e What in the opinion of this commission the high school should do to provide opportunity for the development of economic, civic, domestic, and physical efficiency; also rational enjoyment of leisure

20. To what extent do these statements of educational objectives clarify the task of the teacher in' pointing out what he must do in the teaching process? To what extent, for example, do they indicate what he must do in choosing materials for developing domestic efficiency, health, vocational efficiency, etc? Would you know after reading this statement just what should be taught for the attainment of each of these aims? If not, why not? What additional information would be desirable?

REFERENCES

FREEMAN, F. N., How Children Learn (Boston, Houghton Miffin Co., 1917), Chạp. i.

GATES, A. I., Psychology For Students of Education (New York, Macmillan Co., 1923), Chap. i.

PILLSBURY, W. B., Essentials of Psychology (New York, Macmillan Co., 1919), Chap. i.

STARCH, DANIEL, Educational Psychology (New York, Macmillan Co., 1918), Chap. i.

CHAPTER II

THE COMPONENTS OF BEHAVIOR

The changes that take place in the human being may be described in terms of responses, such as thoughts, feelings, ideas, attitudes, movements and the inhibition of movements which he makes, of situations which are to be found in one's environment, and of bonds by which responses and situations are connected.

Any thought, feeling or action means a tendency to respond in a certain way to a certain situation. It involves a situation which initiates the response, and a neural connection or bond whereby the response is made possible.

Thorndike and Kilpatrick are the leading exponents of the situation-response hypothesis (1,2,). Thurstone has given one of the best criticisms of the hypothesis (3). The Thorndikian explanation of behavior can be found in the operation of certain laws of readiness, exercise and effect. An explanation of the functioning of these laws is sought in the neurones and neurone patterns of the cortex (4,5,6).

Every thought, feeling, movement, and prevention of movement is a response to some stimulus or situation 7,8,9). Some of these responses are unlearned. The great majority of the responses of adults are acquired re

actions.

The recent experimental studies of the conditioned reflexes serve to emphasize the importance of building up in every individual the right sort of reactions (10,11). On the whole however, there is very little known about the conditioned reflex. Like all other so-called "master keys," it is inadequate for the explanation of all forms of human activities.

1. Situation and Response in Human Behavior [THORNDIKE, E. L., Education: A First Book, pp. 53-60. Copyright, 1912, by Macmillan Co.] (Adapted.)

Situations, responses, and bonds form the elements in a behavioristic psychology. Thorndike's Educational Psychology, and Kilpatrick's Foundations of Method are excellent illustrations of this point of view in educational literature. While this point of view has many merits, there are other points of view that are worthy of serious consideration. The terms stimulus or situation are used to denote the total state of affairs and conditions influencing an organism at any given time. What the organism does, thinks, feels, or imagines as a result of being stimulated is called its reaction or response. Situations that produce responses do not appear or act singly. They come as a continuous flow of a stream. The responses are, consequently, often overlapping. It is the business of the psychologist to study the responses by analyzing out the element of the total situation that produced it. By ascertaining the relationships between situations and responses, the psychologist is better able to predict and control behavior.

A man's life may be considered as a series of situations which act upon him and a series of reactions of thought, feeling, or action which he makes to these situations. Thorndike points out two reasons why students of education should think of behavior in terms of situations and responses. The terms both economize the thought in the science, and lead to two very important but simple precepts. They economize in the sense they can be likened to cause and effect. The situation, including the stimulus acting on the individual at the moment and the nature of the individual, may be regarded as the cause; the response, if taken together with changes wrought in the outside world, may be regarded as the effect. The practical suggestions given by Thorndike

are:

1. Consider any situation before letting it act upon a pupil. 2. Consider the response which is desired, before devising a situation to evoke it.

More briefly:

1. Know what the situation is which confronts the pupil. 2. Know what the response is which you wish to secure.

2. The Symbol S→R

[KILPATRICK, W. H., "Mind-Set and Learning," Journal of Educational Method, November, 1921, Vol. 1, pp. 97-99.]

One of the clearest expositions of the meaning of situation, response and bond is made by Kilpatrick, who follows Thorndike.

. . . S stands for stimulus, or perhaps, more exactly, for situation acting as stimulus; and R stands for response. Any act of conduct is a response (R) to some sort of situation (S). I hear a child crying (8), I stop to listen (R). I meet a friend on the street (S), I say "good morning" (R). My friend sees me and hears me speak (S), he responds in like fashion (R). He notices that I stop walking (S), he stops (R). I see that he is within hearing distance and attentive (S), I speak commending his address of last evening (R). He hears me speak (8), the meanings of my words arise in his mind (R). He appropriates my meaning (S), his face flushes and he feels gratification (R).

"Bonds."-Notice . . . instance given: He hears me speak (S), the meanings of my words arise in his mind (R). If he had not in the past learned the meanings of these words, my voice would have struck in vain upon his ears. The meanings could arise in his mind only because in the past he had learned to associate thenceforth these meanings with these sounds. That is, his past experience had built up somewhere in him-in his nervous system, in fact-such connections or bonds that when a particular sound is heard (e.g., my spoken words magnificent address), its appropriate meaning arises as a thought in his mind. Each such language connection or bond has to be learned, that is, built up by and in experience.

Innate vs. Acquired Bonds.- . . . Not all bonds are built up or learned. . . . My friend flushes with pleasure (R), when I commended his address (S). His being pleased at commendation and his flushing in connection were not learned; these responses are innately joined. Each one of us is born with many such responses already joined by strong bonds to their ap

. . . Readiness is a condition of the neurone measuring the degree of its craving for activity.

... Fatigue is a common cause of unreadiness. . . . Preoccupation with something else of an opposing kind may also bring unreadiness, as when fear or sorrow cause unreadiness for mirth. A most important source of readiness is set, one's mental attitude at the time.

3. The Stimulus-Response Theory Criticised [THURSTONE, L. L., "The Stimulus Response Fallacy," The Psychological Review, 1923, Vol. 30, pp. 354-369.] (Abridged.)

The procedure [stimulus-response-bond theory] carries the appearance of science in its terminology but is often indicative of a superficial and unsympathetic understanding of mental life. . .

The stimulus merely determines the detailed manner in which a drive or purpose expresses itself on any particular occasion . . the stimulus is not primarily provocative of living, of mental life. We ourselves are.

Conduct originates in the organism itself and not in the environment in the form of a stimulus. Instead of analyzing behavior in the form of S-R, we should analyze it as the expression of cravings that originate in the mechanism and find particular modes of satisfaction in the stimulus that happens to be available. . . . The appearance of the stimulus is one of the last events in the expression of impulses in conduct.

4. Psychological Terms, Mechanism, Drive, and Preparatory and Consummatory Reactions

[THORNDIKE, E. L.. Educational Psychology, Vol. I, Chap. xiv; Vol. II, Chap. i. New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913, WOODWORTH, R. S., Psychology, Chaps. ii, xvi, New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1921, and KILPATRICK, Source Book in Philosophy of Education, pp. 309-315. New York, Macmillan Co., 1923.) (Adapted.)

Behavior is as broad as life itself and refers to all sorts of ways of reacting both internally and externally to situations. The physiological basis for behavior is to be found in the nervous system, of which the neurone is the important element.