Introduction to the Study of Society
Book V Chapter 3
Certain Laws of Social Psychology —Social Intelligence and Feeling
Albion Small and George Vincent
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§ 177. Before proceeding to a more detailed examination of the psychical processes of society which have been either outlined or implied in Chapters I. and II., we must direct attention to certain important generalizations based upon observation of phenomena peculiar to Social Psychology.
The collective psychical labor of society displays several characteristic principles of activity, two of which are of marked significance, especially in their application to specific measures of reform. Our analysis, as a whole, has led us to recognize more fully the essentially psychical nature of society. All knowledge, therefore, of the laws which govern the fundamental forces of collective life should manifestly be deemed of first importance.
§ 178. At any given moment, the psychical force of society, together with the efficiency of the psycho-physical mechanism, is a fixed quantity. In other words, on any designated day, or for any brief period, the nervous force of all individuals, i.e. the intellectual power which they can direct toward one or many activities, disciplined habits of action, as well as all muscular tissues, technical devices, means of communication and other physical apparatus obedient to psychical impulse, constitute a certain fixed
( 333) aggregate of available energy. This total force consists of active and potential elements, which are complementary; any increase of the one causes a proportionate decrease of the other. This law has two important corollaries :
(1) If special psychical force is, at a given time, concentrated on one social activity, the additional energy must either be taken from the potential resources of society, or withdrawn from other activities. As a matter of fact, the former store is seldom large, even in a highly organized and well-disciplined community, so that the statement virtually resolves itself into the proposition that psychical concentration upon one activity involves a decrease in the energy expended on one or more other functions. This phenomenon is familiar to all who are close observers of social processes. When unusual popular interest is aroused in behalf of a certain movement, other affairs receive less attention ; many are quite neglected.
(2) It also follows, from the general law above stated, that the aggregate energy of society can be increased either by raising the psychical power of individuals, or by improving the efficiency of the psycho-physical apparatus ; or both methods may be employed at the same time. A few reformers seem to assume that social energy is an unlimited force, which may be simultaneously exerted upon many unusual tasks. The majority of those who seek to exercise social control, however, recognize the principle we have just considered, and adapt their methods to its requirements.
The period of interest and excitement which precedes a presidential election in the United States is a time of more or less depression for certain retail traders. Booksellers and librarians find that the demand for literature is perceptibly affected. Lectures of a general nature, concerts, and art exhibitions are likely to receive less attention at such times. Social entertainments are often postponed until after the contest has been decided.
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During a great strike, or an epidemic which engages public attention to an unusual degree, many ordinary social activities are slighted. It is not then that great reforms are started, unless they are intimately related to the question of the hour.
Again, while a nation is absorbed in a foreign war, popular movement for temperance or universal suffrage would be little heeded.
The "revival season" in an American village or small town is characterized by a very general absorption in religious matters, at the same time with a decrease of interest in other affairs of life.
The increase of psychical energy in society is accomplished by improved education of the young and by stimulating the intelligence of all. It is, in the nature of things, a slow process. A reform movement seeks to educate individuals, and to increase the efficiency of the psycho-physical communicating apparatus. Papers are established, books and pamphlets are distributed, lecturers are sent out. This increased volume of symbols is a distinct psychical gain, and reacts upon individuals. By these two methods, the sum of social energy is enlarged.
The training of a college crew illustrates the increase of psycho-physical efficiency. Eight raw young men, more or less ignorant of the principles of rowing, without a common spirit of enthusiasm and ambition, their muscles only partially disciplined, and their bodies in a state of only ordinary vigor, are turned over to a skillful trainer. In a few months mental and physical changes are effected, which produce a group of high-spirited, plucky, perfectly disciplined young fellows. They are animated by a sense of comradeship and by a common purpose which finds expression, through their splendidly developed bodies, in a rhythmical and powerful stroke that sends their shell through the water as though it were a living thing—a completely coördinated organism. Such increase in collective energy is possible only during a comparatively long period. Society cannot be improved suddenly.
§ 179. Social psychical energy cannot long be concentrated upon one object. While it is possible, by various means, to arouse public consciousness and to direct special attention to a given activity or institution, such interest cannot be maintained permanently, or even for a long period. The same tendency to change which characterizes the phenomena of Individual Psychology manifests itself in the processes of the collective psychical force. This fickleness
( 335) of the popular mind is turned to account by politicians, leaders of fashion, and others who depend upon the favor of the public. The advice to "strike while the iron is hot," to secure action while the people are thoroughly alive to an important issue, is born of experience. The way in which the favorite of today is held up tomorrow to popular scorn and contempt throws light upon the vacillation of social feeling. This "law of contrast," as Schäffle terms it, insures against the permanence of extravagant tendencies, prevents the disproportionate social development which would result from long-sustained concentration of interest upon one element of life, and thus, in general, secures a certain equilibrium of society.
Disclosures concerning " sweating " in a given city are made through the press. Meetings are held; sermons are preached; intense interest is aroused. To judge from newspaper editorials, popular addresses, and casual conversations, it seems certain that the evil is to be persistently attacked until it is eliminated. The excitement lasts for a fortnight, during which certain slight improvements in methods of inspection are decided upon. Gradually the sweat shops become an old story, and popular attention is directed toward a heresy trial.
Corruption in municipal affairs is brought to light. A "reform movement" is started as a result of unusual popular demands. The "machine" politicians seek temporary obscurity, confident that the storm will soon blow over and leave only slight traces of its sudden fury. They are seldom deceived in their calculations.
Fashions in clothes, manners, literature, and art afford excellent illustrations of the "law of contrast." Feminine apparel especially swings from one extreme to another with almost rhythmical regularity. The tournure appeared a few years ago, grew rapidly in size, until it reached alarming proportions, then suddenly collapsed, and left skirts hanging limp against the person. The "balloon sleeves" of the present season are approaching a climax, as they have clone more than once before during the century. We may expect soon to see once more the contour of the upper arm.
Handshaking is just now accomplished by the "smart set" at the level of the eyes, but a year hence may be done a yard below that point.
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Realistic novels and impressionistic pictures have their respective "runs." Dickens and Thackeray go out of fashion and come back again.
§ 180. Our brief examination of psychical structures, and of the phenomena and laws of Social Psychology has prepared us for a broad view of the life task of society as' a whole, and a study of the vital processes by which this work is accomplished. Society, in order to maintain its coherence and continue its development, must constantly readjust itself to natural and artificial conditions, for the organism sustains a relation of double reaction with its environment. Natural circumstances make an impression upon society, which in turn effects modifications in nature. These artificial arrangements again influence social perception, and are themselves further modified. Thus approximate equilibrium may he preserved by an endless series of social readjustments to progressive changes in external conditions. In so far as a society, large or small, meets the requirements of constantly modified circumstances, it approaches normal life. Failure to conform with these demands is followed by social dissolution.
The conditions which insure the survival of a society are : fairly accurate observation of facts, ability to generalize such phenomena into a body of trustworthy social knowledge, prompt and just judgment as to the value to society of given activities and objects, orderly formation of social volitions, and the coördinated and efficient expression of them in external acts. With these several procedures the remainder of our discussion will concern itself.
When we conceive of society in this way, we must remember that the assertion is true equally of a small social group, like a family or a factory, and of a city or a nation. Moreover, in attributing to a society, as such, the activities of observation, knowledge, valuation, volition, and execution,
( 337) we do not imply the existence of formally constituted centralized organs of social knowing, feeling, and willing, but refer to those collective psychical manifestations which in their totality take the more or less distinguishable forms enumerated above.
The invention of machinery produces new forms of social structure, which in turn demand new activities. If steam looms compel men and women to work and live under conditions which threaten life and character, society must solve the problem or suffer serious damage. Society may build dams and reservoirs, but unless the artificial modifications of nature are carefully watched, such disasters as that at Johnstown may be the result. Railways have revolutionized social structure, but collisions, grade-crossing accidents, boiler explosions, are possibilities against which society must guard.
When a track inspector finds an obstruction on a railway line, he does not telegraph to the superintendent of the road in order that the latter may instruct the nearest section boss to remove it. That would be the process which a literal biological analogy would demand. The discoverer of the obstruction either removes it himself or stops the next train. So in any society, large or small, innumerable acts are performed by individuals or groups under the influence of common knowledge and feeling. These acts, in the aggregate, constitute the executive functions of the society regarded as a whole. The fact that there are no central organs which receive all impressions, form all cognitions, make all judgments, decide upon all acts, and issue all executive commands to social units and organic groups, only proves that social life is not identical with that of a biological organism.
§ 181. Every individual forms a point of contact between society and its environment. His senses receive impressions which are transmitted along the channels of which he is a part (§ 102). The structure of the psycho-physical communicating apparatus has been fully described. (Bk. III., Chap. IV.) By means of this correlated system, observations are gathered from innumerable individuals, first into subordinate nuclei, then in a somewhat generalized form they are communicated to higher centers, and so the process
( 338) goes on until at the end of the series the result of the total observation is summarized, and becomes a social, as distinguished from an individual, product. One person may easily comprehend the result, but he could never have personally gathered the data.
All observations do not enter the social consciousness (§ 169). It would manifestly cause endless confusion even if all could know the experiences of each. Observations, as a rule, penetrate the social consciousness, i.e. tend to become a part of common knowledge, in proportion to the significance or peculiar interest which attaches to them. Thus, a commonplace fact may enter only individual consciousness, a more unusual event may be known to a restricted group, while an extraordinary or startling occurrence may stir a whole nation.
Although each social organ has its own structure for gathering impressions, there are, besides, organs especially devoted to the task of collecting the perceptions of individuals into summarized social observations, and putting these results at the service of society as a whole.
The gathering of a national crop report is a social observation. A large number of individuals in a given region report their personal observations to a central bureau which collects returns from a certain district and forwards its tables to a provincial or state officer, who in turn makes a summarized report to the central government, by which the total result for the country is made up.
Government departments conduct astronomical, meteorological, geological, agricultural, and economic observations which are eminently social products, and are of great service to all social organs.
Statistics represent the results of social observations which often extend over long periods of time and include immense areas. The observations upon which many astronomical predictions are based would be utterly impossible but for the cooperation of men in many generations.
A railway, a factory, a church, a family, each has its own structure of related individuals through whom impressions are gathered, yet all
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these rely upon the social observations of government departments, scientific societies, the press, and other special fact-collecting agencies.
A workman in a factory makes an ingenious device which helps him in his daily tasks. The fact is known to his fellow operatives, but does not go beyond that group. Again, the same man contrives a home-made bicycle which is an object of interest to the whole town, and is talked about in neighboring villages. When, however, the obscure, inventor perfects an appliance which revolutionizes a whole industry, the facts are published to the world, and enter the larger social consciousness.
§ 182. The process by which social observation is transformed into social knowledge can here, at best, be merely outlined. Psychology distinguishes between perceptions, i.e. impressions made upon the senses of an individual, and cognitions, or the combination and integration of such perceptions into generalized ideas. In a somewhat analogous way social perceptions, made up of individual observations, are combined into social cognitions, which constitute what may be termed social intelligence.
It is needless to point out again that individual observations are not gathered into a central sensorium, where they are organized into a body of knowledge. Cognition itself is a divided social labor. Every individual not only observes, but generalizes. Sometimes he reports merely his perceptions, but usually lie communicates his own conclusions. The individual cognitions are combined into general or social intelligence. This process of consolidation is effected by a vast number of organs, by the reciprocal action of authorities and their publics, by the strife of parties, and the rivalries of schools of thought.
The meeting of a scientific society affords a simple illustration of the formation of social, as distinguished from individual, knowledge. Papers are presented by different members who have been conducting experiments in special departments of science. The investigators report the results of their researches, and indicate the conclusions which
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these seem to justify. Then follows a general discussion, during which many speakers describe their own observations and impressions, criticicising, repudiating, or approving the theories which have been advanced. By this process, group conceptions are finally reached, which differ in some degree from the original ideas of any of the members of the society.
The weekly trade report of a financial agency is a social, rather than an individual, product. It represents a combination of personal conclusions, from a large number of correspondents in all parts of the country, who submit not only facts, but the generalizations which it seems fair to make from them.
A textbook on Political Economy, for example, stands for the consolidation of countless individual conceptions, organized, by virtue of long-sustained discussions and gradually accepted conclusions, into a body of social knowledge.
§ 183. It is obvious that a large element of error always enters into social knowledge. Ill trained individuals make careless observations and reach false conclusions. Many prejudices, resulting from inheritance, education, and temperament, increase the number of mistaken individual ideas. If, during the formation of social knowledge, these elements of error are not largely eliminated, the final product will be in so far untrustworthy.
The function of authority, as exercised by individuals and social organs, is primarily to dictate knowledge, opinions, and conduct. Manifestly, such power, if unchecked, might be the means of falsifying, purposely or unintentionally, the whole body of social intelligence. The reaction of the public upon authority, therefore, is a source of safety and protection. Where the public has too little psychical or physical force to influence authority, the abuse of power is almost inevitable.
A service somewhat similar to the check of public opinion on authority is rendered by political parties and rival schools of thought, by whose conflicts and discussions, many false ideas are excluded or eliminated from social cognition.
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The ingenious, off-hand explanations of social and physical phenomena which the head of a family often offers to his young sons and daughters have to be modified as the latter enter the higher grades of the schools. Through the reaction of the domestic public on the family oracle the group knowledge gains decidedly in definiteness and accuracy.
The ambitious scientist, eager to increase his fame, conducts experiments with most scrupulous care and reports results with all possible fidelity, not only because he is sincerely devoted to truth for truth's sake, but because he knows that his work and conclusions will be subjected to merciless criticism and revision.
" Educational campaigns" between political parties do not afford university training to the public at large, as one might almost infer from reading partisan newspapers and speeches; but however much these conflicts may inflame passions and arouse unreasonable prejudices, they do have the effect of eliminating the grossest elements of falsehood. The present contest in the United States between the free silver party on the one side and the gold monometallists on the other, both stimulates a more general knowledge of the functions of money, and makes clear to a large majority the absurdity and error of the extreme propositions of each group.
The controversy between Spencer and Weismann over phenomena of heredity is manifestly one of those intellectual struggles for survival by which the truth is gradually approximated.
The long and still continued warfare between individualists and collectivists has been productive of much social knowledge, which, without these parties, would have been unsought.
§ 184. The individual not only observes and generalizes, but he experiences feelings of pleasure or of pain ; he instinctively approves or disapproves a given thing or action, without consciousness of intellectual reasoning. Social feelings and judgments are peculiar combinations of individual feelings and judgments, organized and consolidated in a manner analogous to the formation of social intelligence. Individuals are constantly experiencing feelings which they express in appropriate symbols, and are making decisions of worth that are gradually combined into social standards.
( 342) These criteria in turn react upon individuals, and largely determine their emotions and estimates of value.
Feelings and instinctive judgments play a most important part in social activities. If every individual act were separately reasoned, the functions of society would be performed with hesitation and confusion. Through the instrumentality of the emotions, a common standard finds prompt expression in the feelings and decisions of those who come under its influence.
A man sees a driver cruelly beating a horse. The observer instantly has a feeling of indignation; he expostulates, and even interposes, in the poor beast's behalf. This is not a reasoned act. There is no conscious reflection as to the suffering of the horse, the brutalizing effect upon the driver of such indulgence in rage, or the influence upon society of unsocial persons of this sort. A sudden sense of disapprobation surges into the mind at the mere sight of the cruelty, and action immediately follows. A teamster might view the same spectacle with sympathy and approval for the driver. Manifestly, standards of judgment differ. Great numbers of persons during long periods have cooperated to produce a body of social knowledge, and feeling appropriate to it, about the treatment of dumb animals, and in this way a standard has been created which is communicated to the young of each generation. This standard, possibly reenforced by personal reasoning, determines the emotions and judgments of the man in question.
The lasting influence of feelings and of instinctive estimates of worth is illustrated in the survival among intelligent people of those superstitions which nurses and early companions communicate. Many a person of refinement and education avoids setting out for a journey on Friday, or feels a pang of fear at the breaking of a mirror, or the baying of a strange dog in the night.
The general indignation with which reports of election frauds are greeted in a community is a phenomenon of instinctive social feeling; it is an evidence that a standard of judgment exists which determines the emotions of individuals.
The spirit which leads to the lynching of a murderer is largely the unbridled popular feeling which is aroused by a crime of unusual atrocity.
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A young man brought up under the influence of total abstinence standards, instinctively refuses liquor, the sight of which arouses in him a certain repugnance. He can doubtless give good reasons for his abstinence, but the immediate decision is imposed by a socially determined criterion.
§ 185. Every individual, and every social unity or organic group, is engaged in making judgments and decisions. The same division of labor characterizes this collective activity, as was shown to be true in the cases of social observation and cognition.
Vast numbers of persons are engaged in economic appraisals which are symbolized in money, prices, qualitative grading of commodities, medals of award, premiums, personal commendations, etc. There are authorities in such valuations whose dicta have weight with the public.
Educational institutions, by prizes, certificates, scholarships, degrees, and other distinctions, recognize and reward personal ability ; i.e. express judgments of approval, which are in the main accepted by society as just and discriminating.
Critics exercise authority in dictating æsthetic judgments of pictures, statues, books, and music, but the oracles are so many, and their opinions so various, that only the vaguest general standards emerge from the chaos of estimates.
By honors, decorations, titles, monuments, popular applause, and the like, large groups, cities, states, and nations express approval and appreciation of individuals.
The same faith which the division of social observation requires, is no less needed in the formation of social feeling and judgments of worth. The estimates of authorities an I specialists must be relied upon. The individual must trust others to make many decisions which concern his own welfare.
Every building of any pretensions represents the judgments or appraisals of many individuals. All the materials have been selected,
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and they have been put together by experts. The owner of the house has relied upon architect and builder, and they in turn upon many others, to select appropriate qualities of wood, stone, brick, mortar, etc.
The college graduate receives in his degree the approval of a number of different instructors who have tried him upon many sides, and found that he measures up to a certain standard, which has itself been gradually formed from the estimates of countless individuals.
Men who have studied forestry and are imbued with certain ideals, are filled with indignation at the ruthless destruction of trees in many parts of the United States. The opinions and feelings of these specialists must he accepted by the public, who are compelled to rely upon expert judgment.
§ 186. Although knowledge and feeling may be treated as separate phenomena, they are in reality intimately related. Feeling illuminated by reason may be slowly modified. Violent prejudices, i.e. instinctive judgments of value, may be wholly changed by increase of knowledge.
Nowhere is the service of intelligence to feeling more marked than in ethical or moral judgments. The sense of obligation or duty, the instinctive feeling that certain things ought to be done, or that certain others should be avoided, may be regarded as innate in each individual, but reason has a large share in determining the concrete objects of obligation.
Sudden antipathies to persons or things often yield to a better knowledge of them. It seemed strange to people of average intelligence that a whole foreign quarter in a great American city should have recently revolted against vaccination. The feeling and judgment of these foreigners instinctively rejected the precaution. It is quite conceivable that in a few years such a knowledge of the nature and objects of vaccination might lie diffused in the neighborhood as would completely change popular opinion in this regard.
The ludicrous outcry against the first railways in England was a manifestation of a popular prejudice which, as knowledge increased, disappeared.
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Changes in ethical standards
are familiar to the student of ethnology and history. Individual and social
judgments as to lotteries have changed in a marked manner during the present
century. There was, undoubtedly, a time when slavery was an ethical institution
compared with the slaughter of prisoners taken in war. Polygamy once
unquestionably received the sanction of the most advanced societies. The
widening of human knowledge concerning the economies of nature and the essential
elements of welfare has gradually modified men's standards of feeling and
judgment.
§ 187. Feeling is the immediate source of volition, and as such is of the greatest social significance. Mr. Ward has well said that "the organization of feeling is the central task of Sociology." To elevate and unify standards of social instinctive judgment which shall exercise wide determining influence upon individuals, is a work of the utmost scientific and practical importance. When worthy criteria have once been fully incorporated in the psychical life of a group, large or small, the application of appropriate stimuli will immediately result in feelings and volitions of a correspondingly high order.
On the other hand, it is equally true that low standards and a general demoralization of social feeling constitute a most serious menace to collective life. Ignorance and errors in cognition are, it is true, a source of danger, but perversion of popular feeling is a far more subtle and destructive malady.
The phenomena of feeling make it plain that, for purposes of immediate action, stimuli, exhortation, and appeal to ideals, not logical arguments, are required. He who would be successful in social control must adapt his methods to the conditions imposed by nature. Reason has a place, as we have just pointed out, in gradually forming and modifying standards of instinctive judgment ; but when the time for action arrives, the appeal must be, not to intellect, but
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to emotion ; not to the rational basis of accepted criteria, but to the feelings which those criteria determine.
A general, addressing his men on the eve of battle, does not present an argument to show that it is logically the duty of each soldier to perform his part with fidelity; he does not lecture on the philosophy of patriotism. He appeals to them to fight for their wives and their children, for the honor and glory of their land, and to win the laurels of brave men, that their valiant deeds may go down in history.
While the average stump speaker makes a great show of argument, his real purpose is to arouse feeling, to stimulate party loyalty. He appeals to old watchwords, he refers to glorious victories in the past, and points to still greater triumphs to be won in the future. The opposing party is held up to ridicule, and every effort is made to deepen old prejudices. The very appearance of reasoning and proof is largely a device to flatter "an audience of such intelligence as this which it is my privilege to address."
The speech which Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Antony, when he addresses the Roman rabble over the body of Caesar, is a famous example of successful appeal to popular emotion, as well as of the formation of mob spirit.
An audience made up of people possessing in common a high standard of humanity, and lofty ideals of social obligation, responds promptly to an appeal for aid in behalf of a famine-stricken district. No logical proof of the wisdom, expediency, and ethical advantage of relieving distress is needed. The mere knowledge of conditions, skillfully communicated, immediately results in appropriate feeling.
The great preacher is he who primarily holds up high ideals of thought and conduct, and by his eloquence inspires genuine emotions, which issue in volition and action. The preacher cannot dispense with reason and argument, but these are subordinated to the main function of stimulating feeling.
Demoralization of popular feeling, the acceptance of low or perverted standards, is observable on every hand.
The tourist from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Paris, or Berlin regards the uneven and filthy pavements of many streets in American cities with instinctive disgust, and views the political machinery with astonishment. The average American citizen accepts such conditions as inevitable. He may disapprove intellectually, but he has little or no feeling on the question.
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Transactions of the most questionable kind, " corners " in food products, manipulation and "wrecking" of railways, "deals"of a dubious character, are reported in the press, usually in such a way as to emphasize the shrewdness and generalship of well-known operators. These facts do not, as a rule, arouse popular indignation, but rather stimulate feelings of admiration and emulation. The standard of popular feeling as to dishonesty, trickery, or abuse of power, on a large scale, is far from healthy, and reacts on individuals, especially upon the young, to whom unworthy ambitions are too often suggested.
Again, many estimable people tell, with evident satisfaction, of worsting railway and street-car companies, of getting children passed as under age or for half-fare, when they really ought to pay partial or full rates, of being overlooked by busy or careless conductors, and thus saving a ticket, or five cents. It is manifest that social feeling concerning such matters is not what the best interests of society demand.
Ideals, i.e. instinctive estimates of value, and impulses toward imitation and emulation, are powerful social forces. High ideals influence individuals in a worthy way, but false and low ideals are a source of great social demoralization. Mr. Rus tells us that the ideal of the street Arab is the ward " tough," or the harbor thief, or the professional burglar. Young men are often ambitious to be " sporting men," men about town, and the like. Such standards prevail in the groups to which they belong. Vice receives a measure of sanction or extenuation from the opinion of a certain public.
The increase of social intelligence is greatly to be desired, but, except in so far as it influences social feeling favorably, knowledge alone cannot save society from danger and disaster.
Social Psychology displays certain laws, two of which are of especial importance : (1)The psychical energy of society at a given moment is a fixed quantity; and (2) social psychical force cannot long be concentrated upon one object. Society, being in double reaction with nature, must comply with certain conditions, in order to preserve form and maintain existence. To this end society must observe, know, feel, and act. The processes of social observation, cognition, and feeling, or instinctive judgment of value, all are carried on as divided psychical labor, the products of Indi-
(
348) -vidual Psychology being organized, through the reaction of authorities and publics and the rivalries of schools and parties, into social
observation, intelligence, and standards of judgment. Social knowledge
illuminates and modifies social feeling, but for purposes of immediate action
the latter must be appealed to by exhortation and idealistic stimulus, rather
than by reasoned argument. The degeneration of feeling is a source of danger to
individual and collective life.
SUBJECTS FOR INVESTIGATION
1. A concrete example of an attempt to start a reform movement at a time when social interest was otherwise absorbed.
2. A description of a successful attempt to increase psychical energy by education and by improvement of the communicating apparatus.
3. The "law of contrast" as illustrated by the popular interest in the Russian prison system, described in Kennan's articles.
4. The progress of a local reform movement in the community where the student lives.
5. An illustration of the double reaction between society and nature by material and social arrangements in a given community.
6. Give examples of events which penetrate the social consciousness in different degrees.
7. Describe the national weather bureau as an organ of social observation and cognition.
8. Suggest the general process of forming the social knowledge that the earth moves about the sun in an elliptical orbit.
9. An observed instance of social knowledge resulting from the reaction of authority and the public.
10. An observed instance of social knowledge resulting from a partisan conflict.
11. Suggest the general process of forming the social feeling against prize-fighting.
12. Give instances of the changes which increased knowledge has wrought in ethical and aesthetic standards.
13. Give instances of the observed effects of perverted social feeling.
14. An analysis of a political address, to determine the relative proportions of rational argument and emotional stimuli.
