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.g., the Maoris, who,like our ancestors, found for many generations their chief occupationand delight in warfare, take up such games keenly and even learn veryquickly to beat us at them.I think we may even observe in young boys the recapitulation of theprocess of differentiation of the impulse of rivalry from the combativeinstinct The latter usually comes into play at a very early age, but theformer does not usually manifest itself until the age of four or five years.Up to this time the more active playing of boys is apt to be formless andvague, a mere running about and shouting, a form of play sufficientlyaccounted for by the Schiller-Spencer theory.But then the impulse ofrivalry begins to work, and from that time it may dominate the boy s lifemore and more, in so far as his activities are spontaneous.In this con-nection it is important to note that the growth of self-consciousness mustfavour and strengthen the operation of this impulse, whereas it is ratheradverse to the display of most of the other instinctive activities in theircrude forms.58A universal tendency of the mind, which is so familiar as to runsome risk of being neglected, must be briefly mentioned; namely, thetendency for every process to be repeated more readily in virtue of itsprevious occurrence and in proportion to the frequency of its previousrepetitions.The formulation of this tendency may be named the law ofhabit, if the word habit is understood in the widest possible sense.Invirtue of this tendency the familiar as such is preferred to the less famil-iar, the habitual and routine mode of action and reaction, in all depart-ments of mental life, to any mode of action necessitating any degree ofnovel adjustment.And the more familiar and habitual is any mentalprocess or mode of action in a situation of a given type, the more diffi-cult is it to make any change or improvement in it and the more painfulis any change of the character of the situation that necessitates an effortof readjustment.This is the great principle by which all acquisitions ofthe individual mind are preserved and in virtue of which the making offurther acquisitions is rendered more difficult, through which the indefi-nite plasticity of the infant s mind gradually gives place to the elasticityAn Introduction to Social Psychology/87of the mature mind.TemperamentIn order to complete this brief sketch of the more important features ofthe native mental constitution, a few words must be said about tempera-ment.This is a very difficult subject which most psychologists are gladto leave alone.Yet temperament is the source of many of the most strik-ing mental differences between individuals and peoples.Under the head of temperamental factors we group a number ofnatively given constitutional conditions of our mental life that exert aconstant influence on our mental processes.This influence may be slightat any one time, but since its effects are cumulative i.e., since it oper-ates as a constant bias in one direction during mental development andthe formation of habits it is responsible for much in the mental make-up of the adult Temperament is, as the ancients clearly saw, largely amatter of bodily constitution; that is to say that among the temperamen-tal factors the influences on the mental life exerted by the great bodilyorgans occupy a prominent place.But there are other factors also, and itis impossible to bring them all under one brief formula; and, since tem-perament is the resultant of these many relatively independent factors, itis impossible to distinguish any clearly defined classes of temperaments,as the ancients, as well as many modern authors, have attempted to do.Some of the best modern psychologists have been led into absurdities byattempting this impossible task.The truth is that we are only just begin-ning to gain some slight insight into the conditions of temperament, andprogress in this respect must depend chiefly upon the progress of physi-ology.In one respect only can we make a decided advance upon theancients we can realise the great complexity of the problem and canfrankly admit our ignorance.The temperamental factors may conveniently be grouped in twoprincipal classes on the one hand, the influences exerted on the ner-vous system and, through it, on mental process by the functioning of thebodily organs; on the other hand, general functional peculiarities of thenervous tissues.We may best grasp something of the nature of the formerclass by the observation of cases in which their influence is abnormallygreat.Of recent years some light has been thrown upon temperament bythe discovery of the great influence exerted on mental life by certainorgans whose functions had been, and in many respects still are, ob-scure.The most notable example is perhaps the thyroid body, a small88/William McDougallmass of soft cellular tissue in the neck.We know now that defect of thefunctions of this organ may reduce any one of us to a state of mentalapathy bordering on idiocy, and that its excessive activity produces theopposite effect and may throw the mind into an over-excitable conditionverging on maniacal excitement.Again, we know that certain diseasestend to produce specific changes of temperament, that phthisis oftengives it a bright and hopeful turn, diabetes a dissatisfied and cantanker-ous turn
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