Routledge Revivals SOCIAL SCIENCE PAPERBACKS SSP 27 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOLOGY An Outline of Psychology BY WILLIAM McDOUGALL, F.R.S. FOREWORD BY C. A. MACE First published in 1968 by Methuen & Co. Ltd. This edition first published in 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1968 Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under ISBN: 31012628 ISBN 13: 978-1-138-55501-3 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-70453-0 (ebk) SOCIAL SCIENCE PAPERBACKS SSP 27 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOLOGY From 'The'The Ou-tlinOutlinee of SScience."cience." ByBy permissionpermission ofof GG.. PP.. PutnaPutnam'sm's SSonsons FFIGIG.. I .I.—THI- T HISS DRAWINGDRAWING SHOSHOWWSS THETHE EVOLUTIONEVOLUTION OFFO THTHEE BRAINBRAIN FROMFROM FISHFISH TOTO MANMAN An Outline of Psychology BY WILLIAM McDOUGALL, F.R.S. FOREWORD BY C. A. MACE SOCIAL SCIENCE PAPERBACKS in association with METHUEN & CO. LTD. First Published in Great Britain June 7th 1923 Second Edition January 1925 Third Edition . December 1926 Fourth Edition, Revised . May 1928 Fifth Edition . December 1930 Sixth Edition . September 1935 Seventh Edition November 1936 Eighth Edition December 1940 Ninth Edition . November 1943 Tenth Edition . April 1945 Eleventh Edition 1947 Reprinted 1961 Paperback Edition . 1968 This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A hardbound library edition is also available. SBN 422 72340 1 Printed in Great Britain by Jarrold & Sons Ltd., Norwich SOCIAL SCIENCE PAPERBACKS are published by members of Associated Book Publishers Limited 11 New Fetter Lane, London, E.C.4 FOREWORD by C. A. Mace There is a story, very old but still very pleasing, of a traveller who lost his way in Ireland. "Can you tell me the way to Ballyshannon?" he asked a passing native. " Faith," replied the native, "but if I were going to Ballyshannon I would not set out from here/' A would-be student of Psychology is often like a traveller in a strange country. He has picked up, say, a book on Dreams by Freud or one on Archetypes by Jung. "Gosh," he says, "this is all very exciting. I must make a serious study of Psychology. Where should I begin?" He asks a native of the subject. The native might well reply "No, not with the book you are reading now, not with Freud or Jung; nor, for that matter, with a contemporary textbook. You might indeed do worse than begin with McDougall." McDougall has a distinctive position in the development of Psychology in the present century. The century had opened with the emergence of several new and revolutionary schools of thought, each of which elaborated a more or less complete "system" of psychology. Among these were Psychoanalysis, Behaviourism, and Gestalt Psychology. McDougall also was a purveyor of a "system" and a leader of a school—that labelled '' Hormic Psychology ". He is, indeed, recognized internationally as distinguished from his contemporary British psychologists— many of whom were also distinguished—as the exponent of the principles of a school. His system, however, was not so much a revolt against the established order as a development of that order. His account of Psychology is accordingly sometimes described as "outmoded". So far as this is true it has become outmoded not by any of the rival schools, but by a reaction against system-building as such. The contemporary mode favours an eclectic and piecemeal approach. This is to be V VI FOREWORD commended to the research student but is less suitable for students beginning a new subject. In contrast, McDougall provided students of his own generation with something all students ask for—a map and an orientation. This he does through a systematic account of the "organization'' or "struc- ture' ' of personality and mind in all creatures that can be said to have a "mental" as well as a bodily life. The basic components of this "structure", he argued, are of two kinds—abilities and motivating forces. An ability is an abiding capacity to do something. A motivating force is an abiding inclination to do something. To say of a creature that it has a certain ability is to say simply that it is able to do a certain kind of thing. To say that it has a motivating disposition is to say that it is inclined or moved to do something. Abilities are activated and developed by the motivating forces. So too with habits which are not themselves motivating forces. They are formed and sustained in the service of the motivating tendencies. This is the central principle of McDougall's Hormic Psychology. The general structure is hierarchical in form, and within it three levels of motivation are distinguished. At the base of the pyramid lie the prime movers, each of which is innate but admitting of various types of modification. Mc- Dougall at first described them as primary "instincts", later he called them "propensities". Both descriptions provoked a great deal of tedious terminological controversy, but however described it is not difficult to see what these prime movers are. At the middle level are the "sentiments" (another term which provoked unnecessary verbal disputes). The sentiments such as Love-Hate, and the more specific form of love-hate such as Patriotism or Parental Affection, are not specific feelings or prime movers but organized systems of propensities. Parental Sentiment, for example, is a disposition to experience a protec- tive impulse, anxiety, anger, or some other specific propensity according to circumstances. The " Self-Regarding Sentiment" is of special importance, since it leads to the emergence of the third level of motivation which constitutes the pinnacle of the hierarchy—the ultimate controlling force—which can be described as Conscience or The Will. FOREWORD vn McDougalFs system of psychology was first presented in broad outline in his Introduction to Social Psychology (1908). It was considerably expanded in An Outline of Psychology (1923), which was followed by An Outline of Abnormal Psychology (1926). The Energies of Men (1932) was written as a simplified condensation of the two Outlines, but a second revised edition of this volume summarizes some of the author's most mature views. An Outline of Psychology remains a good point of departure. And the present is a good time to read it. The dust of controversy is beginning to settle and McDougall's permanent contributions stand out more clearly. The map he provided is sufficiently ample, and it is possible now to insert on it the new roads of advance and the expanding horizons of the subject. TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF WILLIAM JAMES, GREAT PHILOSOPHER, GREAT PSYCHOLOGIST, AND GREAT MAN PREFACE The time has gone by when any one man could hope to write an adequate text-book of psychology. The science has now so many branches, so many methods, so many fields of application, and such an immense mass of data of observation is now on record, that no one man can hope to have the necessary familiarity with the whole. But, even when a galaxy of learning and talent shall have written the text-book of the future, there will still be need for the book which will introduce the student to his science, which will aim at giving him at the outset of his studies a profit- able line of approach, a fruitful way of thinking of psychological problems, and a terminology as little misleading as possible. The present volume is designed to render these services. The need of such a book is greater in psychology than in any other science. In the physical sciences the student needs only to refine upon the methods of observation and reasoning which he has learned to apply in dealing with the physical world about him, regarding all events as links in a mechanical chain of cause and effect. Most students have begun, by the time they ap- proach psychology, to regard this as the true and only way of science. And many of the books on psychology encourage them in this belief. Having begun in this way myself, and having slowly and painfully extricated myself and found what seems to me a much more profitable attitude toward psychological prob- lems, I hold that the path of the student may be made smoother by setting clearly before him at the outset the alternative routes; so that, whichever he may choose to follow, he may at least make his choice with his eyes open, and may constantly be aware of the alternatives. The two principal alternative routes are (i) that of mechanistic science, which interprets all its processes as mechanical sequences of cause and effect, and (2) that of the sciences of mind, for which purposive striving is a fundamental category, which regard the process of purposive striving as radically different from mechanical sequence.