Part 9 (2/2)

The study of the child cannot be accomplished by an ”instantaneous”

process; his characteristics can only be illustrated cineanized in accordance with the needs of psychical life, are of fundae of individual differences in the acquisition of internal order, in the ascent to abstraction, in the progressive stages of intellectual development, in the achievement of discipline, without the existence of pre-deter external means which, like so many points of support, lead the child in process of foroal?

In order to deterically, there must be a _constant work or aim_; and this is the external means on which each personality builds itself up When the external support is the saiven age, a difference of internal construction is _due to the individual himself_ On the other hand, if the ht be attributed to differences in the means

Finally, it is obvious that in all scientific research, the _instru to be measured_ requires a special instrument, and the constant instrument in psychical measurement should be ”the method of education”

A series of formulae, such as the Binet-Siive even an approxi to age; as to the children who respond, whence is their response derived? How far is this due to the intrinsic activity of the individual, and how far to the action of environnored, who can deteriven to the response?

In each personality we nize two parts: one is the individual, natural, spontaneous activity by means of which elements may be taken from the environment ith the personality mented, and hence _characterized_; another part is the external instrument hich all this e of four can recognize sixty-four colors, shows that he possesses remarkable activity in the perception of colors, and in the arrangeradation in his mind, etc; but he also shows that he has had the means to accomplish this achievement; he has had, for instance, sixty-four color-tablets, hich he has been able to practise at his leisure and undisturbed, as long as was necessary for such assimilation

The psychical factor P is the sum of two factors, one internal, the other external:

P = I + E

of these the unknown, non-directly measurable factor I may be indicated by X:

P = X + E

If ere to compare two children, one of whom has had at his disposal the sixty-four colors in the conditions described above, and another who has been left to hiray and brown tints prevail, and who seems dull and unobservant, etc, we should find a very remarkable psychical difference Such a difference is not, however, intrinsic; it ht well be that, subjected to the sanize the sixty-four colors The judgive in such a case would be based upon an external factor, not upon internal potentialities We should really be appraising two different environments, not two different individuals

To enable us to judge of individual differences, it would be necessary for the two children to have had _the sae they were not equally capable of distinguishi+ng the sixty-four colors, but if, for instance, one of the two could recognize only thirty of these, a true individual psychical difference would be apparent One of the tests proposed by one of the greatest authorities on experiy in Italy, to determine the intellectual level of sub-normal (backward or deficient) children, was to est and the smallest cube in a series This choice, in common with nearly all the tests proposed for the same purpose, we considered quite independently of the influence of _culture_ and _education_; and it was appreciated as the expression of an intience itself But if one of the deficient children I had educated on my method had been subjected to the test, he would, in virtue of a long sensory training, have chosen the largest and the smallest cube very ist froht even have been not only younger, but even more backward intellectually than the other

The test would therefore have measured the different methods of education, whereas the psychical differences between the two children, really existent by reason of age or of intellectual attainment, would have remained absolutely obscure

Man is a fusion of personality and education, and education includes the series of experiences he undergoes during his life The two things cannot be separated in the individual: intelligence without acquire beings: that the individual cannot be divorced from his environment, is more profoundly true in its application to psychical life, because the content of environ the means of auto-experience which evolves man, is an essential part of him, and, indeed, is the individual himself Nevertheless, we all know that the psychical individual is not his environment, but a life in himself

Given the formula

P = X + E

in which X is the internal and intrinsic part peculiar to the individual life, it may be said that every individual has his X But in order to _approach_ to direct knowledge of X, it is essential to know P and E

He who carries out an exa a ”psychicalon psychical results, is in realityaexternal to the individual, nullifies the results of research

Hence, to study individual differences in isolated activities, such as the perception of colors, musical sounds, the letters of the alphabet; or the capacity for observation of surroundings and the detection of errors; or coordination of e, etc, it is essential to have first determined a _constant_ element: the means of development offered by environment

Here a siy and psychology y determines experi the the internal or personal liberty of the individual; psychology studies average reactions or individual reactions in the species or the individual But the two things are two aspects of a single fact, which is the development of man; the individual and the environment are the two factors X and E of the same product: the psychical entity

Isolated psychical researches of a moral order must also, if they are to be of any real value, be based upon prolonged observation, _after the internal activities have becoment in a chaos In clinical psychiatry or in cri a subject under observation” for purposes of diagnosis, we ienic and disciplinary conditions, etc, and observing him for some time in such an environment Such a process has a value still more extensive and profound in the case of normal individuals in process of evolution In such a case it is necessary not only to offer orderly external surroundings, but to reduce the chaotic internal world of the child to order, and, after this, to observe him for a considerable ti observationschildren who attended our schools They were ad my last International Course in Ro the period they were retained as subjects for anthropological observation in the class-roo the students; so In the center of the room stood a pedometer The behavior of the two children was al at the lacing frahboring roohter Their attitude was that of persons at work and anxious not to lose any tiesture to co off work at once, andwith smiles, as if fascinated; they evidently felt pleasure in obeying, and an internal delight which ca ready to leave so of a higher order They arranged themselves very carefully on the pedometer to be measured; when any modification was necessary in the position of the body, it sufficed to murmur a word in their ears and the almost imperceptible movement required was made with the utmost exactitude; they could control their voluntary movements and direct them; they were able to translate the words they heard into actions: _this enabled the internal conquest When thewas said; they waited expectantly for a lance and a s; they had understood, and they returned voluntarily to their corner to take up their fraain, and the same actions were repeated