Psychology and the day's work
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| Psychology and the day's work by Edgar James Swift |
Psychology considered the science of human behaviour is concerned with man's response to the impressions made upon him by objects, people, and events. They make up the situations that he meets. Behaviour — the in- dividual's way of dealing with these situations — ^if not a complete failure, results finally in some sort of adjustment to the conditions in which one lives; and this adjustment culminates in social and moral habits, in habits of work, in ways of thinking and acting; in short, in habits of life. And through all the adapting process from the influence of physiological conditions and the effect of their changes caused by the manner of life and the advance of years.
The adjustment may be mechanical and rigid, insensible to misfits, without power to readjust as conditions alter; or, again, it may be flexible and adaptive— capable of new adjustments as circumstances change.
This adjustment represents the capacity of man for achievement. It is his efficiency — the strategy and tactics of life. It is well, then, from time to time to take an inventory of stock and try to discover the significance of the facts and principles of human behaviour that investigation has revealed. Science is made no less scientific by applying its discoveries.
The chemist and botanist are not concerned primarily with the practical application of the results of their work, yet industrial chemistry and economic botany are rendering incalculable service to related lines of business. Psychologists have only recently extended their investigations into lines directly useful in explaining and inter- pressing behaviour. Yet their contributions in several fields of the world's work are already impressive. In psycho-pathology, in legal psychology, in experimental pedagogy, and in the psychology of advertising, they have made noteworthy additions to the store of knowledge; and today psychological tests are being made in the army to determine the fitness of men to do the work to which they aspire in the service of our country.
Concerning the more common matters of everyday life, however, psychologists have offered relatively little interpretative value. Yet these experiences make up the day's work. They determine its quantity and quality. Much has been written about making others efficient, but comparatively little about one's own method of thinking, work- ing, and acting. Yet knowing oneself reaches far into success and failure, and there is no other way of understanding- in the behavior of others. It is, therefore, in the hope of interpreting a few of these personal experiences of daily hf e that this book is written. The topics that could be discussed extend far beyond the limits of a single volume.
The choice, of course, is largely personal, but the writer has tried to select types of conduct, as well as phases and causes of behaviour, that are fundamental to thinking and acting, whether in the life of social intercourse or in the business and professional world. And after all, thinking and acting determine achievement.
Contents:
- I. Organization for Mental Efficiency ... i
- I.I. Thinking and Acting 41
- I.I.I.. Habit in Preparation for Efficiency ... 84
- IV. The Psychology of Learning 123
- V. Fatigue and Its Psychology 164
- VI. Curiosities of Memory 198
- VII. Memory and Its Improvement 236
- VIII. The Psychology of Testimony and Rumor . 273
- IX. Our Varying Selves 314
- X. The Psychology of Digestion 348
- Index 379
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