Froebel as a pioneer in modern psychologyMurray, E. R. (Elsie Riach)
Science
Froebel as a pioneer in modern psychology
Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach)
Fröbel, Friedrich, 1782-1852; Psychology
When we come to the enumeration of the various human instincts we find
that Froebel can hardly be said to have omitted any that are important
from an educational point of view, except perhaps the instinct of fear,
and to this he would be loth to appeal.[25] Moreover, it can be shown
that his explanation of certain tendencies suggests a better basis of
classification than is supplied by certain recent writers, who might be
expected to surpass him with ease.
Before the publication of Mr. McDougall’s “Social Psychology,” there were
but few attempts at any classification of instincts within at least the
reach of English readers. In July, 1900, there appeared an article in
“The Pedagogical Seminary” in which Mr. Eby proposed to reconstruct the
Kindergarten on the basis of natural instinct. The writer had apparently
no dawning idea that this was the original basis[26] of the institution
he proposes to reform, but Froebel’s account of Instinct shows in certain
ways a clearer understanding of the subject than does his own.
Mr. Eby’s tabulation was:
I. Language--with gesture and expression.
II. Curiosity, or Instinct for Knowledge.
III. Play Instinct.
(_a_) Motor Plays.
(_b_) Hunting and Wandering.
(_c_) Imitative.
(_d_) Constructive.
(_e_) Agricultural.
(_f_) Improvised.
IV. Artistic and Aesthetic Instincts.
V. Social Instinct.
VI. Instinct of Acquisition and Ownership.
VII. Number Instinct.
VIII. Interest in Stories.
Another classification, well known at least to teachers, is that given by
Mr. Kirkpatrick in his “Fundamentals of Child Study.”[27]
His list comprises:
I. Individual or Self-preserving Instincts.
(Feeding, Fear and Fighting.)
II. Parental Instincts.
III. Social or Group Instincts.
(Gregariousness, Sympathy, Love of Approbation, Altruism.)
IV. Adaptive Instincts.
(Imitation, Play, Curiosity.)
V. Regulative.
(Moral, Religious.)
VI. Resultant and Miscellaneous.
(Including such tendencies as those of
collecting and constructing, and the
tendency to adornment, with the
æsthetic pleasure of contemplating
beautiful objects.)
Interesting, helpful and suggestive as these lists are, they both serve
as examples of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of any hard-and-fast
lines of classification. For example, regulative instincts, which Mr.
Kirkpatrick divides into moral and religious, must be derived from social
instincts; gregarious instincts cannot be satisfactorily separated from
instincts of self-preservation, and surely all instincts must be adaptive.
Froebel’s account of the instincts of a child in some ways resembles that
of Mr. McDougall, and it is certainly in some points more enlightening
than either of the others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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