Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of EducationOntario. Department of Education
Science
Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education
Ontario. Department of Education
Education; Educational psychology
=B. Mental.=--The law of perfect adaptation also explains why ideal
feelings may at one time result in a pleasant, and at another time in a
painful, feeling tone. According to the principle of apperception, the
new experience must organize itself with whatever thoughts and feelings
are now occupying consciousness. It necessarily happens that a given
experience does not always equally harmonize with our present thoughts
and feelings. The recognition of a friend under ordinary circumstances
is agreeable, but amid certain associations or in a certain environment,
such recognition would be disagreeable. So, too, while an original
experience may have been agreeable, the memory of it may now be
disagreeable; and vice versa. For instance, the memory of a former
success or prosperity may, in the midst of present failure and poverty,
be disagreeable; while the recollection of former failure and defeat may
now, in the midst of success and prosperity, be agreeable. What is it
that makes a sensation, a perception, a memory, or an apprehended
relation pleasant under some circumstances and unpleasant under others?
The rule appears to be that when the experience harmonizes with our
present train of thought, when it promotes our present interests and
intentions, it is pleasant; but when, on the other hand, it does not
harmonize with our train of thought or thwarts or impedes our interests
and purposes, it is unpleasant.
=Function of Pleasure and Pain.=--From what has been noted concerning
co-ordination between the adaptation of the organism to impression and
the quality of the accompanying feeling, it is evident that pleasure and
pain each have their part to play in promoting the ultimate good of the
individual. Pain is beneficial, because it lets us know that there is
some misadjustment to our environment, and thereby warns us to remove or
cease doing what is proving injurious. In this connection, it may be
noted that no disease is so dangerous as one that fails to make its
presence known through pain. Pleasure also is valuable in so far as it
results from perfect adaptation to a perfect environment, since it
induces the individual to continue beneficial acts. It must be
remembered, however, that so far as heredity or education has adapted
our organism to improper stimuli, pleasure is no proof that the good of
the organism is being advanced. In such cases, redemption can come to
the fallen world only through suffering.
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