ESSENTIALS OF 
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY ESSENTIALS OF 
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 
BY 
EMORY Ph.D. 
PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY 
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 
AUTHOR OF 
“INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY” 
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PRESS 
LOS ANGELES Copyright 1918, University of Southern California Press 
University of Southern California Press 
Los Angeles DEDICATED TO 
EDITH PRITCHARD BOGARDUS CONTENTS 
I. Introduction ..... 13 
(1) The field of social psychology 
(2) The methods to be pursued 
(3) The leading authorities and books 
II. Psychological Bases of Social Psychology . 22 
(1) Instinctive bases 
(a) The nature and social function of instinct 
(2) Habitual bases 
(a) The nature and social uses ol habit 
(3) Conscious bases 
(a) The affective phase of consciousness 
(b) The cognitive nature of consciousness 
(c) The volitional characteristic of conscious- 
ness. 
III. The Social Characteristics of the Individual 38 
(1) The Social Instincts 
(a) The gregarious, sex and parental, curi- 
osity, combative, acquisitive, and play 
instincts 
(2) Sympathy, the emotions, the sentiments, char- 
acter 
(3) The social self, the looking-glass self 8 
Contents 
IV. The Social Characteristics of the Individual 
(Continued) ... 59 
(4) Language—a social product 
(5) Laughter—a social instrument 
(6) Suggestion—two forms, direct and indirect 
(7) Imitation—function and types 
V. The Social Operation of Imitation . . 74 
(1) Contemporary imitation—conventionality and 
fashion imitation 
(a) Fashion imitation—five causes 
(2) Custom imitation—laws of operation 
(3) Rational and socio-rational imitation 
VI. The Psychology of the Group . . 92 
(1) Permanent groups—types and functions 
(2) Temporary groups—crowds, mobs, assemblies, 
publics 
(a) The psychology of the crowd 
(3) Group conflicts—nature and social function 
(a) Discussion—a specialized form of conflict 
(4) Group and social consciousness 
(a) The rise of social co-operation 
(b) Group loyalty, patriotism, internationalism 
VII. The Psychology of Invention and of Leadership 116 
(1) The psychology of invention 
(2) Types of leadership 
(3) Qualities of leadership 
VIII. The Psychology of Social Control and of 
Social Progress . . . 132 
(1) The factors in social control 
(a) Public opinion—strength and weakness 
(2) The nature of social progress 
(a) A sociocratic theory of progress PREFACE 
This book is written specifically for the purpose of 
developing the “problem-getting” method of education. 
To this end, the main attention has been given to the 
formulation of the “problems” which appear in connec- 
tion with the theme or themes of the chapters. Each 
of the “problems” has been tried out in the classroom 
and found productive of constructive thought on the 
part of students. These exercises are intended to set 
the student at work, and to stimulate him to do his 
own thinking. 
The student who has an introductory acquaintance 
with social psychology should begin the study of each 
chapter with the problems. To these problems, he 
should first seek answers in his own experiences and 
observations; then he may inquire of others; he may look 
for further hints in the context of each chapter, and 
search through the findings of the specialists whose 
related works are cited in the lists of selected references 
at the close of the chapters. If the student has an inad- 
equate background for giving his attention first to the 
exercises, he may read the context, not as an end in 10 
Social Psychology 
itself, but as a method of preparation for attacking the 
problems. The context of each chapter should not be 
“remembered,” but utilized as a means of finding an- 
swers, seeing new relationships, and making new dis- 
coveries. If the student comes into the class-room 
remembering, this book is intended to send him out 
thinking. 
The second aim of the author has been to write a 
treatise which would meet the needs of the under- 
graduate student in colleges, junior colleges, and nor- 
mal schools. The subject of social psychology is of such 
vital, far-reaching, and practical importance that every 
college student should be introduced to a scientific con- 
sideration of the field. Every such student is com- 
pelled to study the psychology of the individual; but 
few are required or even encouraged to study the 
psychology of the interactions of individuals in their 
multifarious group relationships. Surely the latter 
phenomena are of as vital importance as the former. 
A third need which this book aims to meet arises 
in connection with the method of organizing the sub- 
ject-matter of social psychology. To some writers, 
social psychology consists chiefly of a study of the social 
nature and the social activities of the individual; to 
other authors, the subject consists largely of an analysis 
of the psychic interactions of the members of groups. 
The first emphasis is essentially subjective, genetic, psy- 
chological; the second is chiefly objective and sociol- 
logical. Preface 
11 
But the new science of social psychology must de- 
velop its own methodology and speak from its own 
vantage ground. Its sector of the field of the social 
sciences is that important territory where the activi- 
ties of psychology and sociology overlap. Instead of 
allowing its advance to be directed from either psycho- 
logical or sociological headquarters, it must develop its 
own methods and programs, but remain subject, of 
course, to the rules of scientific and of social science 
procedure. It is true that according to another view, 
social psychology has no distinct field and must be either 
psychology, or sociology; but the probabilities are that 
time will prove this conception to have been a mis- 
taken one. 
It is the plan of this book, and of the courses in 
social psychology which have preceded the writing 
thereof, to begin the discussion with the psychological 
bases of social psychology, to analyze the social charac- 
teristics of the individual, to consider the social opera- 
tion of these characteristics, to study the group, the types 
of groups, and the nature of group conflicts, to investi- 
gate the psychology of leadership, as well as the psychol- 
ogy of social control, and to close with an analysis of 
world progress. The method is inductive, evolutionary, 
cumulative; it moves from the particular to the general, 
from the individual to the group, and from the group 
to mankind, and it culminates in the subject of social 
progress. 12 
Social Psychology 
The writer is indebted to so many authors that it is 
impossible to make adequate acknowledgments. The 
interest of the writer in the subject was awakened 
by Professor G. H. Mead; the books and syllabi which 
have been the most helpful are those of Professors 
McDougall, Tarde, Ross, Howard, Baldwin, and Ell- 
wood. For the stimulus to develop the “problem-get- 
ting” method of teaching and for encouragement in the 
preparation of the manuscript, I am indebted to Dr. E. 
C. Moore. For many of the problems that are given 
at the close of each chapter, I am under obligation to 
various persons, but chiefly Professor Ross and my ad- 
vanced students. Sometimes a re-phrasing of a quota- 
tion or quoted exercise has been necessary, in which case 
it has not been feasible to use quotation marks and thus 
to indicate my indebtedness. The encouragement and 
suggestions of Professor George Elliott Howard, who 
has read the manuscript, are gratefully acknowledged. 
Emory S. Bogardus 
University of Southern California 
February 21, 1918 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 
Chapter I 
INTRODUCTION 
I. 
Social psychology as at present considered is based 
upon the facts and principles of general psychology. 
Upon these fundamental data must the foundations of 
social psychology be laid. It is necessary, first of all, 
therefore, to consider the characteristics of the human 
mind in action. This field includes an understanding 
of the nature and types of the instinctive, of the habitual, 
and of the conscious reactions of the human mind. The 
conscious reactions of individuals, upon analysis, are 
seen to have their affective, cognitive, and volitional 
phases. 
An important group of instinctive reactions, namely, 
the social instincts, comprises so basic a factor in the 
study of social psychology that it calls for special atten- 
tion. As examples of the social instincts, there are the 
gregarious, the sex and parental, the curiosity instincts. 
Then there are other closely related social phases of the 
life of the individual which invite examination, 14 
Social Psychology 
such as sympathy, the emotions, the sentiments, char- 
acter, the social self, the “looking-glass self,” language, 
laughter, suggestion, and imitation. 
The psychology of group life, as such, the classifica- 
tion of groups, the conflicts between groups, the psy- 
chology of the crowd and of the public are vital phases 
of social psychology. The outstanding features of 
group life and group conflicts are leadership and social 
control. It is the individual who initiates, who works 
over the ideas of his time into new and advanced forms; 
it is the group which appropriates and adopts the inven- 
tions of the few. It is the individual who stimulates the 
group; it is the group which chokes off the initiative of 
the individual. The unanswered question arises: How 
much and what kind of control shall the group exer- 
cise in order that the individual members may co-ordi- 
nate themselves and function as one brain, and in order 
that the group may progress ? 
Social psychology is the scientific study of the social 
nature and reactions of the mind, of the interactions 
of individuals within groups, of group conflicts, of 
group leadership and control, and of the nature of 
group and societary progress. Social psychology ap- 
proaches the problems of life from the psychological 
viewpoint; it draws conclusions and offers programs 
with reference to societary ends. Social psychology 
studies the social phases of personality, the interactions 
of personalities within groups, and the nature of group 
control and progress. Introduction 
15 
II. 
Social psychology lends itself to the “problem-get- 
ting” method of study. The student must not assume 
a memorizing attitude, but a problem-getting method 
of approach. He must have “problems”, or targets. 
He can become an efficient student only by keeping 
problems, or targets, constantly before his mind. He 
must read, not for the purpose of memorizing, but 
in order to find answers and solutions. If he has no 
problems in mind, his reading, or even his so-called 
studying, is practically of little value. As no one can 
develop skill as a marksman except by aiming at targets 
in his practice work, so no student can acquire thorough 
methods, for example, in social psychology, except by 
keeping problems, or targets, constantly before his mind. 
Who is more foolish than a would-be marksman who 
spends hour after hour shooting in all directions but 
at no particular object, or target? Target-hitting is 
the worth-while achievement in marksmanship, and 
problem-solving is the valuable goal in studying.1 
For this reason, exercises have been formulated and 
given prominence at the end of each chapter. The plan 
involves a study of the problems first of all. The 
student is expected to search his own mind, his own 
experience, and the experiences of others, for solutions 
of the given problems. Then the subject matter of 
1 Moore, E. C., What is Education, Ch. VIII. 16 
Social Psychology 
the respective chapters may be consulted for securing 
further light, and finally the readings at the close of 
each chapter will afford additional help. 
III. 
The literature on social psychology is so extensive 
that it may be grouped under certain heads. Only 
representative and leading books in each group can 
be mentioned. The student will need to refer fre- 
quently to the representative works in psychology 
proper, such as the psychologies which bear the names 
of James, Royce, Titchener, Thorndike, Angell, Pills- 
bury, and others. 
In social psychology, there are several well known 
books. McDougall’s Introduction to Social Psychology 
affords the student a fundamental discussion of the 
nature of the social instincts and of their functioning 
in society. Ross’ Social Psychology is widely used as 
a text. While it does not inquire into the social 
nature of the individual, nor into the genesis of social 
attitudes of individuals, it enters extensively into a 
discussion of the operation of suggestion and imitation 
in society. Custom imitation, conventionality imita- 
tion, and fashion imitation, are central themes. Where 
Mr. McDougall concludes his analysis, Professor Ross 
begins; their two books have little in common except 
the title. Professor Ross’ Social Control is undoubtedly 
the best book upon the subject that is stated in the Introduction 
17 
title, and constitutes an excellent supplement to his 
Social Psychology. 
Human Nature and the Social Order and Social 
Organization by Charles H. Cooley should be studied 
in order, because together they form a well-balanced 
system of thought in social psychology. The first cen- 
ters about the individual and his social nature; the sec- 
ond about the nature of group-life and of group con- 
trol through the organization of the members of the 
group. 
Gabriel Tarde’s Laws of Imitation explains at con- 
siderable length the operation of imitation in society. 
In Social Laws, Tarde gives a succinct summary of his 
main ideas concerning the psychical processes going on 
in society. His La logique sociale, L’opinion et la 
foule, and related works are of first rank. Psychical 
Interpretations of Society by Michael M. Davis, Jr. re- 
views historically and critically the literature of a socio- 
psychological nature, and summarizes and criticizes 
Tarde’s theory of imitation. Professor J. Mark Bald- 
win has written Social and Ethical Interpretations, 
which presents a fundamental analysis of the nature 
and characteristics of the social self from the genetic 
point of view. The best syllabus (including the most 
comprehensive bibliography) for the study of social 
psychology is that prepared by Professor George Elliott 
Howard. 
Professor Charles A. Ellwood in his Sociology in 
its Psychological Aspects and in the recent Introduction 18 
Social Psychology 
to Social Psychology has given a careful and synthetic 
statement of the nature and function of the leading 
psychic elements operating in social progress. From a 
point of view somewhat philosophic and socialistic, 
The Great Society by Graham Wallas, gives keen analy- 
ses of social processes. In The Crowd and The 
Psychology of the Great War, well-known books by 
Gustave LeBon, the reader needs to be prepared for an 
exaggerated form of crowd and mob psychology. Re- 
lated works are those by Scipio Sighele. A new field of 
social psychology is that which treats of the psychologi- 
cal explanations of social origins; the work of Professor 
W. I. Thomas in Sex and Society and in the Source 
Book for Social Origins is an outstanding example. 
Hobhouse’s Morals in Evolution and Sumner’s Folk- 
ways may also be mentioned in this connection. For 
further references, the reader may turn to the end of 
each chapter and to the selected list which is given in 
the closing pages of this book.2 
2 After this manuscript was in the hands of the printer, 
Volume XII of the Publications of the American Sociological 
Society was published. It is entitled Social Control. The 
volume contains thirteen papers dealing with the history 
and problems of social control; it is an indispensable docu- 
ment for the social psychologist. It was planned by Pro- 
fessor George Elliott Howard and was edited by Professor 
Scott E. W. Bedford. Introduction 
19 
PROBLEMS 
1. At the outset of this study, what meaning does 
the term “social psychology” have to you? 
2. What is the relation of the psychological 
phases of sociology to social psychology ? 
3. Which is the more important for the study of 
social psychology, a knowledge of psychology or of 
sociology ? , 
4. Distinguish between individual psychology and 
social psychology. 
5. Which is the more useful, the study of individ- 
ual psychology or the study of social psychology? 
6. Explain: “The older psychology was individu- 
alistic in its interpretations.” 
7. Why has the American been primarily an indi- 
vidualist? 
8. Is the American youth today more of an indi- 
vidualist than his father? Why? 
9. Distinguish between racial psychology and 
social psychology. 
10. Is social psychology an old or new subject? 
11. Explain the recent rapid development of social 
psychology. 
12. What meaning do you see in the terms “indi- 
vidual ascendency” and “social ascendency”? 
13. Would an abnormal development of either 
“individual ascendency” or “social ascendency” be good 
for a community ? Why ? 20 
Social Psychology 
14. When do you feel of greater importance,—on 
a mountain alone, or in a crowd? 
15. What aim may one have in studying social 
psychology ? 
16. What constitutes the laboratory of the student 
of social psychology? 
17. Do you expect that the study of social psychol- 
ogy will make you more dependent upon others, or 
more independent of others? 
18. Who are the founders of modern social psy- 
chology? 
READINGS 
Angell, J. R., Chapters from Modern Psychology, Ch. VI. 
Baldwin, J. M., The Story of the Mind, Ch. I. 
The Individual and Society, Ch. I. 
Blackmar and Gillin, Outlines of Sociology, Pt. Ill, Chs. 
IV-VI. 
Bogardus, E. S., Introduction to Sociology, Ch. XIII. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Ch. I. 
Dealey, J. Q., Sociology, Chs. IV, XV. 
Dewey, John, “The Need for Social Psychology,” Psycholog- 
ical Rev., July, 1917, 264-77. 
Ellwood, C. A., Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Ch. VI. 
An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. I. 
Gault, R. H., “Psychology in Social Relations,” Amer. Jour, 
of Sociol., XXII: 734-48. 
Giddings, F. H., Democracy and Empire, Ch. III. 
Hall, G. S., “Social Phases of Psychology,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., XVIII: 613-21. 
Hayes, E. C., Introduction to the Study of Sociology, Ch. XVII. 
Hobhouse, L. T., Mind in Evolution, Ch. I. Introduction 
21 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology (syllabus), Sect. I. 
Leuba, J. H., “Psychology and Sociology,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., XIX: 323-42. 
“Methods and Principles of Social Psychology,” 
Psychological Bui., XIV: 367-74. 
McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. I. 
Psychology, Ch. VIII. 
Maciver, R., “What is Social Psychology,” Sociological Rev., 
VI :147-60. 
Mead, G. H., “Social Psychology as a Counterpart to Phy- 
siological Psychology,” Psychological Bui., VI: 401-08. 
Nearing, S., Social Sanity, pp. 11-42. 
Orano, P., Psicologia sociale, pp. 9-114. 
Ross, E. A., Social Psychology, Ch. I. 
Sighele, S., La foule criminelle, pp. 1-22. 
Smith, W. R., An Introduction to Educational Sociology, 
Ch. II. 
Tarde, G., La logique sociale, Ch. II. 
Thomas, W. I., “The Province of Social Psychology”, Amer. 
Jour, of Sociol., X: 445-55. 
Tosti, G., “Social Psychology and Sociology,” Psychological 
Rev., V: 347-81. 
Wallas, G., The Great Society, Ch. II. Chapter II 
PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF SOCIAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 
I. 
The study of social psychology is based on a knowl- 
edge of psychological principles. It is apropos that 
attention be given here to the more important facts of 
psychology which are essential to an understanding of 
our field. 
Psychology may be divided into two branches, struc- 
tural and functional. The former treats chiefly of 
the states of consciousness, while the latter describes 
the mind in action. It is in functional psychology that 
the social psychologist is directly interested. Func- 
tional psychology furnishes the principles for interpret- 
ing the social nature of individuals and for understand- 
ing the interactions in group life. 
The reactions.of the mind may be divided into three 
general classes, namely, (1) instinctive, (2) habitual, 
and (3) conscious. Instinctive tendencies are based 
on ready-made, inborn co-ordinations. They represent 
psychical acquisitions which have been biologically trans- Psychological Bases 
23 
mitted. They have been described by Mr. McDougall 
as representing pre-formed pathways in the nervous sys- 
tem and as having been made in response to the demands 
of previous life-conditions.1 They have been slowly 
evolved in the process of adaptation of species to en- 
vironment. 
In every case, according to Mr. McDougall, some 
sense-impression or combination of sense-impressions ex- 
cites a perfectly definite behavior or some movement or 
train of movements. The result is the same in all indi- 
viduals of the species and on all similar occasions. In 
general, the behavior thus caused promotes (1) the 
welfare of the individual, (2) perpetuates the species, 
or (3) advances the welfare of the given group. 
These innate or inherited tendencies are the essen- 
tial springs or motive powers of all thought and action, 
whether individual or collective.2 They are the founda- 
tions upon which character is developed. All that we 
learn and all of our mastery of life is constructed upon 
the basis of our instincts. Our later adaptations are 
modifications of these original, inherited reactions. 
The instinctive tendencies are also at the root of our 
social life. The social interactions between individuals, 
no matter how complex these interactions may become, 
rest upon the instincts. All social structures and insti- 
tutions have their beginnings in instincts. Back of the 
1An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. II. 
2Ibid., p. 44. 24 
Social Psychology 
family as a social institution are the sex and parental 
impulses; back of fraternal organizations is the gre- 
garious instinct. 
II. 
The failure of an instinct to function successfully in 
a new situation leads to the appearance of conscious- 
ness and the re-construction of the instinctive way of 
acting. The modification may be slight, or almost en- 
tirely new. These modifications when repeated become 
habitual. Habits both new and old, likewise may be 
disturbed, and through the action of consciousness may 
be made over. Habits are modifications of instincts 
or of previously formed habits. The concept of “crisis”, 
as used by Professor W. I. Thomas, is a useful tool in 
in this connection; it refers to the disturbance of an 
established way of doing, the concentration of atten- 
tion, and the development of a new method as a re- 
sultant. 
The actions of the lower forms of animal life are 
mostly tropistic, reflex, or instinctive. Higher animals 
adapt, within narrow limits, their instinctive actions to 
peculiar circumstances. Man has modified his instincts 
so completely that they operate almost entirely in hid- 
den ways. 
It is our privilege as human beings deliberately to 
modify our instincts and old habits, and to build up 
new habits which will make us masters of ourselves 
and, in a sense, of our environment. Within limits, an Psychological Bases 
25 
individual normally situated can acquire habits in al- 
most any direction of growth that he wills. 
Habitual reactions are of distinct advantage to the 
individual in several ways.3 (1) They reduce the 
necessary time of action. (2) They increase accuracy. 
(3) They reduce the attendant fatigue. (4) They re- 
lease the mind from the necessity of paying attention 
to the details of the successive steps of an act. (5) 
They give a permanency to experience. In other words, 
the custom of deprecating habits is not entirely cor- 
rect. If it is true that the man who is in the grip 
of habit with reference to certain methods of acting 
is a slave, it may be true also that he is the most truly 
free to advance. No one can make rapid progress until 
he has succeeded in establishing a mass of useful habits. 
Or, as Professor C. E. Seashore has said, nothing is 
well done until it is reduced to an automatic stage.4 
Habits signify social reliability. A person with strength 
of character has a number of well-organized habits. 
The reliability of an individual is due to habitual re- 
actions. His honesty or dishonesty in dealing with 
others is largely a matter of habit; he who can be 
trusted is the person who is honest by habit. 
3 Scott, W. D., Increasing Human Efficiency in Business, 
Ch. III. 
4 Psychology in Daily Life, p. 89. 26 
Social Psychology 
III. 
In addition to instinctive and habitual tendencies, 
there are marginal reactions which are conscious. Con- 
scious reactions appear chiefly at those points where the 
neuro-physiological mechanism is incapable of meeting 
the demands of the environment, that is, where instinc- 
tive and habitual reactions fail. Consciousness appears 
where changes, or new adjustments, are necessary; it 
is related to the process known as adjustment to envir- 
onment. It may be said to have three characteristics: 
(1) affective, or the feeling phase; (2) cognitive, or the 
thinking phase; and (3) volitional, or the “willing” 
phase.5 
The feelings are closely related to the instincts. 
While they are perhaps as old in their origin as the in- 
stinctive tendencies, the development of the feeling side 
of life came later, phylogenetically, than that of the 
instinctive phase. Agreeable feelings accompany those 
ideas which further our momentary interests; while dis- 
agreeable feelings characterize the ideas which obstruct 
or thwart those interests, according to Professor J. R. 
Angell.6 With a slight modification the statement of 
Professor Ellwood may be accepted, namely, that feel- 
ing is the agreeable or disagreeable tone of conscious- 
ness that accompanies an idea or an activity.7 An act 
5 Miller, I. E., The Psychology of Thinking, pp. 64 ff. 
8 Psychology, p. 315. 
''An Introduction to Social Psychology, p. 64. Psychological Bases 
27 
which as a rule has been favorable in the past to the 
organism and to the race produces an agreeable tone of 
consciousness; an experience which as a type has been 
unfavorable in past times to the individual and to the 
race produces a disagreeable tone of consciousness. The 
agreeable or disagreeable tone appears quickly and in 
far less time than is required to analyze and to evaluate 
that act. In other words, the feeling character of con- 
sciousness gives a quicker-than-thought evaluation to a 
given activity upon the basis of the past experience, not 
only of the organization itself, but also of the race. 
A pleasurable feeling that accompanies a given idea 
indicates that in the history of the organism or of the 
race, the group of acts to which the given idea is re- 
lated has been helpful and constructive. The pleasur- 
able tone does not necessarily indicate the present value 
of a given act. The fact that a type of acts in the past 
has been helpful or harmful indicates that in all prob- 
ability this type will continue to be helpful or harmful. 
People are peculiarly alike in their feelings, an obser- 
vation which has been explained on the basis of the 
fact that people have had about the same racial experi- 
ence. In this long racial history, certain ways of doing 
have been favorable to race development, and others, 
unfavorable. Current actions fall into certain group- 
ings as regards this racial experience and the result in 
all individuals is the same, an agreeable or disagreeable 
tone of consciousness, in accordance with favorable or 
unfavorable racial experiences. 28 
Social Psychology 
It has been observed that it is difficult to argue 
against the feelings. The reasons are many. A main 
explanation is that the feeling phase of consciousness 
is outside the range of the cognitive side. Cognition 
can recognize, classify, and describe the events leading 
up to the expression of a given feeling, but can not do 
much else. An idea thrown against a feeling by way 
of argument travels on a different plane. Feelings can 
be “argued against” best through the stimulation of 
counter feelings. 
Then, it may also be said that the feeling side of 
consciousness developed much earlier, phylogenetically, 
than cognition. The feelings are older, phylogeneti- 
cally, than defined ideas. In some ways, the feelings 
are closer to the inner citadel of the self than are 
thoughts. 
He who acts according to his feelings acts usually 
in harmony with the dictates of racial experience. He 
thus acts wisely in-so-far as racial history is similar to 
current conditions. But conditions of life, both physi- 
cal and social, are constantly undergoing change. 
Hence, racial experience is not always a safe guide; 
another factor is necessary. 
This element is found in cognition, which is the core 
of consciousness. Cognition developed to enable the 
organism to adjust itself to new factors in the environ- 
ment. If there are no new problems to solve, then the 
feelings—as representing past experience—would be 
sufficient. But in a social environment which is so Psychological Bases 
29 
characterized by change, and in which so many new 
situations are constantly arising, the feelings are an in- 
adequate guide. A new element is required; cognition 
meets this need. With the feeling phase of conscious- 
ness for the evaluation of acts on the basis of past his- 
tory, and with the cognitive side for the evaluation of 
acts on the basis of present conditions and future prob- 
abilities, the organism is well equipped for the solution 
of the problems of life. 
As the social environment is more changeable and 
gives rise to more new problems than the physical en- 
vironment, cognition may be said, in a sense, to be a 
social product. Its development has come in response 
to the changing elements in the social environment. 
Even in the case of a child brought up away from peo- 
ple, it is probable that his cognitive characteristics would 
remain undeveloped. Or, in the case of an ordinary 
individual, the effects of an unusually stimulating 
social and mental environment are clearly seen. Pro- 
fessor Ross has used the term, “high potential of the 
city/’ in referring to the relatively large number of 
mental stimulations which come to an individual in a 
day and which result in increased mental activities. 
The highest form of cognition is reason. Pure reason 
takes cognizance of factors present in neither time nor 
space; it considers a larger environment than that pres- 
ent to the senses. It is a supreme adjuster. It helps 30 
Social Psychology 
the individual to adjust himself to the factors of a uni- 
versal environment.8 
The third characteristic of consciousness is the voli- 
tional. In the simpler sense, the volition is the acting 
side of consciousness; in a developed form, it is the 
choosing phase. Consciousness can make evaluations, 
not only upon the basis of past experience, and with 
reference to present needs and future probabilities, but 
it can also make choices and act upon them. 
Every idea is dynamic; every idea tends to be carried 
out. This motor characteristic of ideas is at the basis 
of volition. But volition includes the power of choos- 
ing. While many choices are probably made upon 
bases which are quite largely determined by hereditary 
and environmental factors, there is left a certain mar- 
gin wherein the individual may make original choices. 
This margin of freedom in choosing is undoubtedly a 
result of selection. Individuals with this margin of 
freedom survive better and are able to adjust them- 
selves more satisfactorily to their social environment 
with its elements of change than persons without this 
leeway. The margin of freedom of choice would be 
useless in a static environment, or in a purely physical, 
materialistic, and mechanistic universe. Thus, it is 
seen that volition has its fundamental roots in the 
changing factors of the social environment. 
8 Op. cit., pp. 67, 68. Psychological Bases 
31 
The margin of freedom in making choices varies. 
When health conditions are unfavorable, when poverty 
pinches, or when wealth stifles, the margin shrinks. It 
is probable that the margin varies from hour to hour 
with every individual; but for nearly all individuals 
most of the time, this degree of freedom in choosing 
is in many ways the most significant psychical charac- 
teristic that they possess. 
The marginal degree of freedom means that the in- 
dividual is not completely plastic. He is relatively in- 
dependent of his environment. His innate and organic 
needs unite with his acquired habitual methods and his 
margin of freedom in determining what stimuli in the 
environment he shall respond to and which he shall 
ignore. Unconsciously and consciously, the organism 
makes choices among the countless stimuli with which 
it is being constantly bombarded. Volition, hence, has 
its fundamental basis in the changing factors of the 
social environment. Volition provides not only for in- 
dividual growth, but also for the social advancement of 
mankind. 
PROBLEMS 
(Instinctive Reactions) 
1. What is an instinct? 
2. What is the origin of instincts? 
3. Give the most striking example of purely in- 
stinctive action that has come to your attention. 32 
Social Psychology 
4. Why are instincts common to people of every 
race? 
5. Why can instincts never be eradicated from the 
mental constitution of the individual? 
6. Distinguish between “social instincts” and “in- 
dividual instincts.” 
7. What social instincts can you name? 
8. Give three illustrations of the statement: Social 
institutions rest upon the basis of instincts. 
(Habitual Reactions) 
9. Criticize: He instinctively closed the door 
after he entered the room. 
10. What is the origin of habits? 
11. What is the underlying purpose of habits? 
12. What is the derivation of the term, habit? 
13. Explain: The process of building up new 
habits is the method by which the individual grows. 
14. Explain: The process of building up new 
habits is the method by which society progresses. 
15. Illustrate: One’s strength of character is due 
to habit. 
16. Illustrate: Habit is a time-saver. 
17. Illustrate: Habit increases accuracy. 
18. Illustrate: Habit gives a permanency to ex- 
perience. 
19. Explain: “Habit is the bank into which con- 
sciousness puts its deposits.” Psychological Bases 
33 
20. Explain: Speed which is habitual is never hur- 
ried. 
21. Explain: The population of London would be 
starved in a week if the flywheel of habit were removed. 
22. Is it true that whatever is worth doing at all, 
is worth doing well? Why? 
23. What is the habit of greatest usefulness that 
one can form? 
24. How would you go about it, psychologically, to 
break a habit? 
25. What class of habits are the most difficult to 
break ? 
26. What is meant by a “social habit”? 
27. Which would represent a greater loss to the 
individual, the loss of his habits, or the loss of his in- 
stincts ? 
28. Which will be used in the following cases, in- 
stinct or habit? 
(a) By an untrained puppy when his mistress ap- 
pears with a plate of scraps. 
(b) By a trained puppy under similar circum- 
stances. 
(c) By a salmon in a whirling current of a river. 
(d) By a fireman who sees a house on fire. 
(e) By a mother whose child is in imminent 
danger. 34 
Social Psychology 
(Conscious Reactions) 
General 
29. When does consciousness appear in the ex- 
perience of an individual? 
30. Qualitatively, which is a higher art: writing 
or walking; thinking or writing; deciding “no” or de- 
ciding “yes”? Why, in each case? 
A ffective 
31. Define the feelings. 
32. What does a pleasant feeling signify? 
33. Why are human beings remarkably the same 
in regard to their feelings? 
34. Why is it difficult to argue against the feelings ? 
Cognitive 
35. Why do you think? 
36. Why are you thinking now? 
37. When do you do the least amount of thinking? 
38. When do you do the highest grade of thinking? 
39. Illustrate: Cognition plays the decisive role in 
adapting the organism to its environment. 
40. Does a squirrel need to be more intelligent 
than a fish? 
41. Does an architect need to be more intelligent 
than a mason? 
42. Does the child of the tenements need to be 
more intelligent than the child of wealthy parents? Psychological Bases 
35 
43. Explain: “No two individuals can ever think 
alike, whilst any number can feel alike.” 
44. Which tends to be expressed the quicker, the 
feeling side or the cognitive side of consciousness? 
Why? 
45. Define the imagining phase of cognition. 
46. Explain: “The tap-root of selfishness is weak- 
ness of imagination.” 
47. Is the intolerant, selfish nation the unimagina- 
tive nation? 
48. Of what does remembering consist? 
49. Is the average person of today less able to re- 
member than the average person of three centuries ago ? 
50. Give an illustration (a) of ancient feats of 
remembering, and (b) of present-day achievements 
along the same line ? 
51. Explain: “The average student habitually be- 
gins the study of his lessons by memorizing, with the 
expectation of doing whatever thinking is necessary 
later.” 
52. Is the examination system in universities sound, 
psychologically ? 
53. Can one think quickly and well at the same 
time? 
54. What is reasoning? 
55. What is the highest function of reasoning? 
56. Why do so few people develop the reasoning 
phase of consciousness to its full extent, when it would 
be so greatly to their advantage to do so ? 36 
Social Psychology 
57. When do you act most rationally? 
58. Are the judgments which are made by men 
more impartial than those made by women? 
59. Can the making of sound judgments be ac- 
quired through training? 
Volitional 
60. Explain: (a) Thought is motor; (b) ideas are 
dynamic; and (c) the motor character of an idea. 
61. Define volition. 
62. Is it more common for a person to base his 
decision upon evidence, or to seek evidence to justify his 
decision ? Illustrate both methods. 
63. Bring to the class an advertisement which ap- 
peals (a) to the feelings, (b) to cognition, and (c) to 
volition. 
READINGS 
(Instinctive Reactions) 
Angell, J. R., Psychology, Ch. XVI. 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. VI. 
Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, Chs. IX, X. 
Ellwood, C. A., Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Ch. IX. 
An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. IX. 
Hayes, E. C., Introduction to the Study of Sociology, 
Ch. XIII. 
Hobhouse, L. T., Mind in Evolution, Ch. IV. 
Holmes, A., Principles of Character Making, Ch. V. 
James, Wm., Psychology (briefer course), Ch. XXV. 
Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, Chs. Ill, 
IV. 
Genetic Psychology, Ch. IV. Psychological Bases 
37 
Parraelee, Maurice, The Science of Human Behavior, Ch. 
XIII. 
(Habitual Reactions) 
Baldwin, J. M., Mental Development, Ch. XVI. 
Holmes, A., Principles of Character Making, Ch. VI. 
James, Wm., Psychology (briefer course), Ch. X. 
Scott, W. D., The Psychology of Advertising, Ch. IX. 
■ Increasing Human Efficiency in Business, Ch. XIII. 
Wallas, G., The Great Society, Ch. V. 
(Conscious Reactions) 
Angell, J. R., Psychology, Chs. XIII, XXII. 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. VII. 
Mental Development, Ch. XIII. 
Ellwood, C. A., Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Chs. 
X, XII. 
An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. IX. 
Horne, H. H., Psychological Principles of Education, Pts. 
II, III, IV. 
James, Wm., Psychology {briefer course), Ch. XVIII. 
McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psychology, 
Ch. IX. 
Miller, I. E., Psychology of Thinking. 
Pillsbury, W. B., Essentials of Psychology, Ch. XI. 
The Psychology of Reasoning. 
Royce, J., Outlines of Psychology, Chs. VIII, XV. 
Wallas, G., The Great Society, Chs. X-XII. Chapter III. 
THE SIMPLER SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 
I. 
The discussion in this chapter is intended to carry 
forward the points emphasized in Chapter II concern- 
ing the social phases of the life and activities of the 
individual. The instincts may be subdivided into two 
groups: those which are concerned directly with pro- 
moting the welfare of the individual, and those which 
serve to continue and to enlarge group life. In the 
latter class, there are innumerable overlappings, but 
certain tendencies stand out as being social in their sig- 
nificance. Of these, the gregarious, sex and parental, 
inquisitive, combative, acquisitive, and play instincts 
and tendencies will receive attention. 
The gregarious instinct rests upon the satisfaction of 
being one of a herd or group, and the uneasiness—lead- 
ing to wild distraction—of being alone, or separated 
from the group. The animal which becomes separated 
from the herd will risk its life in order to get back. Social Characteristics 
39 
Rural people on a holiday rush to the places where the 
crowd is to congregate. Urban people herd together 
in the already overcongested districts. Prisoners sub- 
jected to solitary confinement suffer so greatly that 
penologists now consider this form of punishment too 
cruel. The gregarious instinct possesses a definite sur- 
vival value in that it keeps individuals together and fur- 
nishes a basis for co-operative work. In the long process 
of the struggle for existence, those individuals survive 
best who co-operate best. 
The sex and parental instincts are so closely related 
that they will be considered together. The sex instincts 
make the race possible. Without them, no large group 
could long survive. Their power is great and their 
regulation is one of the greatest of social problems. In 
fact, this problem has come to be known as the social 
evil. 
As an outgrowth of the sex instincts, the parental 
impulses are to be rated highly. With the develop- 
ment of the parental instincts, there followed histori- 
cally the rise of the institution of the family. Without 
parental care, the offspring early begins the struggle 
for existence, and has little opportunity for develop- 
ment. With one parent to give a protecting and direct- 
ing care, the offspring has a better chance for self-de- 
velopment and becomes a more useful member of the 
group. But when both parents co-operate in the process 
of family-building, the children are thus given the ad- 
vantage of the experience of two elders; and are pro- 40 
Social Psychology 
tected from the harsher phases of the struggle for ex- 
istence, for a time sufficient to enable them to become 
mature individuals, and to learn the meaning of 
many fundamental principles of co-operative living. 
The importance of the parental instincts (and of 
the institution of the family) is so great that children 
who grow up outside of the family, rarely become real 
social members of society. The writer in studying the 
home conditions of delinquents has found that the 
broken-up home of one sort or another is found in the 
majority of delinquent cases.1 
As a member of the family, the child learns funda- 
mental rules of social conduct. He acquires respect for 
law; he learns rudimentary principles of co-operation. 
Since the family is, in a sense, a social microcosm, the 
child in a normal family receives an excellent start 
along all lines which make for co-operation in society 
at large. 
The parental impulses result beneficially, also, as 
far as the parents are concerned. The instincts lead to 
conduct which is essentially altruistic. The parental 
impulses when in operation are constantly overcoming 
the self-gratifying desires. There is a continuous strug- 
gle between the parental tendencies on one hand and 
the egoistic interests on the other. In order to protect 
1 “A Study of Juvenile Delinquency and Dependency in 
Los Angeles County for the Year 1912,” Jour, of Crim. Law 
and Criminol., Sept., 1914, p. 395. Social Characteristics 
41 
itself and to further the parental impulses, the group 
(and society) has built up powerful sanctions. The 
list includes moral rules, e. g., Honor thy father and 
thy mother. Then there is the institution of marriage 
which has become a guardian of the parental impulses. 
Taboos upon celibacy, upon divorce, upon immoral sex 
life are powerful agents supporting the parental in- 
stincts. Ancestor worship has emphasized the parental 
impulses, and thus assisted other factors in giving to 
China a long life. Emphasis upon sound family life 
has enabled, to a positive extent, the Hebrew race to 
perpetuate itself and to survive countless obstacles and 
innumerable destructive factors. 
The inquisitive instinct leads to inquiry into those 
phenomena which are moderately different from those 
of regular occurrence. Events which are not different 
do not attract notice; events which are markedly dif- 
ferent from anything that has been known to occur 
arouse fear. Animals which have been led astray by any- 
thing that is very strange have probably lost their lives. 
Those individuals, either animal or human, which are 
never attracted by anything new remain mediocre mem- 
bers of the group. But those who show an interest 
in things which are moderately strange, avoid destruc- 
tion on the one hand and mediocrity on the other. Thus 
the curiosity impulses have taken form. Groups of 
reasonably curious individuals survive best. 
It seems true that scientific research, and even intel- 
lectual study, as a rule, is based definitely upon the 42 
Social Psychology 
curiosity impulse. Research work in its purest form 
is largely motivated by the curiosity instinct. All in- 
tellectual progress, and thus social progress, depends in 
a degree upon the curiosity instinct. 
The combative instinct operates as a force which 
calls for broad-minded consideration. In a primitive 
group, the fighting members survived; the others per- 
ished. In primitive society, the fighting tribes suc- 
ceeded best; the others were destroyed. Thus through 
a long period of time, the combative instinct has been 
at a high survival premium. It has become deep-seated 
in human nature. 
It is accompanied by the emotion of anger. It oper- 
ates when any obstacle appears in the way of the other 
instinctive tendencies, or of the habitual activities, or of 
the newly aroused and currently conscious desires. The 
combative instinct—including the accompanying emo- 
tion of anger—serves to energize the individual, to 
concentrate his energies, and to drive him ahead over 
the obstacles that are in the way. In its crudest forms, 
it shows itself in the snarl and rush of the dog, in the 
clenched and striking fists of the boy, in the “hanging” 
episodes of the mob, in the brutal atrocities wdiich are 
committed in the name of organized warfare. 
The fighting instinct has been undergoing modifi- 
cations. While it is a heritage from the days of tooth 
and claw, it is, in modified terms, an essential factor in 
civilization. In early days it was expressed in a physi- 
cal way, for example, in the physical combat. Today, Social Characteristics 
43 
in a civilized state, individuals no longer, as a rule, 
resort to a physical clash in order to settle disputes, but 
turn to organized courts and to discussion and concilia- 
tion. Their individual fighting abilities are thus not 
used destructively, but are turned from physical com- 
bat to spiritual interchange of opinion. In fact, it 
appears that the fighting instinct may be subjected to 
certain intrinsic changes. Its very nature may yet be 
made over by the operation of intellectual phenomena, 
such as discussion; of social organizations, such as courts 
of justice; and of the highest spiritual virtues, such as 
love. The biological struggle in the human world as 
manifested in militarism and commercialism of the de- 
structive type is probably doomed to give way ulti- 
mately before “the quiet, creative influences of the 
spiritual virtues,” chief of which is love. The “fittest,” 
as a class, are undergoing an evolution from the lowest 
types of personified physical might and power to types 
of mental power and efficiency, and then to rational 
types controlled by the social principle of love. 
One of the latest indications of the turning belief 
in regard to the need for vital modifications of the 
fighting instinct comes from no other source than the 
University of Berlin. According to The Nation (Jan- 
uary 17, 1918), Professor G. F. Nicolai of the Univer- 
sity of Berlin published in 1917 a book entitled 
Die Biologie des Krieges.2 This daring German writer 
* Quoted from the IV estminster Gazette, 44 
Social Psychology 
(imprisoned for his views) holds that the hitherto 
ineradicable fighting instinct, in the modern world, is 
a survival of tendencies which, though at one time use- 
ful, are now positively dangerous. The need for a 
change in the nature of this instinct is imperative. One 
race of animals after another has perished because it 
could not change its instinctive ways; hence, is mankind 
to die out because it cannot change the fighting instinct ? 
Will mankind literally kill itself off? In Chapter 
VI, the discussion of the psychology of war is continued 
under a study of group conflicts, especially of conflicts 
between modern states, and of the evolution in the 
nature of group conflicts. 
Nations, however, still resort to physical combat. It 
is a hope and a working ambition that the time will 
soon come when nations can develop an international 
court (including an international constabulary) for set- 
tling disputes upon such effective and just bases, that 
they no longer must live under the continual shadow 
of possible war. When war becomes historic, there will 
still be a great need for the combative impulses. Then, 
nations and individuals will be called upon to fight 
social evils and sins. They will be constrained 
to fight, not the best people of competitive, sovereign 
groups; but the evil in all people, under a social, plane- 
tary, and international order. The struggles against 
social wickedness will always demand, as far as one 
can now see, the exercise of the fighting instinct in a 
modified form. Thus, the combative tendencies are not Social Characteristics 
45 
to be eliminated, but to be directed, modified, and made 
subservient to world-wide welfare. 
The acquisitive instinct, also, involves serious social 
implications. The tendency to acquire is an individual- 
izing force, in fact, to such an extent that its operation 
has to be checked by public action. It lies at the basis of 
all acquisitions of land and other forms of material 
wealth. Men go on accumulating riches long after they 
have acquired enough property for their own needs and 
for the needs of their dependents. Nations have fought 
to acquire land. Nearly all of the extensive wars that 
have been waged by monarchical governments have been 
related to the national desire for more land. When 
monarchial forms of government pass away, it is prob- 
able that territorial wars will be known no longer. 
A fundamental problem of the day is that of regu- 
lating, nationally, the operation of the acquisitive in- 
stinct. On one side are those who argue that these 
desires should be crushed out and that the government 
should own all rent-producing land and interest-pro- 
ducing capital. On the other hand, there are the peo- 
ple who hold that the acquisitive impulses are too deep- 
seated to be ruled out, that it would not be wise—if it 
were possible—to eliminate them, and that they should 
be allowed to operate, but subject to governmental regu- 
lation in line with public welfare. Their operation as- 
sumes on occasion, however, a force which defies effi- 
cient governmental control. The regulation of the 46 
Social Psychology 
acquisitive instinct constitutes one of the most serious 
problems of the day in our country. 
Another characteristic which is innate, instinctive, 
and of vast social significance is the tendency to play. 
It is complex enough to permit of various explanations 
and of markedly different classifications. It functions 
as a highly valuable socializing agency. As a member 
of the play-group, the child learns co-operative lessons 
of fundamental, life-long, and social importance; he 
learns to obey, to lead, to evaluate himself as a group- 
member, and to appreciate the larger meanings of team- 
work. 
The normal exercise of the play impulses renews life. 
It rehabilitates and it re-creates life; it offers relaxa- 
tion, and at the same time brings the individual to a 
balanced attitude toward the world of living, chang- 
ing, and developing people. 
Further, the emphasis is being placed today upon 
eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight 
hours for recreation. The formula is not followed 
regularly, but it does indicate that a large portion of 
life is given over to amusements and recreation. The 
questions arise: “Does it matter how one plays?” and, 
“Is it anybody’s business how one spends his leisure 
hours?” The answer is positive and affirmative from 
the standpoint of group welfare. It matters decidedly 
from the viewpoint of the group how the individual 
plays, whether he wastes or builds up his energies when 
he is not at work. Social Characteristics 
47 
In this age, commercial enterprise has entered the 
field of providing amusements of all sorts and for all 
classes and all moods of individuals. The provision is 
made in ways, primarily, to secure profits, not to build 
up those who are seeking recreation. Hence, the type 
of appeals that is made to the play instincts becomes a 
problem of vast social moment.3 
II. 
Another social phase of the life of the individual is 
that of sympathy. As the word implies, sympathy 
refers to the characteristic of “feeling with” others. 
Sympathy helps an individual to understand the experi- 
ences, attitudes toward life, and states of mind of other 
people. As an example of an elemental form of sym- 
pathetic emotion, the immediate and appropriate re- 
sponse of the brood of chickens to the warning cry of 
the mother hen may be cited. The vigorous crying of 
a baby is followed by simultaneous crying on the part 
of near-by infants, even though they do not have the 
slightest idea as to the cause of the crying of the first 
child. A scream of terror on the part of an adult evokes 
a similar pang on the part of bystanders, even though 
the bystanders do not know the cause of the cry. 
The characteristic of “feeling with” others varies 
with individuals. In an extreme form, it decreases 
the efficiency of the individual. In a weak degree, it 
3 Bogardus, E. S., Introduction to Sociology, Ch. V. 48 
Social Psychology 
results in egoistic, selfish living on the part of the in- 
dividual. 
When an important question is to be settled, the side 
which is successful in enlisting the feelings and the 
sympathies possesses a marked advantage. As in the 
case of the feelings, sympathy is not closely related to 
the reasoning phase of consciousness, and hence is liable 
to express itself in highly irrational ways. Its mani- 
festations are usually found on the conservative side of 
an issue. The sympathies are generally allied with the 
old, the tried, and the true. They are stabilizing 
forces; but when they become attached to certain out- 
worn habits, the sympathies become a stumbling- block 
in the way of progress. On the other hand, every 
new reform movement seeks to reach and to gain the 
sympathies of the people. If it is able thus to do, its 
success is assured. Sympathy has been described as a 
social cement, because it assists in holding the members 
of a group together, and in forming new groups. 
The emotions as social factors represent such en- 
larged phases of the feeling side of the mind that they 
are accompanied temporarily either by a wild, blind ex- 
hibition of the volitional nature, or by an inhibition 
of the will power. The emotion of anger, for example, 
results in concentrated, but frequently irrational ac- 
tivity; while, on the other hand, the emotion of subjec- 
tion (and dejection), which occurs in relation to defeat 
and vital losses, tends to paralyze all volitional effort. Social Characteristics 
49 
Emotions arise in connection with blocked interests. 
Whenever an obstacle appears in the path of a human 
desire, a mental conflict ensues, accompanied by emo- 
tional manifestations. The emotion is, in a way, the 
affective phase of the conflict. When conflicts occur, 
the emotions arise; but when no conflicts exist, ennui 
develops. An emotion and ennui represent opposite 
ends of the pole of interest. Emotions, in other words, 
heighten and give color to the obstacles of life. 
The sentiments are psychic forces with social mean- 
ings. A sentiment is a complex of emotional reactions 
which appears in organized ways. The sentiments are 
organized emotions with social values. Admiration, for 
example, involves another person, that is, the admired 
as well as the one who admires. It implies a certain 
degree of wonder, of humility, and of generosity. Ad- 
miration plus fear constitutes awe; awe with the addi- 
tion of gratitude leads to reverence—the highest known 
religious emotional expression.4 
Love and hate are organized emotional complexes 
which enter into human reactions concerning nearly 
every phase of life, social as well as individual. Love, 
like its fundamental feeling and emotional elements, is 
a stabilizing, conserving, and drawing force of im- 
measurable power. In its social expressions, it may 
be more or less purely sexual, and may lead to sexual 
4 See McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psy- 
chology, Ch. V. 50 
Social Psychology 
vice. A higher form is that known as romantic love, 
the subjects of which are impelled to extensive under- 
takings in behalf of the ones who are loved. Conjugal 
love develops out of the fact that husbands and wives 
experience great joys and intense sufferings together. 
Maternal love is the keenest, deepest, and most concen- 
trated form of the love of one person for another, i. e., 
the love of a mother for her child. Consanguineal love 
refers to the affection of children for one another, pri- 
marily, in a given family, and of the father for his 
offspring. Consanguineal love may extend itself be- 
yond blood relationships, and in its highest sense, it 
may assume planetary proportions and give content to 
a doctrine of brotherhood of man.5 
Hate is a sentiment of anti-social import when di- 
rected blindly against people. Its social strength 
appears when it is hurled against social sin, rather 
than against people, as such. Closely related to hate 
is the sentiment of jealousy which often works as a 
narrowing influence. The individual is justified in 
being jealous only of that which in the long run is in 
line with public welfare. The list of the sentiments 
is long, and includes in addition to those mentioned, 
emotional complexes such as shame, pity, surprise, re- 
spect, and anxiety. 
Character is more than organized sentiments, and 
more than disposition and temperament. Disposition 
s See Ward, L. F., Pure Sociology, pp. 377 ff. Social Characteristics 
51 
refers to the sum total of one’s instinctive tendencies, 
while temperament is more complicated and involves 
the constitutional ways of evaluating the various experi- 
ences of life.6 The disposition and temperament of the 
individual are largely determined for the individual 
by the laws of heredity. Character, however, is built 
upon the disposition and temperament and along lines 
determined to an extent by the individual himself. 
Character involves the extent and the way in which the 
individual organizes his ways of acting. Dependable- 
ness of character is a vital social attribute. In a world 
of group interactions, honesty, reliability, chastity, and 
dependableness of character are essential. 
III. 
The development of the self is largely a social pro- 
cess.7 To the young child, everything is at first objec- 
tive. Even his fingers and toes seem to belong to the 
outside world. But through experience, for example, 
of pain and of suffering, the infant begins to give to 
his fingers and toes a self valuation. Through his ex- 
periences, he comes to distinguish between the ego and 
the alter, and to set up a self-world in apposition to an 
others-world. The idea of the self develops in rela- 
tion to the concept of others; it is in part a reflection of 
“McDougall, Win., An Introduction to Social Psychology, 
pp. 258 ff. 
T Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. I, 
and Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Chs. I, II. 52 
Social Psychology 
other selves in a world of group relationships. The 
interaction between the growth of the ego and the alter 
in the mind of the child is constant. The process may 
be considered as one, and the ego and the alter as oppo- 
site ends of the same pole. The child’s social conscious- 
ness arises simultaneously and to an extent prior to the 
development of his self-consciousness. In fact, if it were 
not for the presence and activities of others, his self-con- 
sciousness would remain undeveloped. The leading 
stimuli which call forth self-consciousness are those 
which come from contact with other selves. 
When the child is learning the meaning of life 
through his experiences, he is simultaneously reading 
those meanings into the experiences of others. He pro- 
jects himself and his experiences into the world of life 
about him, a stage in the development of the self which 
the writer would call projective. Each fact of life to 
the growing individual is first objective and with little 
meaning, then subjective and full of personal signifi- 
cance, and finally projective and social. The process 
is essentially one of social self-development. 
In this connection, the looking-glass self is a term 
which conveys a valuable truth.8 The looking-glass 
self is the impression of oneself that he sees in the 
minds and estimates of others. The conduct of every 
person is continuously conditioned by the presence and 
8 Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, 
pp. 152 ff. Social Characteristics 
53 
opinions of others, and especially by the judgments of 
his friends. The young man who, although not inter- 
ested in missions, subscribes liberally to a missionary 
collection, because by his side sits a young lady who is 
active in missionary enterprises and whose favor he 
wishes to secure, is an example. Or, a business man may 
boast of a shrewd transaction to one whom he knows 
would approve of said shrewdness, while he may re- 
frain from mentioning the deal to another friend whose 
standards are higher. At every turn of life, the choices 
of a person are partially determined by the image of 
himself which he sees in the judgments of others. 
PROBLEMS 
(The Social Instincts) 
1. What is meant by the gregarious instinct? 
2. Does the gregarious instinct exist in the hermit? 
3. Why do the working classes on holidays rush 
to the places where the crowds are? 
4. Why is the country considered dull by so many 
people ? 
5. What are the leading forces opposing the paren- 
tal impulses? 
6. What kind of impulses sets off the curiosity in- 
stinct ? 
7. Are women more curious than men? 
8. What connection is there between the curiosity 
instinct and the scientific tendencies? 54 
Social Psychology 
9. What instinctive tendencies impel a person to 
run to see a fight? 
10. Is it necessary to get angry in order to fight 
well ? 
11. Do conscripted soldiers fight with the same 
spirit as volunteer soldiers? 
12. Are the fighting impulses to be ruled out en- 
tirely, or to be directed along higher lines? 
13. What methods can you suggest whereby the 
fighting instinct may be directed along higher paths? 
14. What is meant by “righteous indignation”? 
15. Is the fighting instinct necessary to social prog- 
ress? 
16. What has rendered unnecessary the bodily com- 
bat of individuals in order to settle disputes? 
17. Most men do not want war, yet we have it; 
why? 
18. Is the operation of the acquisitive instinct to 
be eliminated, or to be directed along social lines? 
19. What are the social values in play? 
20. Explain: A mason who is piling up brick is 
working, and a boy who is piling up blocks is playing. 
21. Why is work hard, and play easy, to a child 
even when the latter requires the expenditure of more 
energy ? 
22. Why is clearing brush and weeds from a lot for 
a baseball diamond considered as play by a boy, while 
clearing the same lot at his parent’s command is work ? Social Characteristics 
55 
(Sympathy, the Emotions, the Sentiments, 
Character) 
23. Why is one’s sympathies toward a fellow coun- 
tryman more keen in a foreign country than when one 
is at home? 
24. Why is it not enough for a business man to be 
a sympathetic husband, parent, and neighbor? 
25. Explain: Every citizen should indulge in a 
spell of capricious and sympathetic giving. 
26. Is sympathy a necessary qualification for a suc- 
cessful social worker? 
27. Distinguish between the emotions and the 
feelings. 
28. Is anger a good guide to action? 
29. Is national anger a correct guide to national 
action ? 
30. Why are children afraid of the dark? 
31. Describe the physical expression of (a) a happy 
face, (b) a sad face, (c) an angry face; and explain 
the relation of the given facial expression to the given 
emotion. 
32. How would you define the sentiment of love? 
33. What is the social value of love? 
34. What is the social utility of hate? 
35. Define jealousy. 
36. Illustrate: Character is socially essential. 56 
Social Psychology 
(The Social Self, the Looking-Glass Self) 
37. Distinguish between the individual self and the 
social self. 
38. Give an original illustration of the looking- 
glass self. 
39. Why is it that many individuals can talk to 
two or three persons with ease, but cannot talk to 
twenty or thirty persons without embarassment ? 
40. In what ways does the looking-glass self of a 
student affect his recitation in a class? 
41. How far should one allow his looking-glass 
self to determine his character? 
42. Who are the more sensitive to the looking- 
glass self, men or women? 
43. What causes a little boy to become ashamed 
of his curls? 
44. Are the wealthy or the poor more sensitive to 
the looking-glass self? 
45. Which is the greater factor in arousing the de- 
sire of a girl “to make a sorority”, the gregarious in- 
stinct, or the looking-glass self? 
READINGS 
(Social Instincts) 
Ellwood, C. A., An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch 
IX. 
Groos, K., The Play of Animals. 
The Play of Man. Social Characteristics 
57 
Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, Chs. VII, 
IX-XI. 
Kropotkin, P., Mutual Aid; a Factor in Evolution. 
McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psychology, 
Sect. II. 
Morris, C., “War as a Factor in Civilization,” Popular Sci- 
ence Mon., XLVII: 823-34. 
Novicow, J., Les luttes entre societes humaines. 
Patrick, G. T. W., The Psychology of Relaxation, Chs. 
II, IV. 
Ribot, Th., The Psychology of the Emotions, Pt. II, Ch. VI. 
Smith, W. R., An Introduction to Educational Sociology, 
Ch. V. 
Thomas, W. I., “The Gaming Instinct,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., VI: 650-63. 
Trotter, W., The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, 
pp. 23-66, 101-213. 
Veblen, T., The Instinct of Workmanship, Ch. II. 
(Sympathy, the Emotions, the Sentiments, Character) 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. VIII. 
Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, Ch. IV. 
Social Organization, Chs. XVI, XVII. 
Ellwood, C. A., An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. XI. 
Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Ch. XIV. 
Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, Ch. IX. 
McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psychology, 
Chs. IV, V, XV. 
Ribot, Th., The Psychology of the Emotions, Pt. II, Ch. IV. 
Ross, E. A., Social Control, Chs. II, III. 
Smith, A., A Theory of the Moral Sentiments. 
-* In Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, Ch. XVI. 58 
Social Psychology 
Thorndike, E. L., The Original Nature of Man, Ch. XI. 
Wallas, G., The Great Society, Chs. IV, IX. 
(The Social Self, the Looking-Glass Self) 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. II. 
Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, Chs. V, 
VI. 
Social Organization, Chs. I, II. 
Giddings, F. H., Elements of Sociology, Ch. IX. 
Inductive Sociology, Pt. IV, Ch. III. 
Hobhouse, L. T., Mind in Evolution, Ch. XVII. 
McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psychology, 
Chs. VII, VIII. 
Ormund, A. T., “The Social Individual,” Psychological 
Bui, VIII: 27-41. Chapter IV. 
THE SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
INDIVIDUAL 
( Continued) 
IV. 
Language is a social product. It arises on the basis 
of the need for intercommunication; it involves a sym- 
bol and a meaning for the symbol. The significance 
of the symbol must be clear to the individual with whom 
communication is held. The symbol is always a ges- 
ture of some sort, either pantomimic (of the hands and 
shoulders), or mimetic (of the face), or vocal. In 
every case, the gesture represents the beginning of a 
whole act. As soon as the second party recognizes 
the whole act of which the given gesture is the begin- 
ning, conversation has begun. The response will con- 
sist of another gesture—the beginning of another act— 
and thus the conversation of attitudes and appropriate 
responses will continue. Hence, language is a social 
phenomenon, and consists in an interchange of gestures 
and suitable responses between individuals—a theory of 60 
Social Psychology 
language which has been described best by Professor 
G. H. Mead.1 
V. 
At first thought, the subject of laughter does not 
seem to be of a nature serious enough for scientific dis- 
cussion. It, however, is a phenomenon which mani- 
fests itself constantly in daily life. In a physiological 
sense, it may express simple relief from strained situ- 
ations, as in the case of school children who, when re- 
leased from hours of study and recitation, start home- 
ward in a laughing mood. It may represent mere ex- 
uberance and joy in living, as seen frequently on the 
part of children. Or, the nervous reaction from over- 
strain of any sort may culminate in hysterical laughter. 
In a psychological sense, laughter involves frequent- 
ly the expression of sympathetic emotion. As a mem- 
ber of a group, one laughs more easily than when alone. 
Furthermore, much laughter is caused by the expres- 
sion of unusual ideas, such as logical inconsistencies, 
ungrammatical constructions, statements involving a 
sudden change “from the sublime to the ridiculous,” 
suggestion not intended, the pun, and moderate exag- 
geration or understatement. 
Laughter is due, also, to causes that are directly 
social. Much laughter arises directly from observing 
the incongruous actions of others. The Charlie Chap- 
1 “Social Consciousness and the Consciousness of Meaning,” 
Psychological Bui., VII: 397-405. Social Characteristics 
61 
lin films succeed because of the portrayal of incon- 
gruous motions, actions, and situations. Further, there 
is the laughter of the person who laughs in order not 
to be conspicuous, of the person who laughs to cover 
his embarrassment, and of him who laughs in order 
to make others laugh, e. g., the professional actor. 
Then there is social ridicule. The group laughs at the 
mistake or idiosyncrasy of the individual. This group 
laughter may be either (a) spontaneous, (b) delayed, 
or (c) concerted. The last type involves malicious- 
ness. Every markedly new idea must run the gauntlet 
of social laughter. 
There is some overlapping and some unsurveyed ter- 
ritory in the accompanying classification of the causes 
of laughter. It will be observed that the writer ac- 
cepts neither the single theory explanations of laughter, 
such as those of Aristotle, Kant, Schopenhauer, or 
Sully, nor the analysis in toto as made by Sidis, but pre- 
fers a two-fold classification based upon (1) physio- 
logical and (2) psycho-sociological elements, and in- 
cluding parts of the analyses by Sidis and others. 
Causes of Laughter. 
A. Physiological. 
1. Tickling. 
2. Relief. 
3. Exuberance. 
4. Hysteria. 62 
Social Psychology 
B. Psycho-sociological. 
1. Unusual ideas. 
(1) Logical inconsistency. 
(2) Grammatical error. 
(3) Sublime to the ridiculous. 
(4) Suggestion not intended. 
(5) The pun. 
(6) Moderate overstatement or under- 
statement. 
2. Group contagion. 
3. Incongruous actions of others. 
4. In order not to be conspicuous. 
5. To cover embarrassment. 
6. To make others laugh (professional). 
7. To make fun of others (social ridicule). 
(1) Spontaneous. 
(2) Reflective. 
(3) Concerted. 
VI. 
Suggestion and imitation are here considered as dif- 
ferent phases of the same process. Suggestion is the 
initiating part and imitation is the responding phase 
of the phenomenon. 
Suggestion develops out of the motor character of 
ideas, or from the dynamic nature of thought. If some 
one merely mentions apple pie, even between meals, I 
am quite certain to feel hungry for apple pie. If some Social Characteristics 
63 
one casually refers to a baseball game that is in prog- 
ress while I am writing these lines, I may find myself 
unconsciously laying aside the pen and looking for my 
cap. Further, I will go to the game, if there are no 
seriously inhibiting impulses, either instinctive, habitual, 
or conscious. Suggestion, then, refers to the conscious 
or unconscious intrusion to the mind of an idea which 
is accepted uncritically and carried out more or less 
immediately, unless inhibited by opposing impulses. 
This definition differs from that of Sidis 2 who holds 
that the suggested idea meets at first with more or less 
opposition. 
Suggestion may be direct or indirect. If direct, it 
comes usually in the form of a command, from one 
who is older and whose word is accepted as authority. 
The child in responding to parental command illus- 
trates direct suggestion; a hypnotist in giving his orders 
is another example, for the subject responds within 
instinctive and organized limits in an uncritical and 
immediate way to the suggested action. Hypnotism 
is characterized by abnormal suggestibility, and as a 
phenomenon for study, comes within the purview of 
abnormal psychology, rather than of social psychology. 
As a social phenomenon, hypnotism is as yet too little 
understood to be of much social value. 
Indirect suggestion operates unrecognized by the sub- 
ject. It has been described by Professor E. A. Ross 
2 The Psychology of Suggestion, p. 15. 64 
Social Psychology 
as “slantwise” suggestion and as representing a flank 
movement, rather than a frontal attack, as in the case 
of direct suggestion. The adult mind is frequently 
more easily influenced by this method than by any 
other plan. 
The use of the terms direct and indirect suggestion 
has reference to the way in which the suggestion gains 
entrance to the mind. Another set of terms, namely, 
immediate, mediate, and contra-suggestion, has been 
used by Mr. Sidis and indicates the ways in which sug- 
gestions are carried out in action. If a suggested idea 
is acted upon at once and in line with its impulses, 
the phenomenon comes under the caption of immedi- 
ate suggestion. If time elapses and modifications occur, 
the type is called mediate suggestion. Some persons 
and many children respond in an opposite way to that 
which is suggested, and illustrate the principle of con- 
tra-suggestion. The last mentioned form is usually 
connected with an exaggerated sense of individuality, 
and with an inadequate opportunity to learn the les- 
sons of give-and-take in play groups. 
Suggestibility refers to the degree to which a person 
is open to suggestion. Normal suggestibility involves 
fixation of attention, elimination of inhibitory impulses, 
and immediate consummation. 
All minds are suggestible, but in varying degrees. 
The variations in suggestibility of an individual have 
been carefully discussed by Mr. McDougall and Pro- 
fessor Ross. Their analyses have been co-ordi- Social Characteristics 
65 
nated in the following statement. Suggestibility varies: 
(a) with the age of the individual, (b) with tempera- 
ment, (c) with sex, (d) with the degree of fatigue and 
illness, (e) with the amount of organized facts con- 
cerning the suggested idea, (f) with the extent of pres- 
tige or authority which centers about the person who 
gives the suggestion, and (g) with the degree of crowd 
or group emotion that prevails. 
VII. 
What has been said of suggestion, applies also to 
imitation, the motor part of the same process. Some 
so-called imitation is nothing more than a phase of 
communication. The small boy who clenches his fist 
when he faces the clenched fist of another boy, is not 
imitating the act of the second youth, but is simply 
making an appropriate response. The suitable response 
which is called forth happens to resemble the com- 
bative attitude, but is not an imitation thereof. 
Imitation may be either conscious or unconscious. 
These two types have been considered in the paragraphs 
upon direct and indirect suggestion. Direct suggestion 
usually leads to more or less conscious imitation, while 
indirect suggestion finds expression through uncon- 
scious imitation. 
Imitation is always accompanied by invention.3 
Nothing is imitated exactly according to copy, because 
3 Baldwin, J. M., The Individual and Society, p. 149. 66 
Social Psychology 
of the personal equation of the imitator. In imitating, 
a person will vary somewhat from the copy, even if the 
process is unconscious. It may be said that even so- 
called pure invention consists in modifying copies. In 
invention, the imitation and modification of the old is 
a larger element than the creation of something entirely 
new. The inventions of Mr. Thomas A. Edison, for 
example, are based upon past discoveries. Every imita- 
tor is at the same time an inventor, and every inventor 
is also an imitator. Inventions will receive further 
attention in a subsequent chapter. 
Imitation is primarily a conserving factor in society. 
It secures the continuation of established ways of doing, 
and also, of new methods. Imitation is a leading 
phase of the educational process, by which knowledge 
is passed on from generation to generation. 
Imitation assumes two forms of social expression: 
(a) custom imitation, which has reference to the imi- 
tation of past ways of doing; and (b) contemporary 
imitation, which involves the copying of current ideas 
and actions. Contemporary imitation may be either 
non-competitive, or competitive. The former class is 
closely akin in its operation to custom imitation; the 
latter form, known as fashion imitation, manifests 
special characteristics, such as the imitation of the new 
and the novel, under special group conditions. 
Rational, or merit imitation, includes those cases of 
custom imitation and fashion imitation which are rea- 
sonable under the attendant conditions. Many customs, Social Characteristics 
67 
but only a small percentage of fashions, will pass 
the test of serviceability. Rational imitation, as well 
as the larger fields of custom and fashion imitation, 
will constitute the central themes of the next chapter. 
PROBLEMS 
(Language) 
1. What is meant by the social origin of language? 
2. Illustrate the various forms of language, (a) 
mimetic, (b) pantomimic, and (c) vocal. 
3. Explain: A gesture is a syncopated act. 
(Laughter) 
4. Is laughter a topic important enough for serious 
discussion? Why? 
5. Is it worth while to develop the habit of seeing 
the humorous side of life? 
6. Why do people laugh? 
7. What are the physical expressions of a hearty 
laugh ? 
8. What is Shakespeare’s meaning when he speaks 
of being “stabbed” with laughter? 
9. What does Milton mean when he writes of 
“laughter holding both his sides”? 
10. What are the earliest causes of laughter in the 
child ? 
11. Why do we laugh at incongruous or degrading 
experiences of others? Why should we not feel 
grieved ? 68 
Social Psychology 
12. Why does a group of school children released 
from the class room burst forth into boisterous laughter ? 
13. What are the psychological effects of a good 
laugh ? 
14. Why is a city dude in the country a mirth- 
producing object? 
15. Why is a “hayseed” in the city the subject of 
laughter ? 
16. Is man more afraid of social ridicule than of 
actual severe punishment? 
17. Explain: “Laughter can kill innovations.” 
18. Explain: “The true hero is one who can ig- 
nore social laughter.” 
19. Why do people laugh at stories involving stut- 
tering? 
20. Why is the walking of a drunken man consid- 
ered laughable by many persons? 
21. Why does a wry face (without pain) cause 
the spectator to laugh ? 
22. What is the cause of laughter on the part of 
the onlooker in the following cases: (a) The entrance 
of a dog into a lecture room filled with students; (b) 
The waves dashing unexpectedly over a person who is 
walking on the beach; (c) A person falling upstairs; 
(d) The comic sheet; (e) A chair that breaks down 
during a lecture; (f) A trivial interruption that occurs 
during a prayer service. 
23. What is the most common cause of laughter? Social Characteristics 
69 
24. Why are deaf people, and not blind people, 
used in comedies? 
25. Distinguish between humor, comedy, and wit. 
26. What is the leading social value in laughter? 
(Suggestion) 
27. Is every normal mind suggestible? 
28. What is the relation of the motor character of 
ideas to suggestibility? 
29. What rule may one follow in driving a nail 
in order to avoid hitting his thumb? 
30. What is meant by “muscle reading”? 
31. Explain: Your throat will ache “after listen- 
ing to a speaker who forms his voice badly.” 
32. What is the difference between impulses and 
suggestions ? 
33. Distinguish between direct and indirect sug- 
gestion by the use of original illustrations. 
34. Illustrate slantwise suggestion. 
35. What is the suggestion involved in the politi- 
cian’s slogan: “Pass prosperity around”? 
36. What difference does it make whether clerks 
ask, “Shall we send the package?” or, “Shall we send 
the package, or will you take it with you?” 
37. Which is the better sign: “Keep off the Grass,” 
or “Why not keep on the Sidewalk”? 
38. How does the following sign affect you: “La- 
dies and Gentlemen will not pull the Flowers; others 
must not.” 70 
Social Psychology 
39. Find in Shakespeare an illustration of indirect 
suggestion. 
40. How do you explain “the deadliness of the 
innuendo”? 
41. Why is faint praise more damaging than down- 
right depreciation? 
42. Why is it true that sometimes the best way to 
get the offer of a coveted position is not to seem anxious 
for it? 
43. Is a person suggestible when asleep? 
44. Give an original illustration of auto-suggestion. 
45. Illustrate how suggestibility varies according 
(a) to species, (b) to prestige, (c) to fatigue, and (d) 
to races. 
46. Why are the French or the Italians more sub- 
ject to suggestion than the English or the Germans? 
47. Are women more suggestible than men? 
48. Is an under-fed person more suggestible than 
a well-fed person? 
49. Account for the moral influence of certain 
teachers and the lack thereof of others, equally well-in- 
tentioned. 
50. What is the danger in talks “on sex hygiene be- 
fore the segregated pupils of the public schools” ? 
51. Is it safer “on meeting a formidable animal to 
stand than to run”? 
52. Explain the suggestion in the statement “He 
doth protest too much.” Social Characteristics 
71 
53. Distinguish between normal and abnormal sug- 
gestibility. 
54. When is a person most suggestible? 
55. When is one least suggestible? 
(Imitation) 
56. Give an original illustration of imitation. 
57. Distinguish between conscious and unconscious 
imitation by the use of illustrations. 
58. Illustrate: Imitation is a conserving factor in 
society. 
59. Explain: Imitation is a vital factor in social 
progress. 
60. Explain: “Everybody in the same village walks 
on an average at the same rate of speed.” 
61. Illustrate: “We are most imitative in the 
things not the object of conscious attention.” 
62. Is “sentiment more electric than opinion” ? 
63. Is an ideal a better religious nucleus than a 
dogma ? 
64. Why is the moral responsibility of the novelist 
great ? 
65. Who is the more dangerous to society, the dis- 
seminator of wrong ideals, or of wrong opinions? 
66. Should there be censorship of motion pictures? 
67. Does art need censorship more than science? 
68. Explain: “The vortical suction of our civiliza- 
tion is stronger than ever before.” 72 
Social Psychology 
69. Explain psychologically: Nothing succeeds like 
success. 
70. Whom does a child imitate the more, other chil- 
dren, or adults? 
71. Which is the more subject to imitation, (a) in- 
dolence or ambition; (b) saving or spending? 
READINGS 
(Language) 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 137-48. 
Froebel, F., The Education of Man, pp. 208-25. 
Mead, G. H., “Social Consciousness and the Consciousness of 
Meaning,” Psychological Bui., VII: 397-405. 
Preyer, W., Mental Development in the Child, Ch. VII. 
Tarde, G., The Laws of Imitation, pp. 255-65. 
La logique sociale, Ch. V. 
Tylor, E. B., Anthropology, Chs. IV, V, VII. 
Wundt, W., Elements of Folk Psychology, pp. 53-67. 
(Laughter) 
Bergson, H. L., Laughter. 
Patrick, G. T. W., The Psychology of Relaxation, Ch. III. 
Sidis, B., The Psychology of Laughter. 
Sully, J., An Essay on Laughter. 
(Suggestion and Imitation) 
Baldwin, J. M., Mental Development, Chs. VI, IX, XII. 
Binet, A., La suggestibilite. 
Carver, T. N., (ed.), Sociology and Social Progress, Ch. XXI. 
Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, Ch. II. 
Davis, Jr., M. M., Psychological Interpretations of Society, 
Chs. IX, X. Social Characteristics 
73 
Ellwood, C. A., Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Ch. 
XIII. 
An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. X. 
Fry, E., “Imitation as a Factor in Human Progress,” Con- 
temp. Rev., LV: 658-77. 
Gowin, E. B., The Executive and his Control of Men, Ch. 
XII. 
Gumplowicz, L., “La suggestion sociale,” Riv. ital. di social., 
IV: 545-55. 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology (syllabus), Sect. II. 
Keatinge, M. W., Suggestion in Education. 
McDougall, Wm., An Introduction to Social Psychology, pp. 
96-107, 325-45. 
Miinsterberg, H., On the Witness Stand, pp. 96-107. 
Paulhan, F., Psychologie de l’ invention. 
Ross, E. A., Social Psychology, Ch. II. 
Social Control, Chs. XIII, XIV. 
Schmidkunz, H., Psychologie der Suggestion. 
Tarde, G., The Lavas of Imitation. 
Social Lavas. 
In Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, Ch. XXI. 
Thorndike, E. L., The Original Nature of Man, Ch. VIII. Chapter V. 
THE SOCIAL OPERATION OF IMITATION 
I. 
Individuals imitate their contemporaries; they also 
copy their predecessors. In either case, imitation may 
be conscious, or it may be unconscious, on the part of 
the individual. In either instance, the individual may 
imitate blindly, and hence in an irrational way, or he 
may imitate in a highly rational manner. 
Contemporary imitation is either competitive or non- 
competitive; if it is of the latter type, it possesses psy- 
chical characteristics similar to those of custom imita- 
tion, which will be discussed in subsequent paragraphs 
in this chapter. But contemporary imitation is often 
competitive, in which case it is known as fashion 
imitation. 
Fashion imitation rests fundamentally upon at least 
five elemental factors: First, there is the imitation pro- 
cess itself, through which fashions become current. By 
the imitation of the example of others, the individual is 
led upon the road that others are traveling; his interest Imitation 
75 
in social adaptation is satisfied; and union with others 
of his class is established.1 
In the second place, fashion gratifies the opposite de- 
sire for self-individualization and for differentiation, the 
desire to give oneself an individual stamp, and the desire 
for variation, contrast, and the new, through “a con- 
stant change of contents.” No one wishes to be consid- 
ered mediocre, or, everyone desires to be at least a little 
different from the mass, and to be credited with some 
degree of individuality. Fashion not only gives one a 
feeling of unity with his own group, but it also sets one 
off from other groups; it not only unites but it also sepa- 
rates ; it settles at one and the same time the demand for 
unity and for segregation; it meets simultaneously the 
needs of class unity and of individual distinction. 
A third element is that of novelty. In those coun- 
tries, of course, where customs are almost literally wor- 
shipped and custom imitation rules, the new and the 
novel gain prestige with difficulty. But where fashion 
imitation has once gained standing, then the prestige of 
the novel assumes large proportions. The importance 
attached to novelty rises concomitantly with the devel- 
opment of fashion imitation itself; one movement accel- 
erates the other. 
Reputability is a fourth factor. The current knowl- 
edge that people are imitating a new style, or are ready 
1 Simmel, G., “Fashion,” International Quarterly, X: 133 
if; see also Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, pp, 244 ff., and 
Ross, Social Psychology, Ch. VI, 76 
Social Psychology 
and waiting to do so, gives the new style a full-fledged 
start. The fact that one’s acquaintances have endorsed 
or adapted a new idea implies that this idea must have 
worth. When a petition is presented for my signature, 
I will sign more readily if the names of my friends are 
already attached. The larger the number of such names 
upon the list, the more reputable does the enterprise 
seem, and the more readily do I add my name. The 
implications, however, may be entirely unfounded. 
In the fifth place, the activity of commercial designers 
and promoters furthers fashion imitation. There are 
people whose business is that of creating new styles 
which they think will please the pace-setters and the 
fashion clientele; before a given style has been adopted, 
other styles are being designed. Then there are the 
promoters and the advertisers (and the “fashion 
shows”) who create an atmosphere of expectancy and 
of favorable anticipation. 
Fashion imitation applies to all forms of activities; 
items of wearing apparel are simply outstanding illus- 
trations. There is imitation—especially in the United 
States—of every new way of thinking or of acting. 
The variety of things which gives way to the caprice 
of fashion is without limit. A striking expression of any 
new idea will result in the gathering together of a num- 
ber of people, in the formation of an organization, and 
in the promulgation of propaganda. 
In our American “hustle” civilization, fashion imi- 
tation often partakes of the form of what Professor Ross Imitation 
77 
has called social racing. Someone sets the pace with 
reference to a new style, others immediately follow suit, 
and still others do likewise. As soon as the fashion be- 
comes somewhat extensively adopted, the originators 
of it, or the pace-setters, devise a new style, perhaps defi- 
nitely modifying the initial idea, or perhaps going to an 
opposite extreme. They set the pace in a new direc- 
tion, and immediately the preceding style is dropped 
and the new trail is taken up. In this way, fashion 
imitation acquires a faster and faster pace. The horde 
of imitators try to catch up with the pace-setters, while 
the latter speed themselves up in trying to “sidestep” 
the pursuing multitude. 
Gabriel Tarde was the first to develop the under- 
lying law of fashion imitation in the statement that 
the superior are imitated by the inferior.2 The su- 
perior in wealth set the pace in matters pertaining to 
the consumption of goods. Society women are the 
idols of debutantes and of “sub-debs.” Famous preach- 
ers are imitated by the would-be renowned orators. 
Charlie Chaplin has his clientele of ambitious public 
entertainers. City people are copied by rural folk. 
The college upper-classmen set the pace for the lower 
classmen. 
The craze and fad are concentrated exhibitions of 
fashion imitation. The craze is characterized by a 
2The Laws of Imitation, pp. 213 ff. 78 
Social Psychology 
large amount of excitement. Under such a spell, peo- 
ple will temporarily adopt almost any wildcat scheme. 
If the necessary excitement can be created, the result 
in terms of imitation can be predicted with a fair de- 
gree of accuracy. 
The fad, on the other hand, is a closely related phe- 
nomenon which arises in connection with novelty, rather 
than with excitement. Something conspicuously new 
appears, and because of the prestige accorded to nov- 
elty, a large number of people adopt the innovation, 
without giving thought to its merit. Almost any 
fashion, based on novelty, and suddenly adopted to an 
extreme extent will serve as an example of fad. 
There are evidences which show that fashions are 
changing more rapidly than ever. The pace, in cer- 
tain quarters, is increasing, due to improved methods 
of communication, the development of a “hustle” civil- 
ization as a moving basis, and the rise of inexpensive 
methods of making imitations of all sorts. 
On the other hand, the opposition to the tyranny 
of fashion is gaining ground. Not only is there an in- 
creasing number of independent voters in this country, 
but there are likewise growing groups of independent 
thinkers with reference to fashion changes. There are 
increasing numbers of individuals who place worth 
of character above willingness to become slaves to 
fashion imitation. 
Fashion, however, serves to accelerate progress. 
Every invention runs the gauntlet of fashion imita- Imitation 
79 
tion. If it has worth, as a few fashions do, it becomes 
adopted universally and permanently, or, until a bet- 
ter invention in that field is made. It then passes over 
from the classification of the fashionable to that of the 
universal. 
II. 
Custom imitation is especially common in the years 
of childhood and adolescence, although it operates, of 
course, throughout life. Even after one reaches ma- 
turity, he does things in a customary way without often 
asking why. The fact that a way of doing has been 
followed successfully in the past implies present use- 
fulness. But utility in the past is not in all cases a 
guarantee of present-day serviceableness, because con- 
ditions and needs may have changed. Hence, even 
customs of high standing should be tested occasionally 
by current needs. 
A written constitution, for example, may be excel- 
lent for its day, but a hindrance in some particulars 
in a later period when new needs—calling for new 
rules, or direct modification of old rules—have ap- 
peared. Individuals have established endowments by 
will for worthy purposes; but changes have ensued 
and the endowment legacy no longer meets real needs, 
but cannot be changed if in the meantime the giver 
has become deceased. Endowments for teaching chil- 
dren to card, spin, and knit were worthy at the time, 
but when inventions were made and the occupations 80 
Social Psychology 
of children were changed, the endowment lost its 
serviceability. 
It may be asserted that there is a normal tendency 
for a crust of custom to form over the psychic life of 
every group. There is a continuous carrying forward 
of past ways of acting. The group, thus, has to safe- 
guard itself against stagnation by encouraging a cer- 
tain amount of inquiry and of questioning in regard 
to customary activities. If this protective measure is 
not continuously emphasized, dynamic forces within 
the group will well up until a revolutionary break is 
made at some point through the enveloping crust of 
custom. Revolutions of serious nature may follow; 
new ideas may thus gain group recognition and adop- 
tion. This has been a common method of group 
progress, but one which has been exceedingly costly 
in terms of human suffering and bloodshed. 
Under a regime of custom imitation, the leaders are 
usually elderly men,—at least they are men who have 
stood “pat” with reference to methods that have grown 
hoary with prestige. Under the sway of fashion imi- 
tation, the leaders include a great many men who are 
not yet in their prime, who are still climbing, and who 
are willing to try new ways of doing. 
In physically isolated sections of the earth, custom 
imitation governs. Likewise in the socially isolated 
divisions of society, custom imitation rules. In both 
sets of circumstances contact with and stimulation 
from the new is lacking. Also, in the socially iso- Imitation 
81 
lated sections of the individual’s own life, custom imi- 
tation predominates. In matters of feeling, custom 
imitation lives long. New ideas, in other words, do 
not readily affect the feeling side of life. Where cus- 
tom imitation is strong, new ideas must appear in the 
garb of the old; where fashion imitation operates, old 
ideas try to appear new. 
Custom imitation is non-competitive in the same 
sense that a certain proportion of contemporary imita- 
tion is non-competitive. This latter field has been 
analyzed at length by Professor Ross under the title 
of conventionality.3 Imitation of the conventional is 
marked by a type of more deliberate imitation—al- 
though uncritical for the most part—than custom imi- 
tation. Otherwise, its nature is psychically similar to 
imitation of customary ways of doing. The impulse 
which leads a person to imitate customs more or less 
blindly impels him to adopt without much analysis 
the conventional standards. Conventionality shares, 
however, the field of contemporary imitation with 
fashion. It is related in the chronological sense to 
fashion imitation, but in psychic similarities somewhat 
directly to custom imitation. 
III. 
Rational, or merit imitation, includes phases of both 
customary and fashionable activity. Since customs are 
3 Social Psychology, Chs. VII-XI. 82 
Social Psychology 
ways of doing which have stood the test of years, and 
since human needs change slowly, customs are, as a 
rule, meritorious. To the degree that customs are 
adopted, not blindly, but on the ground of servicea- 
bility, the process is rational. A large portion of cus- 
tom imitation is rational—but not always deliberately 
so—on the part of the individual. This generaliza- 
tion applies, but in a much less degree, to convention- 
ality imitation; and only in a minority of cases, to 
fashion imitation. 
Because fashion imitation rests its case so largely 
upon novelty and reputability, it signifies irrational ac- 
tivities. Only to a small degree is fashion imitation 
worthy of commendation. Of a hundred new fashions 
chosen at random, less than ten per cent can stand the 
test of genuine merit. 
Rational imitation includes a rather large percent- 
age of custom imitation and a small proportion of 
fashion imitation. Customs must be submitted con- 
tinuously to present-day tests, or else they will block 
social progress. Fashions likewise need to be tested 
and criticized severely, or they will entail tremendous 
social losses and dissipations. 
A small but vital and growing phase of rational imi- 
tation is socio-rational imitation; this implies the appli- 
cation not only of standards of merit, but also of 
tests involved in the term human welfare. Rationality 
and efficiency, but not necessarily socio-rational tests, 
are applied in the business world. Strength of char- Imitation 
83 
acter and efficiency are terms which connote rational 
methods of living and of working, but they may both 
be used in highly destructive and disastrous ways to 
society; strength of character and efficiency are not 
adequate standards. Socio-rational imitation adds the 
test of social welfare to that of psychological efficiency. 
If the latter standard is justified psychologically, the 
other test has equally strong support sociologically. 
The two types of tests must be fused and the hyphen 
removed from the term which has been used in this 
paragraph to represent them. A socio-rational way of 
imitating is the most valuable method of imitation 
known to social psychology. 
Certain sections of life, both societary and indi- 
vidual, fall under the control of custom,—as in matters 
of language and religion, and in those fields where the 
feelings operate powerfully. Other phases of group 
life and of the individual’s life are subject to the ca- 
pricious tyranny of fashion, e. g., questions of dress, 
amusement, and social conduct—these are externals in 
which are concerned no “really vital motives of human 
action.” Other portions of life—both group and indi- 
vidual—are under the rigid control of rational stand- 
ards, e. g., the methods for attaining business success. 
In still other ways, all groups and individuals re- 
spond sometimes to the highest type of rational imi- 
tation, namely, that which adds sociality to rationality. 
Such a standard has been expressed in the principle 
that “the world must be made safe for democracy.” 84 
Social Psychology 
PROBLEMS 
(Fashion Imitation) 
1. Distinguish between contemporary and custom 
imitation. 
2. Distinguish between the competitive and non- 
competitive forms of contemporary imitation. 
3. Explain: “The telegraph and cash register are 
universal but not fashionable.” 
4. Define (a) fashion, (b) a “style.” 
5. Distinguish between fashion changes and prog- 
ress. 
6. Why has Paris been the center from which new 
fashions have emanated? 
7. Explain: “Nothing is fashionable till it be de- 
formed.” 
8. How do you account for the fact that fashions 
tend to the extreme? 
9. Explain: “Fashion is base don novelty.” 
10. Explain: “Fashion is based on reputability.” 
11. Illustrate how fashion is based in part on the 
desire for self-individualization. 
12. Explain and illustrate: The fashion process 
has two movements: (a) imitation and (b) differentia- 
tion. 
13. Do you see any connection between fashion imi- 
tation and the term, “social racing”? 
14. Do fashions change more rapidly than 
formerly ? Imitation 
85 
15. Would you say that fashion imitation refines 
or debases one’s tastes? 
16. Why is the high gloss of a gentleman’s high 
hat considered more beautiful than “a similarly high 
gloss on a thread-bare sleeve”? 
17. Why is a given fashion often considered beau- 
tiful when in style, and unsightly when out of style? 
18. Are things beautiful in proportion as they are 
costly ? 
19. Who are the more subject to present-day fash- 
ion changes, persons guided chiefly by their feelings, or 
by their reason? Why? 
20. “Who are more responsibile for fashion ab- 
surdities, the women who wear them or the men who 
are pleased by them?” 
21. To whom are the “fashion shows” the greater 
benefit, the merchant, or the customers? 
22. How would you explain the fact that there 
is less rivalry in consumption of goods “among farmers 
than among people of corresponding means in the 
city” ? 
23. Why is it easier to save money in the country 
than in the city? 
24. Is it true that the standard of living rises so 
rapidly with every increase in prosperity “that there 
is scarcely any let-up in the economic strain”? 
25. What is a craze? Illustrate. 86 
Social Psychology 
26. Who are more susceptible to craze, “a hope- 
ful, prosperous people,” or “a hopeless, miserable 
people”? 
27. Is a dynamic society more craze-ridden than 
one which moves along the lines of custom? 
28. What is a fad? Illustrate. 
29. Make a list of the five leading fads in your 
community at the present time. 
(Custom Imitation) 
30. Give an illustration of the persistence of a 
custom. 
31. Illustrate: Physical isolation favors the sway 
of custom. 
32. Illustrate: Social isolation favors customs. 
33. Why is a custom so powerful in matters of 
feeling? 
34. Why has the dress suit for men remained more 
or less the same the world over? 
35. Why may a man wear the same dress suit for 
years, whereas a woman must have a new dress for 
almost every formal occasion? 
36. What survivals (no longer useful) do you see 
in the quaintly cut dress coat? 
37. Why are generals retired at about sixty-two 
years of age? 
38. Why are popes and judges generally ap- 
pointed when past middle age? Imitation 
87 
39. Do you agree: “The law library is the labora- 
tory of the law student” ? 
40. Why is the display of good manners a custom 
among the leisure classes? 
41. What are the good phases of the caste system? 
42. Is it possible for a federal constitution, no 
matter how well adapted to conditions when written, 
to become in time an incubus? 
43. Illustrate: “Almost everywhere propriety and 
conventionality press more mercilessly on woman than 
on man, thereby lessening her range of choice and 
dwarfing her will.” 
44. Explain: “Such generally admired beauties of 
person or costume as the bandaged foot, the high heel, 
the wasp waist, the full skirt, and the long train are 
such as incapacitate from all useful work.” 
45. Whence did the idea arise that “manual labor 
is degrading” ? 
46. Why do so many people believe that pecuniary 
success is the only success? 
47. From whs* countries has the United States in- 
herited its customs? 
48. Can you name any customs which have devel- 
oped in this country? 
49. Why are people in old countries more inter- 
ested in culture than people in new? 
50. Does the study of languages tend to develop 
the habit of conformity to custom? 88 
Social Psychology 
51. How does the mastery of the classics affect 
one’s social stability? 
52. Why should the foundations of true culture be 
laid in the classics? 
53. How does the ownership of property affect 
one’s social stability? 
54. Is “the proverbial individualism of the farmer’’ 
the same as individuality? 
55. Explain: “Majorities do not necessarily stand 
for truth and justice. They stand for the customs and 
convictions of the past.” 
56. Why are we blind to the extent of our in- 
debtedness to society and “therefore apt to imagine 
our individuality much more pronounced than it 
actually is” ? 
57. Explain: Manners get worse as one travels 
from East to West,—they are best in Asia, fairly good 
m Europe, bad in America. 
58. Explain: “The neophobia of the old.” 
(Rational Imitation) 
59. What is meant by rational imitation? 
60. Mention a custom that is rational; also, a 
fashion that is rational. 
61. Is it irrational to follow authority? 
62. Indicate a rational way “of ascertaining wom- 
an’s sphere.” 
63. What are the most difficult foes of new, ra- 
tional ideas and methods? Imitation 
89 
64. Which develops a more open, rational mind, 
the laboratory method, or the text-book method? 
65. Is it rational for a religious leader to require 
his followers “to renounce the extravagancies of fash- 
ion and to dress simply”? 
66. How does the study of hygiene, psychology, 
and sociology help one to become crank-proof? 
67. Why do American women criticize Chinese 
women for compressing their feet longitudinally when 
they themselves try “to escape the stigma of having 
normal feet” by “a formidable degree of lateral com- 
pression” ? 
68. Why do we ridicule the customs and fashions 
of other people while we remain oblivious to the weak- 
nesses of our own customs and fashions? 
69. What effect does knowledge of the customs 
and beliefs of other peoples have upon your own cus- 
toms and beliefs? 
70. Does one’s manner of living, or manner of 
work change the more rapidly? Why? 
71. If you were trying to induce “Jews and Christ- 
ians, Orangemen and Catholics, Germans and Slavs, 
Poles and Lithuanians” to sink their enmities, how 
would you proceed? 
72. Who has the wider outlook and the freer 
mind, the average teacher, or the average parent? 
73. In what sense is rational imitation radical? In 
what way is it conservative? 90 
Social Psychology 
74. In what sections of our lives does (a) custom 
imitation, (b) fashion imitation, and (c) rational imi- 
tation prevail? 
75. Illustrate: “One of the greatest pains to 
human nature is the pain of a new idea.” 
76. Explain: “Most of us jump into our beliefs 
with both feet and stand there.” 
77. If everybody should become a rational imita- 
tor, would progress cease because of the lack of people 
to try out strange and peculiar ideas? 
78. Why in this civilized country do so many 
fashions lack utility? 
79. If you had made an invention and wanted finan- 
cial support, to whom would you apply: a wealthy 
farmer, a rich merchant, or a well-to-do educator? 
80. Does education always imply rational imita- 
tion ? 
READINGS 
(Fashion Imitation) 
Biggs, A. H., “What is ‘Fashion’?” Nineteenth Cent., XXXIII: 
235-48. 
Foley, C. H., “Fashion,” Econ. Jour., Ill: 458-74. 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology (syllabus), Sect. XI. 
Linton, E. L., “The Tyranny of Fashion,” Forum, III: 59-68. 
Patrick, G. T. W., “The Psychology of Crazes,” Popular 
Science Mon., LVII: 285-94. 
Ross, E. A., Social Psychology, Chs. VI, XI. 
“Acquisitive Mimicry,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XXI: 
433-45. Imitation 
91 
“The Principle of Anticipation,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., XXI: 577-600. 
“Estrangement in Society,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., 
XXIII: 350-58. 
Shaler, N. S., “The Law of Fashion,” Atlantic Mon., LXI: 
386-98. 
Simmel, G., “Fashion,” International Quarterly, X: 130-55. 
Tarde, G., The Laws of Imitation, Ch. VII. 
Veblen, T., The Theory of the Leisure Class, Chs. Ill, IV, 
VII. 
(Custom Imitation) 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. X. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Chs. XVIII, XX. 
Hearn, W. E., The Aryan Household, Ch. XVII. 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology (syllabus), Sects. XII, 
XIII. 
Lang, A., Custom and Myth, pp. 10-28. 
Ross, E. A., Social Psychology, Chs. XII, XV. 
Social Control, Ch. XV. 
Sumner, W. G., Folkways. 
Veblen, T., The Theory of the Leisure Class, Chs. IX, XI. 
(Rational Imitation) 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology (syllabus), Sect. XIV. 
Ross, E. A., Social Psychology, Ch. XVI. Chapter VI. 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE GROUP 
I. 
Human groups may be classified as permanent and 
temporary. Permanent groups include the family, the 
play group, the neighborhood group, the school group, 
the occupational group, the employees’ and the em- 
ployers’ groups, the fraternal, the political, the re- 
ligious groups, the racial and the sex groups, and the 
planetary group. These groups suffer change, but 
maintain their general form from year to year, and 
in the case of nearly all of them, from decade to decade, 
or for long periods. 
Permanent groups have arisen out of temporary 
groupings; the relationship is filial. The order of de- 
velopment is somewhat as follows: first, human needs, 
then a temporary grouping to meet those needs, finally, 
the evolution of a permanent group or social organi- 
zation. Out of countless temporary groupings, a few 
permanent types have attained historical prominence; 
but continuously subject to change and to the laws of 
social evolution. The Group 
93 
For example, the family has developed in response 
to the needs of race continuance; it has gone through 
the metronymic and patronymic stages and is now in 
a transitional period, out of which equality of sex 
authority in the family relation is attaining promi- 
nence; it has run the gauntlet of polyandry, polygyny, 
and other forms of marriage, and has achieved a 
worthy degree of usefulness through monogamy. 
Or, the psychology of occupations shows an evolu- 
tion of the following order: human needs, crude ways 
of meeting these needs, the invention of methods and 
tools, the rise of specialization, the conscious, uncon- 
scious, or accidental gravitating of certain individuals 
into the given occupational group, the appearance of a 
definite occupational or caste consciousness, and the es- 
tablishment of an occupational ethics and of occu- 
pational associations. 
From another angle, permanent groups may be sub- 
divided into sects, castes, classes, and states,—a classi- 
fication which has been outlined at length, by such 
Continental writers as Tarde1 and Sighele.2 The 
group in the sense of a sect (la secte) is composed of 
individuals who differ markedly, but who are united 
by a common ideal and faith; of this type are religious 
denominations, political parties, and scientific organi- 
zations. 
1L’opinion et la foule, pp. 177 ff. 
3 Psychologie des sectes, pp. 45 ff. 94 
Social Psychology 
The caste is based upon identity of profession; it is 
the most compact of all social organizations. After one 
has entered a profession and has become established 
therein, he has become a member of an existing caste 
and is more or less under its esprit de corps. For con- 
crete and tangible illustrations, witness the public atti- 
tude toward the man who essays to change from the 
ministry to a business career, from the law to brick- 
laying, or from teaching to dairying. 
The class possesses a psychological bond in a unity 
of interests. The class is less precise in its limits, but 
more “formidably belligerent in its attitude than the 
caste.” In this connection, consider the outstanding 
class distinctions of the day, such as the laboring and 
capitalistic classes, with their bickerings, strifes, in- 
trigues, and underlying hatred. 
States are the most extensive group organizations 
yet evolved; they rest logically upon common bonds 
of language, national values, and national prestige. In 
the closing sections of this chapter, the rise of group 
values, of a national consciousness, and of national and 
international patriotism will be outlined. 
From the genetic point of view, a third classification 
of permanent grouping is possible. There are instinc- 
tive and purposive societies. The best illustration of 
purely instinctive grouping is found among animals, 
e. g., insect societies. The primitive horde and the 
family are less instinctive than an insect society, but 
show a few signs of conscious purpose. The modern The Group 
95 
state with its constituent groups such as political par- 
ties, economic corporations, or philanthropic societies 
is purposive in character; educational associations are 
strikingly telic. But purposive grouping in its purest 
sense is still in an incipient stage of development; it 
always and consciously aims, not simply to benefit the 
given group, but to advance the interests of society. 
Permanent groups, thus, include the purely instinctive 
groups at the lowest extremity of the social scale, the 
transitional types between, and the purely telic groups 
at the highest points of civilized development. 
II. 
Temporary groups are represented by the crowd, the 
mob, the assembly, and the public (a quasi-temporary 
group). The crowd is the most frequently mentioned 
form of temporary grouping. 
Some crowds are heterogeneous, i. e., are composed 
of persons who at the given time have various and con- 
flicting purposes. A crowd of persons at a busy street 
corner is a heterogeneous group, i. e., its members 
have varied purposes and are going in different direc- 
tions. But the real crowd is homogeneous; its mem- 
bers at the time have a common purpose. Further, 
each individual is aware that the other members are 
moved by the same purpose as is he. 
The homogeneous crowd always has a leader, but if 
perchance it is without a guide, it selects one. The 
members suffer a lessened sense of individual respon- 96 
Social Psychology 
sibility, because responsibility is distributed and shared 
by all. Anonymity tends to prevail. Excitement may 
reign; feelings may rise; and rational processes of 
thought may be blocked. The members experience a 
heightened state of suggestibility. People are likely to 
act less rationally while under the crowd influence than 
when away from it; feelings, rather than reason, secure 
control. The crowd is said to be recidivistic; the mem- 
bers revert to lower standards of action than under 
ordinary influences. 
Freedom of speech is rarely tolerated by a crowd ; 
the crowd hoots down any one who attacks its follies. 
A crowd of financiers would not listen to the harangue 
of an I. W. W. leader; neither would a crowd of I. 
W. W. adherents sit quietly under the lashings of a 
capitalist. 
A decision which is made entirely under the influ- 
ence of the crowd has a hard struggle before it. Such 
decisions must usually be followed up with personal, 
steady, and sincere attention on the part of interested 
people. 
On the other hand, the crowd serves many useful 
purposes. Time, expense, and energy are saved in 
unifying people by getting them together in a crowd 
and by addressing them as a unit, rather than as sepa- 
rate individuals scattered over a large territory. More 
enthusiasm for a given project can be created in a 
crowd than by any other method. Crowd conditions 
function oftentimes in dragging people out of selfish, The Group 
97 
individual habits into an open avowal of group aims, 
into financial support of group movements, and into 
active group participation. The crowd arouses indi- 
viduals from lethargy; it gives them new desires; it 
develops in them new enthusiasm; it unites them in 
behalf of common purposes. 
The mob is a homogeneous crowd in an unusually 
high state of suggestibility. It is a crowd that has be- 
come frantic, and which has lost its reason. It is fre- 
quently a crowd which is committing a crime. It is a 
relic of barbarism and does not have a place in a civi- 
lized state. 
An assembly is a group of people harnessed by cul- 
tural habits, including a set of parliamentary rules of 
order. These rules of order, according to Professor 
Ross, serve as a straight jacket upon a monster which 
is in constant danger of breaking loose. Rules of order 
function in keeping the feelings down and the reason 
in charge. Personalities are taboo, the chair must al- 
ways be addressed, the voting must be by aye and nay, 
and order must be observed. An assembly is a group 
of people, in which ideas, rather than feelings are 
struggling with one another for supremacy. 
The public is a communicating group with marked 
permanency and is to be sharply distinguished from a 
face- to-face group. The communicating group is made 
possible by the development of the printing press, the 
railroad, the telegraph, and the telephone. The press 
has been credited by Sighele with having created the 98 
Social Psychology 
public and having substituted it for the crowd.4 The 
same author also recognizes the part that the railroad 
and the telegraph play in developing a public. The 
railroad has shortened distances, and newspapers thus 
reach remote places in a comparatively short time; the 
telegraph has almost eliminated distance, because 
thereby any news whatever can travel over thousands 
of miles in a few minutes. Hence the railroad and 
the telegraph give wings to the press and the feeling of 
actuality to a public.5 
Each reading public tends to develop its own type of 
journalism; tends to produce newspapers which have 
its own good and bad qualities, and which are its own 
creations.6 Large numbers of people, spread over a 
large territory, read regularly the organs of the given 
public to which they belong, feel simultaneously the 
same way in regard to the destruction of anything 
that belongs to that public, and express their feelings 
and opinions simultaneously, being aware at the same 
time that the other members of that public are experi- 
encing the same feelings and giving expression to the 
same opinions. 
4 La joule criminelle, p. 225. 
0 Ibid., pp. 225, 226; cf. Tarde, G., Le public et la joule, 
Ch. I. 
6 Ibid., p. 241. “Sans doute chaque public produit les jour- 
nalistes qui ont ses instincts, ses tendencies ses qualities, et 
ses defauts, qui sont, in un mot, es creatures.” The Group 
99 
The public is not subject, however, to all of the 
weaknesses of the crowd. An individual can belong to 
only one crowd at a time, but he usually can claim 
membership in several publics at the same moment. 
He may belong simultaneously to a Roosevelt public, 
a Billy Sunday public, a Ty Cobb public, and a John 
McCormack public. His interests as a member of 
one public may run counter to his interests as a 
member of another public; hence, he will act more 
normally than when a member of a single face-to- 
face group. This century is becoming an “era of pub- 
lics” ; the public is superseding the crowd as a preva- 
lent form of grouping. 
III. 
Conflicts between groups are outstanding social 
phenomena; they arise from the operation of the fight- 
ing instinct (discussed in Chapter Three). This in- 
stinct in the individual when joined with the same 
tendencies in other individuals assumes mass propor- 
tions, organized methods, and group significance. 
Families compete against families for social standing, 
business vies with business for trade, and nations 
struggle against nations for territorial expansion and 
commercial advancement. 
Conflicts go on continually between the individual 
and his group. An individual becomes a leader of a 
clientele and the conflict becomes one between a mi- 
nority section and the parent group. A new idea 100 
Social Psychology 
springs from some one’s mind, finds expression, and 
immediately individuals begin to allign themselves with 
or against the new propaganda. The leader and the 
adherents of the new program enter into conflict with 
the parent organization. 
Conflicts between groups are sometimes open and 
announced, as in the case of political parties in a na- 
tional election. They are frequently conducted under 
cover and behind apparently friendly advances, e. g., 
rivalries between certain business houses. Even in 
open political fights, it is often difficult to learn the 
attitude of various influential organizations, because 
of secret alliances and agreements. 
Certain conflicts are highly destructive; others are 
mutually advantageous. The conflict between a pow- 
erful corporation and a competitive individual entre- 
preneur usually ends in the destruction or at least 
the absorption of the small business of the individual 
competitor by the corporation. Two neighboring 
farmers, however, who are competing for honors in 
regard to corn yield per acre will both gain, as well as 
society; two granges in competition will also both reap 
advantages with no losses because of the competition. 
Conflict between groups is an element of progress, 
unless the conflict becomes too unequal, unless it as- 
sumes the form of competitive consumption of goods, 
both economic and uneconomic, or unless it fails to 
rise to high, open, and meritorious levels. Conflict be- 
tween marked unequals results in the annihilation of The Group 
101 
the lesser unequal, and in no appreciable gain to the 
other. Competition in the consumption of socially val- 
uable goods instead of competiton in the production of 
human values, is socially disintegrating. Conflicts 
which resort to deception, to physical combat, instead 
of to increased openness and to a national measuring 
of values, lead to barbarism and savagery. 
No conflict would mean no group progress. But 
conflicts must be kept within the lines of progress, di- 
rected and made to serve socially constructive ends 
exclusively. It is at this point that Professor T. N. 
Carver’s theory of social progress through conflict 
should be discussed.7 While Professor Carver recog- 
nizes an evolution in the forms of conflict, he assumes 
that the group, and particularly a territorial group, is 
an end in itself. He starts with the elemental type of 
conflict, mainly destructive, and familiar to us as war, 
sabotage, and duelling. A higher form is deception, 
which like the first type is a characteristic of brutes, 
and is found among human beings in skillful ways 
of swindling, counterfeiting, and adulterating. A 
third, higher, and distinctly human form of conflict is 
persuasion, such as legal (litigating), as political (cam- 
paigning), as erotic (courting), and as commercial 
(selling). Then there is competitive consumption, 
competitive bargaining, and competitive production in 
the economic realm. Competitive production of goods 
7 Essays in Social Justice, Ch. IV. 102 
Social Psychology 
always works well; both competitors and the given 
social group gain. Beyond this point, the analysis does 
not go; it needs to be developed in its psychological and 
sociological phases. It emphasizes the biological bases 
of conflict; it stresses the survival of the fittest in the 
sense of the survival of the strongest; it deals little 
with conflicts between motives, moral standards, and 
societary values. It is difficult to see how a group 
whose highest activity is competitive production of eco- 
nomic goods could avoid the present world-wide con- 
demnation that has fallen upon Germany. 
As the economic struggle for existence bulks large in 
Professor Carver’s writings, so psychological conflicts 
are stressed by Tarde.8 To Tarde there are three lead- 
ing forms of conflict, or opposition, namely, political, 
economic, and social; or war, competition, and discus- 
sion,—terms which are used to indicate a decreasing 
degree of destructive action and an ascending scale of 
constructive opposition. War and competition are 
usually destructive (the social value of competitive pro- 
duction of economic goods is underrated) ; discussion 
is generally constructive (the deception which some- 
times underlies discussion and the wasteful character 
of much discussion are not clearly indicated by Tarde). 
Professor F. H. Giddings has shown how conflicts 
between groups that are somewhat evenly balanced 
(secondary conflicts), lead to progress, because out of 
8 Vopposition universelle. The Group 
103 
conflict between more or less equal forces arise toler- 
ance and compromise, then co-operation, alliance, and 
mutual aid.9 Conflict as being the best way to remove 
the dualism between opposing social forces and to ar- 
rive at some form of unity 10 is a satisfactory statement, 
providing it is understood that the conflict is to take 
place upon ascending levels of rationality. Professor 
G. Simmel speaks of the whole history of society in 
terms of the striking conflicts which have occurred be- 
tween socialistic adaptation to society and individual- 
istic departure from its demands,—a duality which is 
manifested biologically in the contrast between hered- 
ity and variation, also, a duality between heredity and 
environment, or, as Tarde put it, a duality between 
imitation (heredity) and opposition (environment). 
Professors G. Ratzenhofer 11 and A. W. Small12 have 
treated conflict and co-operation as more or less cor- 
relative terms in the processes of social adjustment. 
The element of conflict always appears in every new 
situation, but the line of progress is from a maximum 
of conflict to a maximum of reciprocity.13 Durkheim 
has pointed out how opposing groups (subdivided so- 
9 Principles of Sociology, pp. 100 ff. 
10 Simmel, G., “Sociology of Conflict,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., IX: 490. 
11 Die sociologische Erkenntniss. 
13 General Sociology. 
18 Ibid., p. 325. 104 
Social Psychology 
cial interests) find it necessary to combine in order to 
advance.14 
In a brief summary it may be said that group con- 
flicts function as means to a social end, operate in the 
long run upon an ascending scale (war, competition, 
discussion), and give way to the rise of co-operation, 
alliance, and mutual aid. They arise out of the fight- 
ing tendencies, and run the gamut from brutal ruth- 
lessness to that high type of corrective effort which is 
an expression of love. They may personify the “tooth 
and claw” ways of the jungle, or the kindly, but firm 
methods of a loving parent, and the high-minded, inter- 
national convictions of a great state; or any of the inter- 
gradations. 
IV. 
In every group, no matter how many intra-groups 
it may harbor, there is continuous expression of the 
gregarious instinct, of the spirit of toleration, and of 
the desire for co-operation. There is an ever present 
group, or social consciousness; and in a sense, a social 
mind. 
It is in the play-day of childhood that social sym- 
pathy, a social sense, and social habits are evolved.15 
It is assumed here that man is inherently social, that 
he is, in a sense, a product of group life, and that be- 
neath anti-social activities there is a deep-seated gre- 
14 De la division du travail social. 
15 Giddings, F. H., Principles of Sociology, pp. 117 ff. The Group 
105 
garious nature. In associating with others, we de- 
velop our dormant social nature. Through association, 
there arises toleration; what we first oppose, we may 
later learn to tolerate. In associating and in toler- 
ating, we learn to appreciate the merits of others, to 
understand their weaknesses, and to develop a fellow- 
feeling. 
In associating with the fellow members of our own 
groups, we learn that they have the same feelings, the 
same thoughts, and the same willingness to act as we. 
As a result of this reorganization of attitude we learn 
to feel, think, and act in harmony with others; by a 
like process, others acquire similar harmonious reac- 
tions to us. Public feelings, opinions, and actions, thus, 
assume tangible form and force. 
The opinions of the group tend to survive; the most 
useful do survive. The best current opinion becomes 
the established opinion in later years; it gathers pres- 
tige with time. Into this mass of integrated past public 
opinion and of formulating current opinion, the child 
is born; in this psychic environment he grows up, and 
from it his own thinking receives its direction. Later, 
his individual reaction against some of the elements in 
this combination of past and present group opinion 
gives him an opportunity for leadership. Or, he may 
develop into a leader through championing some factor 
in the established group opinion. The subject of lead- 
ership, however, will receive analysis in the next 
chapter. 106 
Social Psychology 
Integrated past opinion and floating, misty, current 
public opinion center about certain vital phases of group 
life. Specific social values arise. A fundamental social 
value is the existence of the group itself; each group 
holds its own life as an elemental social value. A 
corollary to the preceding proposition is that the group 
will fight for its own unity,—witness the case of the 
United States in 1861 to 1865. Lack of group unity 
presages group disintegration. 
Group life, group unity, and distinctive group pos- 
sessions, material and spiritual, compose the triune of 
social values thus far developed in group life. The 
most important form of the material possessions of the 
group is its geographic territory. “An abiding affec- 
tion for the fatherland” and for principles of liberty, 
of opportunity, and of fraternity which the group may 
have worked out, represent the highest social values.16 
Patriotism is a tangible group response when any one 
of the social values is attacked. Real patriotism con- 
sists in a continuous expression of group loyalty, 
whether the group values are under special attack or 
not. It shows itself in socially constructive ways in 
the daily activities of life, and in continuous attention 
by individuals to the evolution of group values. 
Patriotism means group loyalty. It originally re- 
ferred to loyalty to the family, or more particularly, 
loyalty to the pater, or patriarchal head of the family. 
“ Op. cit. pp. 147 ff. The Group 
107 
Patriotism was synonymous with patriarchalism and 
with “familism.” In the hey-day of tribal society, 
patriotism implied loyalty to the tribe; patriotism and 
tribalism were interchangeable terms. With the rise 
of the nation, a still broader type of group loyalty de- 
veloped, namely, nationalism, or patriotism in the nine- 
teenth century sense of the term. Familism and tribal- 
ism in a modified way take subordinate but vital places 
in the enlarged form of group loyalty known as 
nationalism. 
The most powerful group consciousness that has 
yet developed is that form of national patriotism which 
arises in connection with national defense and national 
attack, which at first is usually highly emotional and 
charged with electrical feelings but which later settles 
down, if need be, into a stubborn struggle for group 
existence. It not infrequently suffers abuse; pseudo- 
patriotism is common. The pseudo-patriot hoists the 
flag but locks up coal in his mines while women and 
children sicken and die from the cold; he buys up 
foodstuffs, and holds them while prices rise and people 
starve. Pseudo-patriotism exhausts itself in applause 
of the flag, or in patriotic statements. It whines when 
asked to observe meatless days; it squanders money in 
luxury; it wastes strength in sinful living. It carries 
the flag as a form of camouflage—to cover up profiteer- 
ing and self indulgence; it is a hypocritical loyalty 
that may be as vicious as traitorism. 108 
Social Psychology 
In addition to loyalty to family (familism), to local 
district, or community (a modified type of tribalism), 
and to nation (nationalism), the trend of social evolu- 
tion is bringing a still higher type of patriotism into 
the foreground, namely, internationalism, or loyalty to 
the world group. We are on the verge of forming an 
international consciousness and a sense of planetary 
values; the new point of view is developed in recent 
books such as those by Professors Edward Krehbiel17 
and Thorstein Veblen.18 President Wilson’s now fa- 
mous plea for world-wide democracy is a forerunner 
of the rise of planetary loyalty. 
Further, philosophy and religion have formulated 
still more comprehensive group loyalties. For exam- 
ple, Christianity has dared to project a loyalty which 
includes not only the present world society, but also 
that unnumbered host who have run well and finished 
this earthly race, in fact a vast society of which the 
earthly group is but a single manifestation. Christian- 
ity has been so radical that unto familism, tribalism, 
nationalism, internationalism, it has added universal- 
ism in the sense of a loyalty to a society (the Kingdom 
of God) incomprehensive in size and character, without 
beginning and without end. 
17Nationalism, War and Society. 
lsThe Nature of Peace. The Group 
109 
PROBLEMS 
(Permanent Groups) 
1. Define a group. 
2. Distinguish between a permanent group and a 
temporary group. 
3. How are the sexes different psychically? 
4. How is a fraternal group different from a neigh- 
borhood group psychically? 
5. What is meant by the psychology of an occupa- 
tion? 
6. What are the psychical differences between a 
rural and an urban group? 
7. Explain: “The high potential of a city.” 
8. Would you say that the capital of a common- 
wealth should “be its chief city, or some centrally lo- 
cated town”? 
9. Distinguish between the psychical characteristics 
of Boston, New York, and Washington, the intellec- 
tual, business, and political capitals, respectively, of 
this country. 
(Temporary Groups, the Crowd) 
10. Define a “crowd.” 
11. Distinguish between a homeogeneous and a 
heterogeneous crowd. 
12. Why does the crowd generally have a leader? 
13. If a crowd does not have a leader, what will it 
do? 110 
Social Psychology 
14. Why is one’s individuality “wilted in a dense 
throng” ? 
15. Why do feelings run through a crowd more 
readily than ideas? 
16. In order to unify men, why is it necessary to 
touch the chord of feeling? 
17. Why is the crowd-self irrational? 
18. Explain: “In a psychological crowd, people 
are out of themselves.” 
19. Explain: The crowd is recidivistic. 
20. Does a crowd tolerate freedom of speech ? Why ? 
21. Why is the crowd-self ephemeral? 
22. What is the relation of Roberts’ Rules of 
Order to the impulses of the crowd? 
23. Explain: “The squeeze of the crowd tends 
to depress the self-sense.” 
24. Is a jury a crowd, or a mere group of indi- 
viduals? 
25. Explain: “A great deal of so-called patriotism 
is but the crowd-emotion of the nation.” 
26. Are your highest emotions aroused more easily 
when you are in a crowd than when you are alone? 
27. What effect will your study of the psychology 
of the crowd have upon your attitude toward the 
crowd ? 
28. Distinguish between a crowd and a mob. 
29. What is the meaning of the word, mob? 
30. Is a holiday jam in a railroad station a mob? The Group 
111 
31. Is the psychology of a mob of Hottentots the 
same as the psychology of a mob of college professors? 
32. Where can the blame for mob action be justly 
placed ? 
33. What are the best means for bringing a mob 
to a rational point of view ? 
34. Define an assembly. 
35. Why is it easier to speak to an audience of 200 
people than to a group of twenty persons? 
36. Define a public. 
37. Explain: This is an era of publics. 
38. Illustrate a conflict (a) between an individual 
and his group, (b) between two groups of equal 
strength, (c) between a small group and a large 
group of which the small group is a part. 
39. Illustrate competitive consumption of goods. 
40. Illustrate competitive production. 
41. Why do battles always take place between two 
armies, or between two sets of opposing armies, and 
not between three or four mutually opposing armies? 
42. Why is discussion able to “hurry conflicts to 
a conclusion?” 
43. When is a discussion profitless? 
44. What are the leading foes of new ideas? 
45. Would you expect to find the truth of the 
matter in a given discussion with either extremist? 
46. Should a false dogma be attacked directly, or 
undermined “by marshalling and interpreting the ad- 
verse facts”? 112 
Social Psychology 
47. Should the chief basis for religious fellowship 
be “agreement in belief or agreement in ideal” ? 
48. Should a conflict between types of water fil- 
tration or armor plate be referred to the voters? 
49. What types of public questions should be sub- 
mitted to the voters for a decision? 
50. Why have theological controversies been more 
bitter than scientific controversies? 
51. What are the strong and weak points of com- 
promising? 
(Group and Social Consciousness) 
52. What is meant by “group memory” ? 
53. Why does the morality of diplomacy and war 
lag behind the morality of individuals? 
54. Why do woman’s legal rights “lag behind her 
generally acknowledged moral rights”? 
55. Define group loyalty. 
56. What is a traitor? 
57. What is the history of patriotism? 
58. What are the leading types of patriotism? 
59. Can a good patriot be a bad citizen? 
60. How do you rate the patriotism in the senti- 
ment: “My country, right or wrong.” 
61. Do you agree with Professor Veblen’s state- 
ment: “Patriotism is useful for breaking the peace, 
not for keeping it.” 
62. Distinguish between instinctive and reflective 
patriotism. The Group 
113 
63. What is the relation of patriotism to nation- 
alism ? 
64. Distinguish between nationalism and inter- 
nationalism. 
READINGS 
(Permanent Groups) 
Brinton, D. G., The Basis of Social Relations, Pt. I, Chs. 
II-IV. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Ch. Ill, Pt. IV. 
Fouillee, A., Equisse psychologique des peuples europeens. 
Giddings, F. H., Democracy and Empire, Ch. XIX. 
LeBon, G., The Psychology of Peoples. 
Maciver, R. M., Community, Bk. I, Ch. II; Bk. II, Chs. II, III. 
McComas, H. C., The Psychology of Religious Sects. 
Ross, E. A., Foundations of Sociology, Ch. VI. 
Simmel, G., “The Persistence of Social Groups,” (tr. by A. 
W. Small), Amer. Jour, of Sociol., Ill: 662-89, 829-36, 
IV: 35-SO. 
Smith, W. R., An Introduction to Educational Sociology, Chs. 
IV-VI. 
Thomas, Helen T., “The Psychology of Sex,” Psychological 
Bui., XI: 353-79. 
(Temporary Groups) 
Conway, M., The Crowd in Peace and War. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Ch. XIV. 
Davenport, F. M., Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals, Ch. 
III. 
Galsworthy, J., The Mob. 
Gardner, C. S., “Assemblies,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XIX: 
531-55. 114 
Social Psychology 
Hamilton, C., “Psychology of Theatre Audiences,” Forum 
XXXIX: 234-48. 
Howard, G. E., “Social Psychology of the Spectator,” Amer. 
Jour, of Sociol., XVIII: 33-50. 
LeBon, G., The Crowd. 
“Psicolgia della folia,” Riv. ital. di sociol., Ill: 166-95. 
Ross, E. A., Social Psychology, Chs. III-V. 
Foundations of Sociology, Chs. V, VI. 
Sedwick, H. D., “The Mob Spirit in Literature,” Atlantic 
Mon., XCVI: 9-15. 
Sidis, B., “A Study of the Mob,” Atlantic Mon., LXXV: 
188-97. 
Sighele, S., La foule criminelle. 
Tarde, G., The Laws of Imitation, pp. 154-73. 
Vopinion et la foule, Chs. I, II. 
Tawney, J. A., “The Nature of Crowds,” Psychological 
Bui., II: 329-33. 
(Group Conflicts) 
Bagehot, W., Physics and Politics, Sects. II, V. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Chs. XXVIII-XXX. 
Giddings, F. H., Principles of Sociology, pp. 100-196. 
Gumplowicz, L., Der Rassenkampf. 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology, (syllabus), Sect. III. 
LeBon, G. E., The Psychology of Revolution. 
Morse, J., “The Psychology of Prejudice,” Intern. Jour, of 
Ethics, XVII: 490-506. 
Novicow, J., Les luttes entre societes humaines. 
Ross, E. A., “Class and Caste,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XXII: 
461-76, 594-608, 749-60; XXIII: 67-82. 
“Estrangement in Society,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., 
XXIII: 350-58. 
Simmel, “Sociology of Conflict,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., 
IX: 490-525. The Group 
115 
Thomas, W. I., “The Psychology of Race Prejudice,” Amer. 
Jour, of Sociol., IX: 593-611. 
Vincent, G. E., “The Rivalry of Social Groups,” Amer. 
Jour, of Sociol., XVI: 469-84. 
(Group and Social Consciousness) 
Brown, H. C., “Social Psychology and the Problem of a 
Higher Nationality,” Intern. Jour, of Ethics, XXVIII: 
19-30. 
Coleman, J. M., Social Ethics, Chs. VI, VII. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization, Pt. VI. 
Giddings, F. H., Principles of Sociology, pp. 100-196. 
Democracy and Empire, Ch. IV. 
Hayden, E. A., The Social Will, Ch. I. 
Howerth, I. W., Work and Life, Ch. XI. 
Kropotkin, P., Mutual Aid; a Factor in Evolution. 
Lloyd, A. H., “The Social Will,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol. 
VIII: 336-59. 
Maciver, E. M., Community, Bk. Ill, Ch. IV. 
Ross, E. A., “The Organization of Will,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., XXI: 145-58. 
Spencer, Herbert, The Study of Sociology, Ch. IX. 
Stewart, H. L., “Is Patriotism Immoral?” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., XXII: 616-30. 
Veblen, T., The Nature of Peace, Ch. II. 
Vincent, G. E., The Social Mind and Education. Chapter VII. 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INVENTION AND 
OF LEADERSHIP 
I. 
Invention and leadership are closely related phe- 
nomena. Leadership, in the broad sense, includes in- 
venting, discovering, prophesying, organizing, and di- 
recting natural and social forces. The psychology of 
leadership rests upon the psychology of invention. 
Invention means “coming upon,” “seeing into,” and 
perceiving new relationships. The history of invention 
is concerned not “with the unoriginal moments of any 
man’s life, nor with the stolid procession that never 
had a thought of their own,” but with the bright, 
happy, creative moments of the best minds of all races 
and with the most beneficent contributions to the 
progress of mankind.1 
Invention and imitation are opposite poles of the 
same process; every imitation results in at least a 
slight modification, or invention. The copying of the 
1 Mason, O. T., Origins of Invention, p. 28. Invention and Leadership 
117 
actions of another involves the personal equation of the 
one who imitates; to the extent that the individuality 
of the imitator finds expression in the process, the imi- 
tation is accompanied by invention. As suggestion is 
the initiating phase of imitation, so imitation is often 
the introductory element in invention. As the imita- 
tor sees life at a different angle from the imitated, he 
may unconsciously, if not consciously, incorporate new 
elements into the process,—which is the essence of 
invention. 
Invention arises out of individual needs, out of prob- 
lems, out of attempts to extricate oneself from diffi- 
culties. The starting point is always a problem; the 
next essential is a desire to solve the problem; then 
collection and analysis of data are necessary; finally, 
a new and useful relationship becomes clear. The 
inventor may come upon an entirely unexpected rela- 
tionship; the invention may not be the one for which 
the long search has been made. But the seeking, 
searching, inquiring is fundamental to all invention 
and discovery. A desire, or a problem, concentration 
of attention, the trial and error method, finally the 
anticipated, or an unanticipated discovery of relation- 
ships,—such is the nature of invention. The possibil- 
ities of making worthy inventions are open, hence, to 
any energetic mind. 
An invention is generally not much more than an 
improvement upon some past method of doing. It is 
said that the United States Patent Office uses a two- 118 
Social Psychology 
fold classification, namely, improvements, and inven- 
tions, and that nearly all new ideas and appliances that 
come to the Patent Office fall under the heading of 
improvements rather than of inventions. 
The invention of the steam engine was not made 
in the year 1769 by James Watt, neither was it made 
on the day that the attention of Watt was centered 
upon the rising lid of the tea-kettle. The invention of 
the steam engine goes back to the aelipile made by 
Hero of Alexandria (second century, B. C.), to a 
type of steam windmill made by G. Branca (1629), to 
the steam apparatus made by the Marquis of Worces- 
ter (1663), to the application of steam power to various 
kinds of machines by Thomas Savery (about 1700), to 
Papin’s idea of the piston, to Newcomen’s piston en- 
gine, a model of which Watt was repairing when in 
1763 he set to work to eliminate the waste of steam 
due to alternate chilling and heating of the cylinder. 
With this problem before him, Watt worked for six 
years before he had perfected the separate condenser 
in 1769, the date at which it is popularly said that the 
steam engine was invented. This invention involved 
more than observation of the lid of a tea-kettle; it 
included countless improvements made by many minds 
through a long period of time. 
The improvements which constitute inventions are 
of three classes: (1) natural evolutions, (2) transfor- Invention and Leadership 
119 
mations, and (3) marked deviations;2 the order of 
statement forms an ascending scale, qualitatively, and 
a descending series, numerically. Inventions that are 
natural evolutions of previously discovered relation- 
ships are the easiest to make and the most common. 
Some inventions are complex combinations of known 
relationships; the results are transformations of the 
constitutent ideas, methods and principles. Then there 
are the marked deviations from current ideas; these 
are the outstanding inventions; they involve the recog- 
nition of relationships apparently unrelated; they in- 
clude the brilliant conceptions of geniuses. 
There is psychologically no essential difference be- 
tween inventing and discovering. Consider the dis- 
covery of America: first, there was a problem, namely, 
to travel by direct route to India; then, the brilliant 
idea that Europe was related to or connected with 
India by the western seas; then, the search, the long 
journey, the steadfast westward gaze; finally, land, not 
India, but a new continent. 
II. 
To invention and discovery, leadership may now be 
added. The leader is the social inventor and dis- 
coverer. Leadership involves societary problems, con- 
centrated attention upon these problems, trial and 
error methods, seeking and searching for correct solu- 
2 Paulhan, F., Psychologie de Vinvention, livre II. 120 
Social Psychology 
tions, and the discovery of new societary programs. It 
is the aim of this section to consider the types of lead- 
ership, and of the following section to state and explain 
the qualities of leadership. 
From one point of view, leadership is of two types, 
that which drives others and that which draws others. 
In a military, autocratic country, the former type pre- 
dominates; in a democratic nation, the latter form re- 
ceives recognition. He who drives others is usually a 
representative of a powerful organization. He person- 
ifies borrowed force; he appropriates ways, frequently 
autocratic ways, from the institution which fosters 
him. On the other hand, the leader who draws, must 
be human. He must be one of the herd and like a 
good shepherd; he must not get too far ahead of the 
group lest its members fail to recognize him as one of 
their kind. 
In another way, there are two types of leaders; the 
executive, and the intellectual. The executive is usual- 
ly characterized by greater physical force, “push,” and 
energy, but by less breadth of knowledge and by less 
depth in theoretical thinking than the intellectual 
leader. He is more interested in people, is in closer 
contact with life, and is more red-blooded. He gen- 
erally commands the higher salary, and receives recog- 
nition from society sooner than does the leader in the 
fields of literary and scientific endeavor. The intel • 
lectual leader usually works for ends farther removed, Invention and Leadership 
121 
leads a less exhaustive life, commands greater freedom 
and enjoyment, and often is rated higher by succeeding 
generations. 
In a third sense, leaders may be divided into four 
classes: (a) the-crowd exponent, (b) the crowd repre- 
sentative, (c) the crowd compeller, and (d) the group 
builder. This classification adds a fourth type of lead- 
ership to the three-fold division made by Sir Martin 
Conway.3 The crowd exponent observes the needs 
of the group, crystalizes the vague desires, and leads 
the group in obtaining satisfaction for these wants. He 
is sensitive to the group emotions and is able to express 
clearly the inchoate group desires and, by oratorical 
methods, to obtain wide popularity. 
The crowd representative functions in expressing the 
more or less clearly expressed will of the people. A 
judge is a crowd representative. Under the demo- 
cratic form of a republican type of government, the 
legislator is expected to represent public opinion. 
The crowd compeller leads the group, frequently, 
after false gods, and for purposes of personal gain and 
glory; Caesar and Napoleon are outstanding examples. 
The crowd compeller forces his will upon the group, 
instead of being the spokesman of the will of the group 
(the crowd representative), or the personification of 
the unexpressed feelings of the group (the crowd ex- 
ponent). The crowd compeller hypnotizes his constit- 
3 The Crowd, in Peace and War, Chs. VI-VIII. 122 
Social Psychology 
uents, drives them hither and yon at vital sacrifices to 
themselves, and not infrequently ends his career in 
failure. His strength is in his hypnotic influence; when 
that fails he is lost. No leader can finally succeed who 
stamps out or smothers the self-expression of the group 
members. 
The group builder, in the deepest sense of the term, 
has the best interests of the group uppermost in his 
mind and heart; his interest is in the welfare of indi- 
viduals and in the permanent advancement of the 
group. He analyzes the needs of the group, finds out 
the lines of probable progress, and dares to lead. He 
determines the causes of group maladjustments, out- 
lines steps of reconstruction, and pilots the way. No 
better illustration could be given than by referring to 
Washington. 
III. 
Of the various specific characteristics of a success- 
ful leader, (1) a fine physique is essential for certain 
types of leadership, and helpful in all. Napoleon, 
however, was compensated for the lack of physique by 
possessing tremendous energy. A high degree (2) of 
physical energy and endurance is a corollary of lead- 
ership. 
More important, perhaps, is (3) what Ward has 
aptly called the localization of psychic energy.4 The 
genius is a person whose psychic energy is highly focal- 
4Pure Sociology, p. 36; Ch. XVIII. Invention and Leadership 
123 
ized. If the process has been carried out by nature, 
the born-genius is the result; if effected by the indi- 
vidual himself, the genius by virtue of hard work and 
concentration develops. The first is a genius by in- 
heritance; the second, by his own initiative. The 
former are relatively few and society is often wasteful 
of them; the latter are more numerous, but the per- 
centage who attain prominence is small. If nature has 
not focalized one’s psychic energy for him and made 
him a genius, he may have the opportunity of focaliz- 
ing his own psychic energy and of becoming a genius. 
A leader must be, also, (4) a “moral dynamo,” if 
he is to succeed in a way worth while. He must com- 
mand confidence and respect, in a greater degree than 
does an ordinary person. Ideally, he must be master 
of himself, before he can command the respect and ac- 
tions of others. To the extent that he is not in su- 
preme control of his own passions and desires, he is 
handicapped in controlling other people. He must 
have (5) faith in himself, possess a certain initiative 
and daring, exhibit poise, indifference, and self-control 
under danger, and by virtue of this superior faith and 
poise, remain somewhat inscrutable. 
The leader must be (6) a seer. He must see clearly 
the real needs of his times; he must perceive them more 
clearly than do his fellows. His foresight must be su- 
perior to that of his fellows. If he can see through the 
problems of his group to their adequate, practical solu- 
tion, his leadership is at once assured. 124 
Social Psychology 
The biologists and students of heredity have not 
offered, as yet, a satisfactory explanation of the appear- 
ance of special talent and of genius. The underlying 
causes are not known; special ability is as likely, or 
almost as likely, to appear in a child born in a tene- 
ment as in one born in a mansion. Its appearance is 
not confined to one sex; no one knows how much abil- 
ity is possessed by woman, for, historically, woman 
has not had opportunity to translate her latent talent 
into achievement. 
In addition to the inherited and acquired individual 
characteristics of leadership, there are social conditions 
which determine whether or not talent will actually 
materialize in the form of achievement. It is gen- 
erally agreed—a point of vast importance—that more 
geniuses are born than ever attain a place of eminence. 
The position of Galton that potential genius does not 
exist, or that every genius will overcome his envir- 
onment and attain prominence,5 is generally discred- 
ited. The contention of Lombroso that the genius 
is a pathological phenomenon, to be treated as a men- 
tal degenerate, or even as an insane person,6 is without 
scientific standing. 
Granted, then, that more geniuses are born than 
become eminent, the question arises: What are the 
necessary conditions for the maturing of genius? Sev- 
5 Hereditary Genius. 
' The Man of Genius. Invention and Leadership 
125 
eral studies of considerable extent and keen insight 
have been made; a fairly satisfactory answer is avail- 
able. Odin7, Ward8, and recently, G. R. Davies9, have 
shown with increasing exactness that the decisive fac- 
tors in transforming inherited talent and special ability 
of all degrees into actual achievement are four: “(1) 
centers of population containing special intellectual 
stimuli and facilities; (2) ample material means in- 
suring freedom from care, economic security, leisure, 
and the wherewithal to supply the apparatus of re- 
search; (3) a social position such as is capable of pro- 
ducing a sense of self-respect, dignity, and reserve 
power which alone can inspire confidence in one’s 
worth and in one’s right to enter the lists for the great 
prizes of life; (4) careful and prolonged intellectual 
training during youth, whereby all the fields of achieve- 
ment become familiar and a choice of them possible 
in harmony with intellectual proclivities and tastes.”10 
Genius, then, appears in all classes and strata of so- 
ciety. Genius tends to create its own opportunities, 
but often fails. Education, however, of all classes will 
create more opportunities for the development and ex- 
pression of talent and genius than talent and genius 
can make for themselves. 
7 Genese des grands hommes. 
8 Applied Sociology, Pt. II. 
9 Social Environment, Ch. IV. 
10 Ward, ibid., p. 224. 126 
Social Psychology 
In times of unrest, change, and transition, leader- 
ship is at a premium. In times of grave social dis- 
tress, the autocratic type of leader is the hero; in 
periods of gradual social evolution, the leader of the 
“attracting” type is the effective director of human 
events. Because so much of the world’s history has 
been marked by social revolution, because the world 
loves the heroic and spectacular, the hero type of lead- 
ership has been exalted and the “attracting” type under- 
rated. Under any circumstances, the problem-solver 
becomes the effective leader, and the world’s problem- 
solvers become the world’s leaders. The world, on 
the other hand, must provide society-wide education 
and related advantages in order that problem-solving 
ability may have adequate opportunities of expression. 
The world’s problem-solvers who succeed farthest in 
turning human achievement into human improvement, 
and who are the most successful in enriching the quality 
of human experience are the world’s greatest leaders. 
PROBLEMS 
(Invention) 
1. What psychical characteristics are basic in the 
make-up of the inventor? 
2. Can inventiveness be taught? 
3. If so, what method of instruction should be 
used ? Invention and Leadership 
127 
4. Which is the chief inspiration of the inventor: 
(a) to secure personal satisfaction; (b) to earn money; 
or, (c) to render public service? 
5. Explain: “Invention is as natural as imitation.” 
6. Explain: Inventions are rare but “those who 
are really qualified to use inventions are also rare.” 
7. Distinguish between invention, discovery, and 
leadership. 
8. Distinguish between copying and adapting the 
methods of others? 
(Types and Qualities of Leadership) 
9. How would you define leadership ? 
10. Whom do you consider the five greatest lead- 
ers in the United States at the present time? 
11. What is meant by “individual ascendency” as 
opposed to “social ascendency”? 
12. What is the relation of physique and of energy 
to leadership? 
13. Explain: A leader represents a localization of 
psychic energy. 
14. Explain: It is the work of a leader “to pull 
triggers in the minds of his followers.” 
15. Explain: “The successful shepherd thinks like 
his sheep.” 
16. Distinguish between the intellectual and the 
executive type of leadership. 
17. Are boys reared in wealthy homes, or in poor 
homes, “the more likely to become executives”? 128 
Social Psychology 
18. Should a leader draw or drive people? 
19. Does progress in social stability and security 
“lessen the hero values of the leader, and exalt his 
directive capacity”? 
20. Which is the better type of leadership, that 
which presents fully developed programs to the people, 
or that which stimulates the people to suggest and de- 
velop programs themselves? 
21. Can a student do a high-grade of assigned and 
mapped-out work in several college classes, and at the 
same time develop qualities of leadership? 
22. Should an elected representative of the people 
really represent the wishes of his constituents, or should 
he exercise his own judgment? 
23. Is “the control of patronage” a source of 
strength to a statesman? 
24. Should a general go to the front when techni- 
cally he can direct the fighting better from the distant 
headquarters ? 
25. How can a leader of splendid ability but of 
“dissolute habits” be prevented from “demoralizing” 
the group? 
26. Explain: Leadership assumes maximum im- 
portance in times of transition. 
27. What are the basic qualities of a successful pub- 
lic speaker? 
28. What are the main characteristics of a suc- 
cessful advertiser? Invention and Leadership 
129 
29. What are the differences in convincing an indi- 
vidual in the class-room, and in convincing him when 
he is a member of a crowd? 
30. What is meant by the aristocracy of achieving? 
31. What is meant by the “great man” theory of 
progress ? 
32. Explain: There is no such person as a self- 
made man. 
33. Have “all advances in civilization” been due 
to leaders? 
34. Would you say that “the obtrusiveness of per- 
sonality and temperament in literature, painting, and 
music is a sign of advancement or a mark of back- 
wardness” ? 
35. Should leadership in the family be centered 
in one person, or should the leadership be divided? 
36. Do women generally vote as their husbands? 
Should they vote in an opposite way? 
37. Are the rural or the urban communities in the 
United States in the greater need of leadership? 
38. Why are some of the world’s most valuable 
leaders unpopular? 
39. When should a leader be an agitator, and 
when should he be a compromiser? 
40. Would a course in Leadership, or in the Psy- 
chology of Leadership, have a useful place in the col- 
lege curriculum? 130 
Social Psychology 
READINGS 
(Invention) 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Chs. 
Ill, IV. 
The Individual and Society, Ch. V. 
Mach, E., “On the Part played by Accident in Invention and 
Discovery,” Monist, VI: 161-75. 
Mason, O. T., The Origins of Invention, Ch. I. 
Paulhan, F., Psychologie de I’invention, livre II. 
Tarde, Gabriel, La logique sociale, Ch. IV. 
Taussig, F. W., Inventors and Money-makers, Chs. I, II. 
Thomas, W. I., Source Book for Social Origins, Part III. 
Ward, L. F., Psychic Factors in Civilization, Chs. XXVII- 
XXXI. 
Applied Sociology, Part II. 
Pure Sociology, Chs. XVIII, XIX. 
Warren, W. P., “Edison on Invention and Inventors,” Cen- 
tury, LXXXII: 415-9. 
Wissler, C., “Relation of Culture to Environment from the 
Standpoint of Invention,” Popular Science Mon., 
LXXXIII: 164-68. 
(Types and Qualities of Leadership) 
Baldwin, J. M., Social and Ethical Interpretations, Ch. V. 
The Individual and Society, Chs. I, V. 
Brent, C. H., Leadership. 
Bruce, H. A., Psychology and Parenthood, Ch. III. 
Bristol, L. M., Social Adaptation, Chs. XII, XIII. 
Carlyle, T., Heroes and Hero Worship, Lect. I. 
Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, Ch. IX. 
Social Organization, Ch. XXIII, XXIV. 
“Genius, Fame, and the Comparison of Races,” 
Annals of the Amer. Acad., IX: 317-58. Invention and Leadership 
131 
Davies, G. R., Social Environment, Ch. IV. 
Davis, Jr., M. M., Psychological Interpretations of Society, 
Ch. XV. 
Fiske, J., “Sociology and Hero-Worship,” Atlantic Mon., 
XLVII, 75-84. 
Galton, F., Hereditary Genius. 
Gowin, E. B., The Executive and His Control of Men. 
Howard, G. E., Social Psychology (syllabus), Sect. XX. 
James, Wm., The Will to Believe, pp. 216-54. 
“Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environ- 
ment,” Atlantic Mon., XLVI: 441-59. 
Joly, Henri, Psychologie des grands hommes. 
Le Bon, G., The Crowd, Ch. III. 
Leopold, T., Prestige. 
Mason, O. T., Origins of Invention, Ch. I. 
Mumford, E., “The Origins of Leadership,” Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., Vol. XII, 216-40, 367-97, 500-31. 
Nisbet, J. F., The Insanity of Genius. 
Odin, Alfred, Genese des grands hommes, T. I. 
Robertson, J. M., “The Economics of Genius,” Forum, XXV: 
178-90. 
Ross, E. A., Social Control, Ch. XXL 
Tarde, G., La logique sociale, Ch. IV. 
Terman, T. M., “The Psychology and Pedagogy of Lead- 
ership,” Pedagog. Sem., XI: 113-51. 
Ward, L. F., The Psychic Factors in Civilization, Ch. XXIX- 
XXXI. 
Pure Sociology, Chs. XVIII, XIX. 
Applied Sociology, Pt. II. Chapter VIII 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL CONTROL 
AND OF SOCIAL PROGRESS 
I. 
Individual initiative continually conflicts with social 
standards. As a consequence, the individual is subject 
to many types of social restraint. Many of these social 
controls have arisen from past group experiences, but 
these experiences are not always safe guides with ref- 
erence to limiting current individual action. Nearly 
all social controls have arisen blindly and have been 
put into operation without foresight. Social restraint 
has been rarely telic, in the sense that it is exercised 
with reference to carefully ascertained standards of 
group welfare. Nearly all forms of social control, 
however, embody more wisdom than their haphazard 
manner of development would imply. 
Social control is essential to progress. Every group 
exercises control over its members as a matter of group 
self-protection and in order that the energy of the 
members may not be directed in socially disintegrating 
ways. It is an encouraging sign when a group no Social Control and Progress 
133 
longer relies entirely upon the blind use of controls, 
but begins to determine the positive, constructive, and 
purposive lines of progress. It is a hopeful day when 
a group sets about to learn the direction in which its 
greatest usefulness and development lies and con- 
sciously begins to direct its methods of social restraint 
and of social encouragement to those ends. 
Social controls are usually too rigid in certain par- 
ticulars, too lax in other ways, and too haphazard in 
many regards. Because social controls generally oper- 
ate as objective instruments, the individual is frequently 
misjudged, is coerced unjustly, and is inadvertently en- 
couraged to foment centers of social sedition; more- 
over, he is inadequately stimulated to make his best 
contributions to his group and to society. 
Consequently, these exceedingly practical and vital 
questions from the standpoint of group advance con- 
tinually arise: (1) How much social control shall a 
group exercise over its members in regard to a given 
new idea? (2) What shall be the nature of this con- 
trol? (3) How shall it be applied? If too much con- 
trol is exercised, individual initiative is stifled and 
progress halted; if too little restraint is employed, 
group cohesion is endangered, and social chaos is a pos- 
sible result. The problem is not only one of quantity 
of control, but also a matter of quality of control. 
For example, what kind of control shall a parent use 
over a child who objectively is telling frstories,” but 
subjectively is giving his imagination free rein? Shall 134 
Social Psychology 
the teacher use the same variety of control in handling 
a mischievous boy who is bubbling over with energy as 
in dealing with one who is deceitful? Shall society 
use the same controls in prescribing treatment for an 
obstreperous fanatic as for a delinquent corporation? 
Also, shall controls be applied bluntly and directly, or 
shall they be exercised through those who are to be 
controlled, and hence indirectly? 
Public opinion is a powerful agent of control. Its 
merits and demerits have been pointed out by Ross1, 
Tarde1, Sighele8, and others. Public opinion func- 
tions immediately; there is no delay as in the case of 
law. It is an inexpensive control. It is preventive, for 
individuals fear it, and accordingly modify their con- 
duct. It is less mechanical than law, strikes into the 
hidden and secret places of individual conduct, attacks 
motives. 
On the other hand, public opinion is frequently mud- 
dled. It is not precise; it is not codified. It possesses 
“a short wrath and a poor memory.” It rarely repre- 
sents group unanimity; an offender can always find 
some members of the group in whose opinions his of- 
fense is condoned, excused, or even praised. When 
responsibility is shifted as is done sometimes in the case 
of corporate conduct, public opinion becomes confused 
1Social Control, Ch. X; also, Social Psychology, Ch. XXII. 
3 Vopinion et la foule. 
3 La foule criminelle. Social Control and Progress 
135 
and the guilty persons escape Its lash. Public opinion 
is primitive, fitful, and “passional” in its methods. 
Law as a form of social control has already been 
mentioned in comparison with public opinion. The 
strong points of law as a method of exercising social 
restraint are that it is codified, that it is preventive, 
and that it operates with a certain surety. Its ma- 
chinery often moves with provoking slowness; it does 
not search the subjective phases of conduct; and its 
power is frequently paralyzed by the financial, social, 
or political power of the offender. 
Personal beliefs of the individual operate as a social 
control. Through his home, religious, and educational 
life, the individual acquires certain personal beliefs 
which determine his conduct to a large extent. As a 
result of these beliefs which he holds, he prides himself 
upon making his own decisions, whereas, commonly, the 
various groups of which he has been a member— 
through their teachings—have fundamentally made his 
decisions for him; he is not “self-made” to the degree 
that the term implies. 
Personal religious beliefs, according to which the in- 
dividual lives continuously under the direction of an 
all-powerful Being whose eye “seeth in secret,” operate 
with effectiveness. Law and public opinion can be 
dodged, but not a Judge who is all-seeing, all-knowing, 
and all-powerful. 
Ceremony, ritual, taboo, and art forms are used as 
methods of control. The prestige of custom is a strong 136 
Social Psychology 
factor in group coercion. Conscious and unconscious 
imitation of the factors in the current social environ- 
ment is a positive element of control. 
Unquestionably the best treatise upon the subject of 
social control has been written by Professor Ross.4 
But in this and similar discussions, the constructive 
function of group control has been under-emphasized. 
While historically it is true that social control has 
amounted to little more than social restraint, there is 
increasing evidence to show that group control ought 
to function as a form of social encouragement. It has 
made itself felt directly upon the borderlines of the 
group where individuals of initiative are conspicuous, 
but only in indirect ways upon the central mass. A 
proper function of social control is that of stimulating 
every member, not only to contribute to group welfare, 
but also to make the given group socially useful. 
It has operated as an instrument of repression, pro- 
hibition, and negation; it should assume organized and 
rationalized constructive tendencies. It has carried the 
role of a “Thou Shalt Not” throughout human history; 
it is beginning to take on characteristics of social con- 
struction. In other words, negative social control must 
share the field with positive social control,—to use 
terms which have been suggested to the writer by Pro- 
fessor George Elliott Howard. 
* Social Control. Social Control and Progress 
137 
The importance of a positive social control has been 
overlooked by many well-known authors. Social con- 
trol of a positive type stimulates individuals to con- 
tribute their best efforts in support of the development 
of society; in the highest sense, it is rational, scientific, 
and telic; it is synonymous with the constructive phases 
of “social telesis.” It seeks to discover the underlying 
principles of progress; it works out programs of social 
advancement; it encourages all individuals everywhere 
to subordinate standards of individual success and 
power to ideals of societary welfare; and it strives 
constantly to change all anti- and non-social impulses 
into social attitudes. 
Positive social control stimulates individuals to con- 
tribute to group welfare; it influences groups to subor- 
dinate their own advancement to that of the larger 
groups of which they are parts, and to society itself. 
Negative social control, on the other hand, has exer- 
cised a needed but inadequate and often misplaced in- 
fluence upon individuals. It has unintentionally made 
the need stand out for a positive social control that 
would give to individuals in all strata of society ade- 
quate opportunities for self expression along all social- 
ized lines of activity. 
II. 
Throughout the three preceding chapters and the 
first half of this chapter definite hints have been given 
from the standpoint of social psychology of a theory 138 
Social Psychology 
of social progress. There remains, in this concluding 
section, the need of summarizing and of stating more 
exactly this theory. Social progress depends upon the 
amount, quality, and method of application of social 
control, upon the degree of encouragement as well as 
of restraint which the group exercises with reference 
to individuals, and upon the extent, quality, and per- 
sistence of individual initiative, inventiveness, and lead- 
ership. 
Too much restraint means the development of a social 
crust and of group stupefaction. If there be sufficient 
individual vitality and initiative, unrest will arise, revo- 
lutions will ensue, and the social crust will be broken. 
Thus through revolutions involving suffering, loss of 
life, and social chaos, the group will progress. If, 
however, individual enterprise be too weakened and if 
the body politic has become too flabby, then the crust 
will thicken and group life will be smothered. If too 
little or too inadequate control be employed, the cen- 
trifugal forces will gain undue power, anarchistic ten- 
dencies will increase, and social disintegration will 
result. 
Social progress depends, then, upon individual initia- 
tive and leadership and upon the forces of social con- 
trol. These two sets of forces interact in countless 
ways. The individual, upon the basis of the cultural 
development of his day, comes upon, accidentally, or 
finds after a carefully directed search, a new idea, or Social Control and Progress 
139 
method. This new idea must pass the test of social 
criticism. If its adoption means the giving up of a 
considerable section of customary methods on the part 
of the group members, then a conflict follows. The 
new is championed by leaders; the old likewise is rep- 
resented by chivalric defenders. The conflict may be 
long and drawn out, or short and swift. If the degree 
of social control be at all normal and if the new pro- 
gram be of genuine superiority, then it will win its way 
to group adoption. Upon the basis of this new cul- 
tural advance, still better ideas will be discovered, at 
which time the process that has been described must 
be repeated over again. Thus, the individual initiates, 
invents, and leads, and the group follows, adopts, and 
supports new methods. 
Conflict is necessary for both individual and social 
progress; it is conflict which gives zest to life, which 
prompts the highest expressions of individual initia- 
tive, which brings forth co-ordinated action. 
The conflict must not take place between forces 
markedly unequal, lest the weaker be destroyed, and 
the stronger grow soft and flabby through lack of com- 
petition. To be most advantageous, conflict must occur 
between somewhat equal forces. 
Further, conflict must be subject to social rules, or 
else it will degenerate and end upon the basis of the 
lowest forms of physical might and power. These 
regulations and agreements must keep conflict within 140 
Social Psychology 
the bounds of productive effort—upon physical, eco- 
nomic, mental, spiritual planes. 
Within groups, conflicts must be kept open between 
the official forces and the unofficial organizations. Pri- 
vate associations must always be free to compete with 
the public or governmental organizations. The politi- 
ical party in power needs continuously to face the 
honest criticism of parties not in power. Two sets of 
economic enterprise are essential, governmental owner- 
ship and private ownership; but neither in itself alone 
contains the elements of prolonged social progress. If 
taken together, the one works for the public interests, 
the other secures a high degree of private initiative. 
But if either were to come into supreme power, group 
retrogression and degeneration would set in. With 
all economic resources owned and operated by the gov- 
ernment a powerful class control would result and 
individual initiative would be enslaved. With all eco- 
nomic resources owned by a few gigantic interlocking 
monopolies, the government would be shackled and 
put in economic chains, and public welfare would be 
made subservient to the caprices of the privileged few. 
The dual existence and operation of public and private 
organizations must be maintained. The conflict be- 
tween them must be circumscribed by rules which will 
keep the competition away from the plane of physical 
might and upon the high levels of productive and social 
merit. Neither complete socialism nor complete indi- 
vidualism alone will guarantee progress. Neither alone Social Control and Progress 
141 
allows for that degree of conflict which is essential to 
group advancement. Private associations are needed 
to experiment with new ideas, to initiate new move- 
ments, and to prod up the public authorities, keeping 
them upon high levels of efficiency. The public, or 
official, organization is needed for the maintenance of 
the public point of view. 
In a similar way, the progress of the whole world 
depends upon a balanced co-operation between large 
group, or national, units, and the international group, 
or mankind as a whole. Any world order is unstable 
that rests upon forty-eight sovereign groups, each de- 
ciding what is right, honorable, and just for the other 
forty-seven, and regulated by no inclusive or inter- 
national authority. The nature and direction of human 
progress during the past millenium indicate clearly the 
need for the establishment of a world or international 
authority, an international constabulary, a planetary 
public opinion, a sense of planetary values, and a telic 
program for world progress. 
National units must give up a definite portion of their 
present sovereign authority to an international au- 
thority; national conflicts must not go on upon the 
destructive levels of physical combat or the destructive 
planes of economic competition, but upon levels of pro- 
ductive competition and social benefit. The national 
units must share their power with a new world-inclusive 
organization which shall set the rules for all intra-con- 
flicts; each intra-unit must then play according to the 142 
Social Psychology 
rules of the game and within the bounds determined 
by economically productive and socially meritorious 
standards. 
The group in order that it may progress steadily, 
must determine the direction which its development 
may best take. It must also decide continually upon 
the types of control which it shall use in regard to 
each group problem that arises. It must, further, put 
a premium upon individual initiative, new ideas, new 
methods, new inventions along the lines of its chosen 
path of development. The highest lines of telic ad- 
vances lie in the direction of world-wide, planetary 
human welfare. 
Such a trend involves the rise of sociocratic thinking, 
according to which all processes, even the most intellec- 
tual, must be subordinated to the standard embodied in 
the development and satisfaction of the progressive and 
socialized needs of others. 
PROBLEMS 
1. What is the meaning of social control? 
2. Give a concrete illustration in which you have 
felt the effect of group coercion. 
3. Is more social control needed in a dense or in 
a sparse population? 
4. In a homogeneous or heterogeneous population? 
5. In time of war or of peace? 
6. In a society stratified by classes or in a society 
not so stratified? Social Control and Progress 
143 
7. Is more or less social control needed in the 
United States today? 
8. What are the dangers (a) of too little social 
control; (b) of too much control? 
9. On what occasions does public opinion arise? 
10. What are (a) the advantages of public opin- 
ion, and (b) the disadvantages of public opinion as a 
means of social control? 
11. Is the sardonic newspaper cartoon more effec- 
tive in moulding public opinion than the good-natured 
cartoon ? 
12. Which is the more effective in forming public 
opinion, the cartoon or the editorial? 
13. What are (a) the advantages and (b) the dis- 
advantages of law as a form of social restraint? 
14. Why are the laws in the United States so 
easily broken? 
15. What are the strong and the weak points of 
custom as a type of control? 
16. To what leading customs are you subject at 
the present moment? 
17. Does a religious institution or a business organi- 
zation bind “its members more closely to custom” ? 
18. What is meant by the protective philosophy of 
a group? 
19. Is it true that the members of a small group, 
no matter how meritorious its side of the question may 
be, are always called “traitors” and other opprobrious 
names, by an overwhelming majority? 144 
Social Psychology 
20. Explain: The tyranny of the majority. 
21. Distinguish between “the tyranny of the ma- 
jority” and “the fatalism of the multitude.” 
22. Why are opprobrious names applied to refrac- 
tory members of a group? 
23. How do personal beliefs operate as a means of 
social restraint? 
24. How generally are individuals aware of being 
under social control? 
25. Wherein lies the need for social control? 
26. Explain and illustrate: The state is more ra- 
pacious than it allows its citizens to be. 
27. Who are the professionals whose business it is 
to keep up the social order? 
28. Distinguish between caste control in India and 
class control in the United States. 
29. Which standards do people think about the 
more, those of their own class, of the class above them, 
or, of the class below them? 
30. What is the best way to estimate the volume 
of social control at any time in a given society? 
31. Is there reason to believe that in years to come 
social control wTill be less necessary than now in the 
United States? 
32. Is persecution a good method of securing con- 
trol? 
33. Is there a larger place for authority in settling 
public questions than in settling private questions? Social Control and Progress 
145 
34. Is it wrong to punish those who persist in folly 
that hurts only themselves? 
35. Illustrate: “There never has been a society 
which did not tolerate or approve some conduct that 
was bad for it.” 
36. Which has the greater influence in developing 
a student, a large university, or a small college? 
37. Why is education “the most efficient form of 
social control in modern society” ? 
38. What would be the effect of no social control 
on progress? 
39. In what ways is there too much social con- 
trol in this country, from the standpoint of securing 
progress ? 
40. In what connection would you urge more con- 
trol in the United States with reference to accelerating 
progress ? 
41. Are the needs of the individual always in line 
with group advancement? 
42. Are the needs of the nation always in harmony 
with international progress? 
43. Why is it unwise to be either an “individual- 
ist” or a “socialist”—as these terms are commonly 
understood—in matters involving humanity-wide 
progress ? 
44. Is there any reason for thinking that the prog- 
ress of civilization in the United States “narrows one’s 
options in believing and judging,” but increases one’s 
opportunities for doing and enjoying? 146 
Social Psychology 
45. What is meant by natural social progress? 
Illustrate. 
46. Explain and illustrate telic social progress. 
47. Distinguish between causes of social revolution 
and social evolution. 
READINGS 
(Social Control) 
Blackmar and Gillin, Outlines of Sociology, Pts. Ill, IV. 
Cooley, C. H., Social Organization. 
Davis, Jr., M. M., Psychological Interpretations of Society, 
Ch. XIV. 
Ellwood, C. A., Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Chs. 
VIII, IX, XVIII. 
An Introduction to Social Psychology, Ch. XII. 
Foulke, W. D., “Public Opinion,” Nat’l Munic. Rev., Ill: 
245-55. 
Hayes, E. C., Introduction to the Study of Sociology, Pt. IV. 
Jenks, J. W., “The Guidance of Public Opinion,” Amer. 
Jour, of Sociol., I: 158-69. 
Patten, S. N., The New Basis of Civilization, Ch. VIII. 
Ross, E. A., Social Control. 
Social Psychology, Ch. XXII. 
“The Principle of Balance,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., 
XXIII: 801-20. 
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Ellwood, C. A., An Introduction to Social Psychology, Chs. 
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Hayes, E. C., Introduction to the Study of Sociology, Pt. III. 
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Tarde, G., Social Laws, Ch. III. 
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Ward, L. F., Dynamic Sociology, Vol. II, Ch. X. 
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Yarros, V. S., “Human Progress; The Idea and the Real- 
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of Sociol., V: 372-82. 
“Human Progress: The Idea and the Reality,” 
Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XXI: 15-29. INDEX 
Acquisitive instinct, 45 
Admiration, 49 
“Alter,” the, 51 ff. 
Agreeable tone of conscious- 
ness, 26 ff. 
America, discovery of, 119 
American Sociological So- 
ciety, 18 
Angell, J. R., cited, 26 
Anger, emotion of, 42, 48 
Animal life, 24, 41, 44 
Assembly, 97 
Baldwin, J. M., cited, 101 
Beliefs, personal, 135 
Biological struggle, 43, 102 
Builders of groups, 122 
Carver, T. N., cited, 101 
Caste, 94 
Character, 50, 51 
Child life, 46 
Christianity, 108 
City, high potential life of, 29 
Class, the, 94 
Cognition, 28 ff. 
Combative instinct, 42 
Communicating group, 97 ff. 
Competition, 101, 102 
Conduct, social, 40 
Conflict, 49, 103, 139 ff. 
Between groups, 99 ff., 
139 ff. 
Constructive, 100 
Destructive, 100 
Consciousness, appearance of, 
_ 24, 26 
Social, 52 
Tone of, 26 ff. 
Contemporary imitation, 66, 
74 
Conventionality imitation, 81 
Conway, Sir Martin, cited, 
12i 
Cooley, C. H., cited, 17 
Craze, 77 
Crisis, 24 
Crowd, 95 ff. 
Crowd compeller, 121 
Crowd exponent, 120 
Crowd representative, 120 
Current opinion, 110 
Custom, 83 
Custom imitation, 66, 79 ff. 
Davies, G. R., cited, 125 
Davis, Jr., M. M., cited, 17 
Direct suggestion, 63 ff. 
Disagreeable tone of con- 
sciousness, 26 ff. 
Discovery of America, 119 
Disposition, nature of, 50 
Durkheim, E., cited, 103 
Education, social value of, 125 
Efficiency, 83 
Ego, 51 ff. 
Egoistic interests, 40 
Ellwood, C. A., cited, 17, 26 Index 
157 
Emotion, nature of, 48, 49 
Of anger, 42, 48 
Ennui, 49 
Environment, a favorable, 125 
Era of publics, 99 
Executive type of leader, 120 
Exponents of groups, 121 
Fad, 78 
Familism, 107 
Family, institution of, 39, 40, 
93 
Fashion imitation, 66, 83 
Five factors in, 74 ff. 
Irrational, 82 
Tyranny of, 78 
Feeling, 26 
Fighting instinct, 42 ff. 
Modification of, 44 
Fittest to survive, 43 
Focalization of psychic en- 
ergy, 122 
Freedom, margin of, 30, 31 
Of speech 
Function of social control, 136 
I 
Galton, Francis, cited, 124 
Genius, 122 ff. 
Gesture, basis of language, 59 
Giddings, F. H., cited, 102 
Governmental ownership, 140 
Gregarious instinct, 38, 39, 104 
Group life, 14 
Group loyalty, 106 ff. 
Group stupefaction, 138 
Groups, leaders of, 116 ff. 
Builders of, 122 
Exponents of, 121 
Representatives of, 121 
Habit, 24 
Advantages of, 25 
Hate, 50 
Heredity and genius, 124 
Heterogeneous crowd, 95 
Hobhouse, L. T., cited, 18 
Homogeneous crowd, 95 
Howard, G. E., cited, 17, 18, 
136 
Hypnotism, 63 
Idea, dynamic nature of, 30 
Imitation, 62 ff., 116 
Social operation of, 74 ff. 
Socio-rational, 82 
Indirect suggestion, 63 ff. 
Individual initiative, 138, 140 
Individualism, 45 
Instinct, 22 ff., 24, 38 ff. 
Acquisitive, 45 
Combative, 42 ff. 
Gregarious, 38 
Inquisitive, 41 
Parental, 39, 40 
Sex, 39 
Instinctive society, 94 
Intellectual progress, 41 
Internationalism, 108 
Inquisitive instinct, 40 
Intellectual type of leader, 
120 
Invention, 65 ff., 116 ff. 
Of steam engine, 118 
Krehbiel, E., cited, 108 
Language, origin of, 59 
Laughter, 60 
Causes of, 61, 62 
Law, 135 
Leadership, 105, 116 ff. 
Le Bon, Gustave, cited, 18 
Lombroso, C., cited, 124 
Looking-glass self, 52 
Love, types of, 49 ff. 
Loyalty, group, 106 ff. 158 
Index 
McDougall, Wm., cited, 16, 
23, 64 
Mead, G. H., cited, 60 
Merit imitation, 66, 81 ff. 
Militarism, 43 ff. 
Miller, I. E., cited, 26 
Mind in action, 22 
Mob, nature of, 97 
Moore, E. C., cited, 15 
Moral dynamo, 123 
Nationalism, 107, 140 
Negative social control, 136, 
137 
Nicolai, G. F., cited, 43, 44 
Normal suggestibility, 64 
Novelty, 75 
Occupation, psychology of, 93 
Odin, Alfred, cited, 125 
Organizations, public, 140 
Private, 140 
Opinion, current, 105 
Past, 106 
Public, 134 
Parent, functions of, 39, 40 
Parental instinct, 39 ff. 
Patriotism, 106 ff. 
False type of, 107 
Permanent group, 92 
Personal beliefs, 135 
Play, nature of, 46 
Commercialization of, 47 
Positive social control, 136, 
137 
Potential genius, 124 
Potential of city, high, 29 
Private organizations, 140 
Private ownership, 140 
Problem-getting method 
of study, 15 
Problem-solving, 126 
Progress, nature of, 132, 
137 ff. 
Pseudo-patriotism, 107 
Psychic energy, focalization 
of, 122 
Psychology, 22 
Of invention, 116 ff. 
Of leadership, 105, 109 ff. 
Of occupation, 93 
Of social control, 132 ff. 
Of social progress, 137 ff. 
Of the crowd, 95 ff. 
Of the group, 92 ff. 
Of war, 43 ff. 
Public, the, 97 
Era of, 99 
Public opinion, 134 
Public organizations, 140 
Purposive society, 94, 95 
Racial experience, 28 
Racial history, 27 
Rational imitation, 66, 81 ff. 
Ratzenhofer, G., cited, 103 
Reason, 29 
Religious beliefs, 135 
Representative leaders of 
groups, 121 
Reputability, 75 
Ross, E. A., cited, 16, 29, 63, 
64, 76, 97, 134, 136 
Scott, W. D., cited, 25 
Seashore, C. F., cited, 25 
Sect, nature of, 93 
Seer, 123 
Self, development of, 51 
Self-consciousness, 52 
Self-individualization, 75 
Sentiment, nature of, 49 
Sex instinct, 39 
Sidis, Boris, cited, 61 
Sighele, S., cited, 93, 97, 134 
Simmel, G., cited, 103 Index 
159 
Slantwise suggestion, 64. 
Small, A. W., cited, 103 
Social conduct, 40 
Social consciousness, 52 
Social control, nature of, 132 
ff. 
Social criticism, 139 
Social environment, 28 ff. 
Social instincts, 13 
Social nature, 105 
Social progress, 41, 137 ff. 
Social psychology, 13, 14, 22 
Literature of, 16 
“Social racing,” 77 
Social restraint, 132 
Social self, 51 
Social values, 106 
Society, 94 
Sociocratic thinking, 142 
Socio-rational imitation, 82, 
83 
Special ability, 124 
Speech, freedom of, 96 
State, the, 94 
Struggle, biological, 43, 102 
Style, nature of, 75 
Suggestion, 62 ff. 
Direct, 63 ff. 
Indirect, 63 ff. 
Immediate, mediate, con- 
tra, 64 ff. 
Suggestibility, 64, 96 
Variability of, 65 
Sumner, W. G., cited, 18 
Sympathy, 47, 48 
Talent, 124 
Tarde, Gabriel, cited, 17, 77, 
93, 102, 103, 134 
Telic progress, 142 
Temperament, 51 
Thomas, W. I., cited, 18, 24 
Tribalism 
Veblen, Thorstein, cited, 108 
Volition, 30, 31 
Wallas, Graham, cited, 18 
War, psychology of, 43 ff., 
102 
Ward, L. F., cited, 122, 125 
Washington, George, 122 
Watt, James, 118 
Wilson, Woodrow, cited, 108 
World’s problem-solvers, 126 
World society, a, 141