Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/291

Rh definite stimuli occurring in the course of life, e. g., the attitude toward money, attitude toward affairs, attitude toward extraordinary occurrences.) Finally the Scheme must possess in the greatest possible fullness rubrics covering the Ætiology and Symptomatology of the individual to be psychographed. Ætiology: Data with reference to inheritance, diseases, character of the family, influences of nurture and education, etc. Symptomatology: Data with reference to physical form, body mass, physiognomy, expressive movements, voice, etc.

At the start the Scheme will of course contain many lacuna which can be discovered and filled only as it is actually put to use; it is therefore desirable that for the immediate present the Scheme should be put to the test of varied application historical, psycho-pathological, pedagogical, psychological.

1. The Little Child. The conditions for the thorough study of individuality are most favorable in the case of the child during his first six years; for then uninterrupted observation is possible for the parents; then the outer influences can be followed without break, and the empirical and nativistic elements of development can be clearly separated; the expressions of the mental life are still relatively simple; and the children are unconstrained before the observer. In these studies of little children a change from the method so far pursued is desirable, and in this direction, namely: parents must give themselves more and more to co-operative work in observation. The usual limitation to the first three years of life should be given up; many functions begin to show their most interesting development only between the fourth and sixth years. Observation, moreover, should not be confined alone to the most elementary functions; the development of feeling and of character, play, drawings, thought, children's views of the world, and many other matters must be described just as minutely. The various observers must work more from common points of view in order that their results may be more readily comparable. (With this object in view the Institut für angewandte Psychologie is beginning to issue a series of guides to the observation of child development.)

2. The Child of School Age. Here can be mentioned but one of the most important problems, which requires the close co-operation of Pedagogy and Psychology: In what way should the organiztion of the schools and classes be adapted to the differences in the individuality of the children? So far the organization of the schools has been undertaken almost exclusively