Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and MethodsHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Psychophysiology
1. In the first place, the only sort of localization of functions that has
been authentically established is the projection, upon the brain structure,
of the other parts of the organism, and the localization of sensory-motor
centers which function in the connection of these various organs. Thus it
is known that each of the principal groups of muscles of the body has its
so-called center in the brain. From this part of the brain to the muscles
concerned run bundles of motor-nerve fibers, so that activity in that
particular part of the brain may result in the conduction of nervous
impulses to these muscles, and in their consequent contraction. Thus the
hand, the foot, the eyes, the speech-organs, etc., may be said to be
functionally represented, and in this sense localized, in particular
regions of the brain. The same thing is true of the sense-organs, as the
eye, ear, etc. Each incoming sensory nerve tract runs to or through some
portion of the brain. Injury to this part of the brain results in
functional incapacity of the corresponding sense-organ. The cortex, or
outer surface of the brain, may thus be conceived as a sort of terminal
station for nerves from other portions of the organism, a sort of
projection-center which enables them all to take part in a functional
unity of action. The functions which can be said in this sense to be
localized in the brain are such sensory-motor capacities as the ability to
raise the right arm, the ability to balance the body when standing erect
with eyes closed, the ability to see, the ability to move the eyeball, the
ability to feel pain in a certain area of the skin, the ability to
articulate words, to understand spoken or written language, to call up a
visual memory of a particular thing previously seen, etc.
The integrity of various parts of the brain is essential to the proper
coordination of all the sensibilities and responses of the individual.
Traits of character and types of ability, however, depend on the
characteristic modes of reaction of the organism as a whole to the factors
of its environment. Thus generosity as a human trait does not depend on the
massiveness of any set of muscles, nor on the keenness of any sense-organ,
but upon the characteristic type of reaction and motivation which the
individual as a whole displays. Jealousy, love of children,
destructiveness, etc., are characteristic modes of behavior of the whole
organism, and depend upon reactions which the given situation evokes, and
not upon some special organ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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