W.E.A. Address

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 174, 26 July 1938, Page 8

W.E.A. Address

MR. C. J. ADCOCK SPEAKS ON PSYCHOLOGY On Saturday night Mr. C. J. Adcock, M.A., gave the first of his three lectures on Psychology, under the auspices of the W.E.A., in the Theosophy liall. In introducing his subject, the speaker said that there were many popular forms of psychology, which existed chiefly because they brought monetary profit to their advocates and resembled the genuine attempts of science about as much as many patent medicines resembled genuine medical products. Tho word, “psychology,” meant literally the “study of the soul.” Modern psychologists, however, were fairly unanimous in rejecting this idea of a soul as a working concept in their science. Whether we needed the soul as a religious or a philosophical concept must be decided by religion and philosophy respectively. The psychologist could best develop his science by realising the essential similarity between the minds of men and animals. Instincts which played so large a part in the lives of the animals appeared also in men. In fact, men had probably more instincts than the animals. There was this difference, however, that owing to the more varied environment in which man lived, his instincts had to be much more elastic. To achieve this end they were linked to strong emotions. The emotions kept the goal before the mind in spite of a number of unsuccessful attempts to overcome barriers to action. Much controversy had been aroused in psychology owing to varied definitions of instinct. In a sense all hereditary reaction patterns were instincts, but it was desirable to distinguish between more or less mechanical responses to a very simple stimulus and the broader response of an emotional drive which could use varied innate and acquired reaction patterns in achieving its goal. The majority of psychologists who were not partisans of some one-sided school .tended now to use the term instinct to denote the more complex forms of innate reaction associated with emotions and McDougall's account was the most popular. The speaker, therefore, went on to give an account of the major instincts classified by McDougall and the emotions associated with them. A lively and interesting discussion followed, at the conclusion of which the chairman, Mr. F. Lewin, proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker.