104 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
lying back of the perceptions. The perception that a nation is an individuality, indeed, may be found to have more than a mere metaphorical basis.
But the real proof of the existence of socio-psychical pro- cesses is found in the fact that social groups act, that they are functional unities capable of making inner and outer adjustments. The fact that the activities of individuals are constantly coordi- nated into larger group-acts or activities, and that these group- activities vary and succeed one another according to observed uniformities, like the acts of an individual, necessitates the sup- position of some principle of organization. This principle of organization can be no other on the psychological side than a psychical process which extends throughout the group and uni- fies it — though set up, of course, by the psychical interaction of its individual elements. It may be doubted if any group-act can take place without such a principle of organization. Even the simple impulsive reaction of a nation to an injury by a foreign foe presupposes an organized life ; and if organized at all, then necessarily on its psychical side. The fact that societies are functional wholes, then, is the fact upon which all proof of the existence of socio-psychical processes must rest ; for upon it depends the whole series of phenomena which social psy- chology investigates — social organization, social institutions, customs, tradition, language, public opinion, etc. Every recog- nition of the fact that societies are functional unities carries with it implicitly the recognition of the reality of socio-psychical pro- cesses. The effort of all sociological writers, for example, has been to prove the reality of a social process, while of late an increasing number have striven to show that this process is essentially or predominantly a psychical one. Thus the reality of socio-psychical processes has been implicitly recognized ; and there can be no more objection to framing a science to investi- gate their technique or mechanism than there is to a science of the technique of individual psychical processes. Such a science is, indeed, inevitable, call it what we may, sociology or social psychology, although the latter name will seem preferable to those who hold, with the writer, that the science is a part of general ps3'chology.
