The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
"I have also received batches of answers from various educational
establishments both in England and America, which were made after
the masters had fully explained the meaning of the questions, and
interested the boys in them. These have the merit of returns derived
from a general census, which my other data lack, because I cannot
for a moment suppose that the writers of the latter are a haphazard
proportion of those to whom they were sent. Indeed I know of some
who, disavowing all possession of the power, and of many others who,
possessing it in too faint a degree to enable them to express what
their experiences really were, in a manner satisfactory to themselves,
sent no returns at all. Considerable statistical similarity was,
however, observed between the sets of returns furnished by the
schoolboys and those sent by my separate correspondents, and I may
add that they accord in this respect with the oral information I have
elsewhere obtained. The conformity of replies from so many different
sources which was clear from the first, the fact of their apparent
trustworthiness being on the whole much increased by cross-examination
(though I could give one or two amusing instances of break-down),
and the evident effort made to give accurate answers, have convinced
me that it is a much easier matter than I had anticipated to obtain
trustworthy replies to psychological questions. Many persons,
especially women and intelligent children, take pleasure in
introspection, and strive their very best to explain their mental
processes. I think that a delight in self-dissection must be a strong
ingredient in the pleasure that many are said to take in confessing
themselves to priests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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