Psychology

3861

Psychophysics

t.e m the average person the development! Psychiatric contribution* were the reports
of intelligence has reached its maximum be- I of Drs. H. H. Jasper and H. L. Andrews,
fore the age of sixteen. | Brown University, who made use of the

Feeblemindedness is defective intelligence, rhythmic electric impulses from the brain to
Feebleminded persons can therefore be clas-! locate defective area? in that or^an. The

sified with respect to their mental ages as l hypnotic trance and how it differs psy-
follows: Idiot: Mental age three years or less.; cholocically from natural sleep was den
Imbecile: Mental age four to six yearsJ strated by Drs. E. Newton Harvey of Pri:

tmon-
Prince-

Moron: Mental age seven to twelve years.! ton University, and A. L. Loomis and Gar-
Applied Psychology.—J£eut£ tests and rett Hobart of Loomis Laboratories.

During World War II hundreds of psychol-

^ tests and

psychological methods of investigation have

been applied in various fields of practical | ogists were in full-time government employ

work; notably in industry, in law, in social
work, in medicine, and in education. In in-
dustry use has been made of intelligence tests
and of special vocational and trade tests for
the purpose of classifying and employing
men. The United States Army has also used
trade tests, in connection with its system for
classification of personnel, for the assign-
ment of new recruits to skilled work within
the army. A great deal of work has been
done by industrial concerns on tests for the
selection of salesmen. The psychology of ad-
vertising has also received considerable at-
tention. In the law and in social work con-
siderable use has been made of intelligence
tests for the determination of the responsibil-
ity of delinquents. Various mental tests of
diagnostic value have been utilized in psy-
chopathology, while tests of learning and of
mental equipment have found their places in
education. Since 1935 many eminent psy-
chologists have turned their efforts toward
the study of psychometrics, the application
of statistics to psychology. With psychomet-
rics, theory and fact are being knit more
closely together. Topology was in 1936 one
of the most recent phases of psychology.
It is the theory which correlates characteris-
tics of the individual with his external
stimuli. Through statistical investigations or
"factor analyses," important discoveries
were made in 1936 in the field of individual
psychology and political psychology.

In September, 1936, the American Psy-
chological Association held its forty-fourth
annual convention at Hanover, N. H. Such
subjects as mental and emotional hygiene,
vocational guidance, and health guidance en-
tailing the application of psychology were
found to be eclipsing the classical subjects
in the public schools. It further revealed a
growing need for more psychology teachers
and phychology text books in the schools,
and that psychology pupils have better re-
lationships with their parents, the opposite
sex, ideals and religion.

engaged in work directly relevant to the war
effort or to public welfare. Aubrey Lewis re-
ported in 1942 that wrar stress has not ap-
preciably increased mental disorders among
British civilians; and J. C. Solomon, study-
ing the reactions of children in San Francisco
to their first blackout, found that the sudden
darkening of homes produced excitement but
little fear except when adults in charge of the
children showed fear.

Consult Brown's Psychology tand The So-
cial Order (1936); Lewin's Principles of
Topological Psychology (1936); Guilford's
Psychometric Methods (1936). See also BE-
HAVIORISM; GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY; INTELLI-
GENCE; MENTAL DEFICIENCY.

Consult general texts as Warren and Car-
michael's Elements of Hitman Psychology
(1930); Watson's Behaviorism (1930);
Murphy's Historical Introduction to Modern
Psychology (1932); Boring's History of Ex-
perimental Psychology (1939); Cannon's
Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and
Rage (1929); Adler's Practice and Theory
of Individual Psychology (1929); Freud's
Psycho pathology of Everyday Life (1914);
Terman's Measurement of Intelligence
(1916); Murchison (ed.) Hand-Book of
Child Psychology (1931); Allport's Social
Psychology (1924); Hollingworth's Voca-
tional Psychology and Character Analysis
(1930); Tiffin's Industrial Psychology (1942).
Psychopbysics is that branch of psychol-
ogy which studies the relation of mental to
bodily processes. It is distinguished from pure
psychology by the fact that it has bodily
processes in view as well as mental, and
from physiology by the fact that its primary
interest is in the psychical processes rather
than in their bodily conditions. Psychophy-
sics must also be distinguished from what is
known as experimental psychology; for al-
though it necessarily uses experimental meth-
ods, it may avail itself also of evidence in
regard to the connection of mental and bod-
ily states which is not experimental. As a