CHAPTER VII

ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL PROCESS

Society furnishes two classes of patterns, one to guide the process through which the individual acquires new purposes, and the other to guide the process through which he acquires new means of control. These patterns are developed under social direction. The best patterns for purposes are history and the fine arts; the best patterns for means of control are the sciences. The belief that the most important use of history, the fine arts, and the sciences is to give refined pleasure to the individual during his leisure time, is due to a short-sighted view that does not disclose their essential functions.

I

In the determination of what purposes and what means of control may be acquired by the individual, society furnishes, through the medium of matter, two kinds of patterns, because there are two processes to be guided.

In the study of human development, we come now to the social factor. The individual process has been explained, but this explanation does not tell the whole story of human development. It accounts for how the individual acquires purposes and means of control, but it does not account for what purposes and means of control he acquires. The latter is determined by society; for, as we have learned, the individual is the agent through whom social purposes and ideas are expressed.1

Society guides the process of individual development by furnishing so-called patterns. These patterns are the

1 See pp. 30-31.

factors of the social process; they guide individuals not only to the stage of development attained by the race, but also to the experience of new purposes and new means of control added year by year to the social stock. The scientific investigator, for example, acquires under social guidance not only a knowledge of what has been accomplished in his field of study together with an appreciative understanding of the unsolved problems, but acquires also under social guidance a scientific method which enables him, on the basis of this knowledge, to make further progress. The problem of this chapter is to differentiate, through analysis of the social process, these social factors, or patterns, which guide human development.

Society cannot give directly to the individual new purposes and means of control; it can make him conscious of them only by guiding the processes through which new purposes and new means of control are acquired. For guiding this process, there must be two kinds of social patterns, that which guides the process through which new purposes are acquired, and that which guides the process through which new means of control are acquired. The former guides the individual (1) to feel the value of some purpose, (2) to associate intimately with it a means of control, and (3) to use this means in realizing the purpose; the latter guides him (1) to experience a purpose in the carrying out of which he meets a difficulty, (2) to define the problem through making and testing an hypothesis, (3) to solve the problem through making and testing an hypothesis, and (4) to use the solution in carrying out the purpose.

Under ordinary conditions, the individual is more in 1 See Chs. IV and V.

need of guidance through some steps than through others. In acquiring new purposes, he needs guidance especially for the first two steps. If the individual is put into a situation in which he feels strongly a purpose and associates intimately with it a means for its realization, he usually passes on, without further assistance, through the third step, that of acting. Society may give him special assistance in the third step, however, by making the situation in which he is placed such that he is not distracted by conflicting purposes and can, therefore, act more easily. In acquiring new means of control, the individual is more in need of guidance for the second and third steps. Purposes which he has acquired command him to act whenever they appear in consciousness; a demand for action is an essential characteristic of every purpose. If difficulties stand in the way of realizing these purposes, guidance is needed especially in defining and solving the problem. The fourth step, that of using the solution, usually takes care of itself. But here, also, society may assist by making the way for action easy. Because of these facts, the most prominent social guidance in the making of new purposes is that which leads. the individual to associate intimately means of control with values, and the most prominent social guidance in the making of new means of control is that which leads the individual to define and solve problems.

Illustrations which have been given in the discussion of how new purposes and new means of control are acquired, reveal in a greater or less degree the guiding influence of the social factor; but, in these cases, attention was directed to the individual side. Several illustrations may profitably be given here with emphasis upon the social side.

Let us take an instance in which a child is guided by social influence to acquire the purpose of using polite table manners. (1) His elders, according to social custom, gather about the table at meal time. In this situation, he becomes conscious of the purpose of eating with them. (2) The admonition of his elders makes him associate polite table manners with his purpose as a means of realizing it; or perhaps the remembrance of having been sent away from the table the day before when he behaved badly, may bring to his mind the same association. (3) His elders give him opportunity to use good manners by placing him at the table, and make proper behavior easy for him by acting in exemplary ways and by putting the cake beyond his reach. If his elders set bad examples and if the temptation to seize the cake is not removed, the child may not be able to act properly. Under ordinary conditions, the third step would follow the other two without anything unusual being done to make good behavior easy.

Social influence may guide a youth employed in an office or factory toward the purpose of being industrious (1) by placing him under conditions which make him strongly conscious of the desire for promotion; (2) by leading him, through the examples of other employees and the admonition of his employers, to associate industry with his desire as a means of realizing it; and (3) by giving him the opportunity to work industriously. If distracting temptations were permitted to make concentration upon his work very difficult, the last step might not be taken, and the influence of the first two would, therefore, be lost.

Passing from social guidance in the acquiring of new purposes to social guidance in the acquiring of new means