A First Book in Psychology

A First Book in Psychology (1901)
by Mary Whiton Calkins

Scan is from the first edition, but a 1902 printing of that edition

3871656A First Book in Psychology1901Mary Whiton Calkins

An Introduction to Psychology

By

Mary Whiton Calkins
Professor of Philosophy and Psychology in Wellesley College

New York
The Macmillan Company
London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd.
1902

Copyright, 1901,
By The Macmillan Company.

Set up and electrotyped September, 1901. Reprinted April, 1902.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

Preface

For pressing into the crowded ranks of psychological text-books, this volume has one practical excuse to offer,—the convenience of the students to whom its author lectures. The book is written in the conviction that psychology should study consciousness, both as a series of complex mental processes, or ideas, and as a relation of conscious selves to each other. It is hoped, however, that the two points of view have been so carefully distinguished that the book may be useful to readers who reject one or other of these underlying conceptions.

As its name implies, the book is intended for students beginning the study of psychology; and,—except for the last chapter and parts of the Appendix,—it substantially reproduces a first course, as actually given. References to psychological literature and formulations of conflicting theories are included, in the belief that, in the use of textbooks, “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,” and with the conviction that excessively simplified statements, unsupported by reference to different writers, tend to breed in the student a dogmatic or an unduly docile habit of thought, The references, like the supplementary discussions of the Appendix, are meant also for the use of the more advanced student. The section on the structure and functions of the nervous system has been added, for the practical advantage of including, within the covers of one book, all that is absolutely essential to the first-year student

The text-book, however, is a necessary yet a subsidiary adjunct to the study of any science. It is useful only as it stimulates, directs, verifies and supplements the individual observation of the reader. This book has been written, accordingly, with the constant purpose of leading students to the independent and careful study of their own consciousness. It is highly desirable that such introspective study should be supplemented by experiments, performed by the student under direction, and that this experimental introspection should precede, instead of following, the study of every division of the text. Detailed references are given, at appropriate points, to the two English manuals of experimental psychology.

The general reader who may open this volume should be warned against certain technical chapters. He will do well to skim, Part I, omitting entirely Chapters VII. and VIII. and he should especially devote himself to Part II., from which, however, he may drop out Chapters XIII., XVIII., and XIX.

The final paragraph in this. Preface is the pleasantest, in all the book, to write, for it contains my acknowledgements to the people who have helped me. My greatest indebtedness is to Professors William James and Hugo Münsterberg. One of the distinctive theories of the book—the existence of elements of consciousness which are neither sensational nor affective—is simply a developed and systematized statement of the teaching of James, and the frequent quotations from the “Principles of Psychology” are better reading than any original paragraph in the book. The second fundamental theory of this book, the conception of psychology as a science of related selves, is closely affiliated with Münsterberg’s conception of history as science of the relations of willing subjects; and few chapters of the book are uninfluenced by his vigorous teaching. A list of the text-books and monographs, by which I have especially profited, would be very long, but would certainly include the names of Külpe, Titchener, Ward, Stout, Brentano, and Flechsig. I owe, also, more than I can well express to the viva voce suggestions and criticisms of my colleague, Professor Mary S. Case, and of my former teacher, Professor Edmund C. Sanford. And, finally, my warm thanks are due to my father, who has indefatigably read manuscript and proof, to Mrs. C. L. Franklin, who has read the discussion of color-theories, and to my colleague, Dr. E. A. McC. Gamble, who has added a section to the Appendix and has critically read most of the manuscript. To Dr. Gamble’s criticism of the chapters on sensation and on affection, I am especially indebted. Figures 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 18, which illustrate portions of the text, are reproduced or adapted, by the kind permission of Henry Holt and Co., from James’s “Principles of Psychology” and “Briefer Psychology” and from Martin’s “Human Body.”

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Introduction

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1930, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 93 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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