results that are often fragmentary, conflicting, and merely sugges tive rather than conclusive. There is special need for caution in the interpretation of cor- relations or statements of relationship between aspects of character and personal or social con ditions. ‘The presence of a statistically sig nificant relationship between two series of measurements does not prove that either of the things measured is a cause of the other. Both may be caused by a third factor or group of factors. Moreover, the apparent absence of re- lationship does not prove that the factor under consideration has no influence upon character. One set of conditions may exert an influence which is obscured by counteracting conditions, or it may have an effect upon aspects of char acter other than those measured. In spite of these limitations, a few general and somewhat tentative conclusions stand out as especially significant for education. First, character is a product of many factors, rather than of only one or a few. The larger the pro portion of these factors that are positively favorable to desirable character growth, the greater is the likelihood that children will de velop into desirable citizens. Second, altho both hereditary and environmental factors are influential in personality development, environ- ment seems greatly to outweigh heredity in de- termining specific modes of response or con duct. Third, of the innumerable environmental forces playing upon the child, the most influ ential appear to center in those relatively in timate social groupings of the home, family, friends, and associates. It is possible, of course, that native tendencies are partially responsible for the similarities in character among the members of social groups, but the evidence in dicates a strong social influence entirely apart from whatever biological factors may be oper ating. Processes and Principles of Character Formation *” From the viewpoint of psychology, how do the many factors just mentioned actually oper- ate to form an individual’s character? And what general suggestions concerning educa- tional method can be drawn from the facts of character formation which may be of value 176 For a more elaborate yet concise exposition of these processes and principles, see the Tenth Yearbook of the Department of Superintendence, Chapter 4, “Theory of Character Education,” p. 60-78. (77 ] in the school? The remainder of this section attempts to answer these questions briefly. Formation of specific habits—The trame- work of character consists of relatively specific habits of response to specific situations. These may be habits of thinking and believing as well as of feeling and acting. They appear to be formed in accordance with certain rather definite laws. These laws recognize the moti- vating force of the fundamental drives, the alteration of responses by association, the strengthening of responses by correct practise and satisfying consequences, and the weaken- ing of responses by annoying consequences and by lack of repetition. Many habits and attitudes are due largely to emotional conditioning, that is, to the associa- tion of emotional reactions with new situations. This process is most simply illustrated in the behavior of animals or very young children. In a tiny baby, for example, rage is naturally aroused by restricting its freedom of movement, and fear is aroused by a sudden loud noise. These responses come to be aroused by a variety of other stimuli which at some time or other are in close association with the original stimuli. In other words, the mere association of objects or people with stimuli which originally made the child angry or afraid or affectionate, tends to make him respond in the same way to these new objects or persons, entirely without the necessity of reasoning or consciousness on his part. In most situations, of course, conditioning does not operate in the simple fashion sug- gested. The individual’s response has usually been conditioned by a variety of past experi- ences, some of which may have no obvious re- lation to the present situation. The effects of these past experiences often complicate the proc- ess of learning, and make it necessary to study carefully the history of the individual learner. The process of emotional conditioning may be used to great advantage in the school, but care must be taken to avoid undesirable condi- tioning. Thus, judicious praise may win affec- tion, inspire confidence, and stimulate effort, whereas punishment may have the opposite effect. This does not mean that punishment should never be used. Wisely employed, jt j, sometimes effective in causing a person to avoid undesirable conduct. But it may be equ effective in discouraging desirable attitudes, ani it rarely induces an individual to form a d; able habit. Ideas and purposes may also play an portant part in habit formation. Experiments in learning have shown that a person makes greater progress, other factors being equal, i; he knows what is to be learned, why it should be learned, and how, it may be learned mos; effectively. Altho ideas probably are not pr dominant in determining human conduct a: present, there is reason to believe that by suit able training they may become increasingly in. fluential in the future.'"7 Generalizations and ideals—The fact that the character of younger children has been found to consist of specific responses to specific situations, without much reference to genera! principles for guidance, does not mean that children are incapable of generalizing. Gen eralization is possible for many children, but like habit formation, it proceeds in accordance with certain principles. Among the conditions essential to effective generalization are these: (1) situations in which it is desired that the same type of response be made must have a prepotent element in common; (2) the learne: must begin with responses to specific situations, and proceed therefrom to the development o! general principles; (3) the learner must have sufficient intelligence and experience to appre ciate the similarity of important elements in different situations which call for the same type of response; and (4) the learner must have a desire to generalize from specific expe riences. Children cannot develop general traits o: ideals merely by talking, hearing, or reading about them in general terms. Loyalty, obedi- ence, fairness, and similar terms are given rea! meaning only thru specific experience. More over, two or more principles or ideals may con- flict with one another in a given situation, and when this occurs the requirements of the situation must be given precedence over the de mands of any particular principle. For these 177 For further discussion of the principles of habit formation see such references as: Benson, Charles E., and others Psychology for Teachers. Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933. Chapters 8 and 9, ‘“‘The Learning Process,” p. 131-203. Sandiford, Peter Educational Psychology. New York: , Green and Co., 1928. Chapter 10, “‘The Laws of Learning,” p. 183-205 Thorndike, E. L. The Fundamentals of Learning. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932. 638 p. {78 ] educ: thru ingly expel shoul whicl to mi must, from applic they ; the p1 child’ fruitf the te tions ing h predic tively Lee langu crimir charac age m@ or co meani: eralize in ter This a led sot that a experic tionab! 178 | others, o “Transfe Boni anc Hartshor1 Interactic “The En reasons the learner’s attention should be fo- cused first of all on situations rather than on generalizations, Any procedure for teaching generalizations needs to take into account also the wide differ- ences among children in the capacity to gen- eralize, due to differences in maturity, native intelligence, and previous training. Children in whom this capacity is limited need special training in regard to a large number of specific situations before they can be expected to gen- eralize wisely and effectively. Altho it seems wiser to approach character education thru specific situations rather than thru generalizations, the latter become increas ingly possible and important as the child’s experience increases. As rapidly as possible he should be led to draw general conclusions which, allowing for exceptions, will help him to meet similar situations in the future. One must, of course, guard against generalizing from insufficient evidence, and against the blind application of principles in situations for which they are not appropriate. However, in spite of the problems involved, the effort to develop the child’s generalizing ability is likely to be more fruitful than a program which is limited to the teaching of specific habits alone. The situa tions which the individual will encounter dur- ing his lifetime are far too numerous and un predictable to be taught separately and effec tively during childhood.'* Learning thru direct experience and thru language—A serious objection to the indis- criminate use of written codes or maxims in character education is that they often encour- age mere verbalism. Children learn to recite or copy them without understanding their meaning or importance. They are usually gen- eralizations which cannot be understood except in terms of specific instances or illustrations. This objection to the use of verbal precept has led some educators to the extreme viewpoint that an individual learns only by doing or by experiencing situations at first hand. Unques- tionably direct observation and wise practise are more effective than verbal description or instruction alone. This does not mean, how ever, that children can learn nothing worth while thru language. If this were true, men would be unable to profit by the experience of earlier generations. Language may be either vague or specific; it may deal either with glit tering generalities or with concrete situations closely related to a person’s experience and in- terests. If language itself is well taught, if verbal discussion leads to generalizations only thru adequate illustrations, and if differences in ability to comprehend and to generalize are recognized, the discussion of social and moral issues may serve as a valuable supplement to first-hand experience in real life situations. Social control vs. individual reflection and self-direction—There is some difference of opinion as to whether children should be taught to depend largely upon social approval or upon individual analysis of situations as guides to conduct. One current trend in educational theory is toward the latter. From the evidence presented earlier in this bulletin,'’® however, it is clear that the pressure of group opinion and judgment will perhaps inevitably exert a pow erful influence upon the individual. The child cannot reasonably be expected to assume full responsibility for his conduct in the highly com plicated environment of today. During the first years of his life especially, he needs to be taught that certain situations call for certain definite responses. He should learn to make these re- sponses promptly and surely, without undue vacillation or self-questioning. Before these re- sponses have become too definitely crystallized as habits, however, the child may be led to consider the reasons for them. He may be told frankly that some questions of conduct are not completely settled, that there are differences of opinion, and that he will do well to begin thinking about the arguments on various sides of certain questions with a view to modifying the conduct he has learned if and when there seems to be adequate reason for doing so.’*° 178 For additional discussion bearing upon the question of generalization, see such references as: Benson, Charles E., and others, op. cit., p. 177-87. Hollingworth, H. L. Educational Psychology. New York D. Appleton and Co., 1933. Chapter 18, “Transfer of Training and Formal Discipline,” p. 405-30. Kennedy-Fraser, David. The Psychology of Education. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1924. ‘“‘Results of the Learning Process,” p. 165-83. 1 See “Factors in Character Formation,” p. 51-77. % For additional treatment of the relation between social and individual control of behavior, see such references as: Hartshorne, Hugh. Character in Human Relations. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932. Chapter 18, ‘Character a Mode of Interaction,” p. 239-50. Myerson, Abraham. The Foundations of Personality. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1921 “The Environmental Basis of Character,’’ p. 25-50. Chapter 2, [79] SE a ee TIT if. —— AN VIRTUE recount as many triumphs in the moral world as intellect has won in the material? Can our advances toward perfection in the cultivation of 4 private and domestic virtues, and in the f feeling of brotherhood and kindness towards all the members of our house- holds, bear comparison with the improvements in our dwellings, our furniture, or our equipages? Have our charities for the poor, the debased, the ignorant, been multiplied in proportion to our rev- enues? Have we subdued low vices, low indul- gences, and selfish feelings, and have we fertilized the waste places in the human heart as extensively as we have converted the wilderness into plenteous harvest-fields, or enlisted the running waters in our service? In fine, have the, mightier and swifter agencies which we have created or applied in the material world any parallel, in new spiritual instru- mentalities, by which truth can be more rapidly diffused, by which the high places of iniquity can be brought low, or its crooked ways made straight? Must it not be acknowledged, that, morally speaking, we stand in arrears to the age in which we live, and must not some new measures be adopted by which we can redeem our forfeited obligations?—Horace Mann, Annual Report to the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1845.