An Introduction to Psychology

In designing this book especially for the younger student, we have constantly borne in mind necessity for clearness. We have not included any disputed material. we have given only that side of psychology which, through experiment and observation, has a definite scientific basis for its various conclusions. We have tried to avoid all possible confusion by means of simplification, examples, and questions of a concrete nature. Adolescence is, and always has been, a difficult period of adjustment, and anything that a system of education can do in making this adjustment easier should be done. To this end, we teach the boy and girl physiology and hygiene, that they may understand the mechanism which they inhabit, in its relation to life, health, and society. However, the physical adjustment is not nearly as difficult to make as is the mental and yet we give out knowledge of the workings of body, while we withhold from the student the simplest laws of the mind. When one considers the many perplexities which confront youth at every turn, the argument for the teaching of psychology in the high school, as well as in the normal school and college, seems indeed a valid one.