The Science of Human Nature: A Psychology for BeginnersPyle, William Henry
Science
The Science of Human Nature: A Psychology for Beginners
Pyle, William Henry
Educational psychology; Psychology
There is another type of habit that may properly be called an
intellectual habit, such as voting a certain party ticket, say the
Democratic. When one is a boy, one hears his father speak favorably of
the Democratic party. His father says, "Hurrah for Bryan," so he comes
to say, "Hurrah for Bryan." His father says, "I am a Democrat," so he
says he is a Democrat. He takes the side that his father takes. In a
similar way we take on the same religious notions that our parents have.
It does not always happen this way, but this is the rule. But no matter
how we come to do it, we do adopt the creed of some party or some
church. We adopt a certain way of looking at public questions, and a
certain way of looking at religious questions. For certain rather
definite situations, we come to take definite stands. When we go to the
booth to vote, we look at the top of the ballot to find the column
marked "Democratic," and the definite response is to check the
"Democrat" column. Of course, some of us form a different habit and
check the "Republican" column, but the psychology of the act is the
same. The point is that we form the Democratic habit or we form the
Republican habit; and the longer we practice the habit, the harder it is
to change it.
In the presidential campaign of 1912, Roosevelt "bolted" from the
Republican party. It was hard for the older Republicans to follow him.
While one occasionally found a follower of Roosevelt who was gray, one
usually found the old Republicans standing by the old party, the younger
ones joining the Progressive party. It is said that when Darwin
published "The Origin of Species," very few old men accepted the
doctrine of evolution. The adherents of the new doctrine were nearly
all young men. So there is such a thing as an intellectual habit. One
comes to take a definite stand when facing certain definite intellectual
situations.
Similar to the type of habits which we have called intellectual is
another type which may be called "moral." When we face the situation of
reporting an occurrence, we can tell the truth or we can lie. We can
build up the habit of meeting such situations by telling the truth on
all occasions. We can learn to follow the maxim "Tell the truth at all
times, at all hazards." We can come to do this automatically, certainly,
and without thought of doing anything else.
Most moral situations are fairly definite and clear-cut, and for them we
can establish definite forms of response. We can form the habit of
helping a person in distress, of helping a sick neighbor, of speaking
well of a neighbor; we can form habits of industry, habits of
perseverance. These and other similar habits are the basis of morality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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