The Science of Human Nature

The Science of Human Nature

Project Gutenberg's The Science of Human Nature, by William Henry
Pyle This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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Title: The Science of Human Nature A Psychology for Beginners
Author: William Henry Pyle
Release Date: May 31, 2006 [EBook #18477]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Teacher Training Series EDITED BY W. W. CHARTERS Professor of
Education, Carnegie Institute of Technology

THE SCIENCE OF
HUMAN NATURE

A PSYCHOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS
BY
WILLIAM HENRY PYLE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK
CHICAGO

COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
This book is written for young students in high schools and normal
schools. No knowledge can be of more use to a young person than a
knowledge of himself; no study can be more valuable to him than a

study of himself. A study of the laws of human behavior,--that is the
purpose of this book.
What is human nature like? Why do we act as we do? How can we
make ourselves different? How can we make others different? How can
we make ourselves more efficient? How can we make our lives more
worth while? This book is a manual intended to help young people to
obtain such knowledge of human nature as will enable them to answer
these questions.
I have not attempted to write a complete text on psychology. There are
already many such books, and good ones too. I have selected for
treatment only such topics as young students can study with interest
and profit. I have tried to keep in mind all the time the practical worth
of the matters discussed, and the ability and experience of the intended
readers.
TO THE TEACHER
This book can be only a guide to you. You are to help your students
study human nature. You must, to some extent, be a psychologist
yourself before you can teach psychology. You must yourself be a
close and scientific student of human nature. Develop in the students
the spirit of inquiry and investigation. Teach them to look to their own
minds and their neighbor's actions for verification of the statements of
the text. Let the students solve by observation and experiment the
questions and problems raised in the text and the exercises. The
exercises should prove to be the most valuable part of the book. The
first two chapters are the most difficult but ought to be read before the
rest of the book is studied. If you think best, merely read these two
chapters with the pupils, and after the book is finished come back to
them for careful study.
In the references, I have given parallel readings, for the most part to
Titchener, Pillsbury, and Münsterberg. I have purposely limited the
references, partly because a library will not be available to many who
may use the book, and partly because the young student is likely to be
confused by much reading from different sources before he has worked

out some sort of system and a point of view of his own. Only the most
capable members of a high school class will be able to profit much
from the references given.
TO THE STUDENT
You are beginning the study of human nature. You can not study
human nature from a book, you must study yourself and your neighbors.
This book may help you to know what to look for and to understand
what you find, but it can do little more than this. It is true, this text
gives you many facts learned by psychologists, but you must verify the
statements, or at least see their significance to you, or they will be of no
worth to you. However, the facts considered here, properly understood
and assimilated, ought to prove of great value to you. But perhaps of
greater value will be