Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/211

AFFECTION. the character of our experience: we are excited or tranquilized, according as it is more or less intensive; and we are held on the strain of ex- pectation, or relieved from this strain, according as it lasts a longer or a shorter time. Affections of all three types are, as a rule, combined in the concrete feeling, in "real" affective experience. Suppose, e.g., that one is looking forward to a pleasant event. One has, at first, a feeling of tension, to which are soon added, in succession, feelings of unpleasantness and of excitement. All three affections increase gradually in strength until the expected event occurs. At that moment the unpleasantness changes to pleasantness, and the strain to relaxation, while the excitement is still continued. Presently the excitement dies away. Then the feeling of relax- ation or satisfaction fades out; and finally the effect of the event passes off altogether, with the fading of pleasure to its indifference-point.

It would seem. then, that expert opinion could hardly he more sharply divided. On the one hand, we have the belief in two and only two affective qualities, homogeneous throughout the affective life; on the other, the suggestion that there are man.v thousand feelings, each of which is unique in qualitv. though the whole number fall roughly into three great groups. It should, however, be said that these conflieting views are held tentatively, not dogmatically. It is gen- erally agreed that we do not as yet possess the data for a scientific theory of affection. The appeal lies to experiment: and the application of experimental method in the sphere of feeling is extraordinaril.v dilticult. Nevertheless, the prob- lem stands to-day in the forefront of psychologi- cal inquir.v, and much may be expected from the near future.

We have, as things are, two principal methods for the study of affection: the method of impres- sion and the method of expression. The former we owe to Fechner (q.v.); the latter to the Italian physiologist A. Mosso. (1) The method of impression in its original form is also known as the serial method or the method of selection. (See .) A long series of graded stimuli (colors, textile fabrics, ovals, or crosses) is laid before the observer, who notes his preference for particular terms in the series. From these preferences a curve may be construct- ed, showing the relative feeling-value of dull and brilliant colors, of rough and smooth sur- faces, etc. In its later form, the method is known as that of paired comparisons. The stim- uli are here presented to the observer two at a time, so that every term in the series is com- pared with every other term. The experimenter records the number of preferences that each term receives, and a curve is platted from the results. It is found, e.g., in work with colored impressions that saturated colors (red, blue) are as a rule preferred to unsaturated (pink, brown, sky blue, navy blue), but that there is a curious uncertain- ty as regards yellow — some observers ranking this color very high, while others as decidedly prefer orange yellowish red) and yellow green. (2) The method of expression, on the other hand, seeks to reconstruct the affective consciousness from a study of its bodily symptoms or mani- festations. It is a matter of common knowledge that men blush with shame and tremble with fear. The bodily indications of affection are, indeed, both widespread and easily observable, while at the same time they reflect the most

subtle and delicate phases of affective process. Their common cause is to be found in changes of muscular innervation; the whole muscular system, voluntary and involuntary, answers to those changes of nervous excitation which cor- respond, on the physical side, to changes in our state of feeling. We find, e.g., that the pulse becomes stronger during pleasant stimulation, and weaker during unpleasant; the sphygmo- graphic record shows that there is a change in the innervation of the heart. We find, in the same way, that breathing is deeper under a pleasurable, and shallower under an unpleasura- ble, stimulus; the pneumographic record shows a change in the innervation of the respiratory muscles. We find that the volume of a limb or member — of the finger or arm — increases with pleasantness and decreases with unpleasantness; there is a change of innervation of the super- ficial blood-vessels, and therefore of the amount of blood contained in them; the plethysmograph- ic curve rises and falls as the stimulus varies. We find that muscular strength evinces a like fluctuation; our squeeze of the dynamometer is stronger when we are pleased than it is when we are displeased. And lastly, we have the same correlation of physical and mental in the case of involuntary movement. If the hand is laid upon the plate of a planchette while our mood is one of indifference, the pencil will make a little ragged spot upon the paper, but will take no definite direction. Let a pleasant stim- ulus be given (a fragrant scent, a piece of good news), and the arm travels away from the body, as if the organism were reaching out after the pleasing object; the pencil traces a steady line outward. Let an unpleasant stimulus be given, and the arm comes in toward the trunk, as if the organism were withdrawing into itself, shrinking from the displeasing object; the pencil traces a steady line inward.

Why has not this method of expression, if it be so delicate as is here stated, settled once and for all the question of the number of affective qualities? There are three reasons. In the first place, the method is still very young, and the technical difficulties involved in the giving of stimuli, etc., have not yet been fully overcome. Secondly, the method presupposes that the subject of the experiment is, at the outset, in a normal, quiescent, indifferent state, and the regulation of this state is exceedingly difficult. And thirdly, knowledge of the physiological mechanism of the curve variations is at present incomplete: we have reason to believe that a particular feel- ing must always be connected with a particular change of innervation, but we know also that such a change may be wrought wholly within the physiological (and outside of the psycho- logical) sphere. Hence, so long as introspection gives no decided verdict, the bodily symptoms may and will be differently interpreted. We said above that the pulse beats higher in pleas- antness and more feebly in unpleasantness. A much more elaborate correlation has been sug- gested by those who hold the alternative theory, of a large number of ultimate affections. To this view, pleasantness is indicated by strong and slow, unpleasantness by weak and rapid, heart- beats: in excitement and depression, the pulse is simply strong and weak respectively; while strain manifests itself by weak and slow, relax- ation by quick and strong, pulsations. We can- not say that either side is right or wrong; we