Psychology and the Day's Work: A Study in the Application of Psychology to Daily Life

Excerpt from Psychology and the Day's Work: A Study in the Application of Psychology to Daily Life

Psychology considered as the science of human behavior 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. Behavior - the individuals 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 runs 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 behavior which investigation has revealed. A 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 interpreting behavior.

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