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01 January 1958, Volume 2 Issue 1 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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A GENERAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY IN CHINA PAN SHUH(Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica) 1958, 2 (1):  5-11.  Abstract ( 2116 )   The author introduced the general conditions of psychology in China in its historical order. First, he gave a brief retrospective account of the introduction of Western psychology to China in the early 20's. Then he pointed out the fact that in the later period of the reactionary rule of Kuomintang it had brought the psychological activities in China to a condition of complete suspension.The main context of the article is to narrate the development of psychology after the founding of New China: The correct leadership of and strong support from Communist Party, the enlargement of the team of psychological workers and the establishment of the Chinese. Psychological Association, the achievements in reforming thoughts and profession by psychological workers, the unison of psychological science with socialistic constructions in the 12-year plan, the present activities of Chinese psychological profession and some practical problems in existence. Related Articles | Metrics

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THE FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE IN THE FORMATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS A. R. LURIA (Institute of Defectology, Academy of Educational Sciences USSR) 1958, 2 (1):  12-27.  Abstract ( 631 )   The author presents a viewpoint concerning the formation of psychological process, in which human linguistic system is regarded as a participant in the formation of new connections. Typical to the activity of the higher portion of human nervous system, the ehtire development of psychological process in its high order is shaped through paths of complicated functional system. It is activated under the strong participation of his language.The form of social existence and tool of linguistic communication of children not only fill up their consciousness With new content but also give rise to new functional system and new form of psychological life.This viewpoint has,been Confirmed by many psychological as well as psychophysiological studies. These Studies have revealed very important the characteristics of the development of human psychological process, and statted to look upon what is commonly regarded as 《trait》 of immediate psychological life in the light of Some complicated functional system, a result of social development of lengthy iperiod. Related Articles | Metrics

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A GENERAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY IN GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC PAN SHUH (Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica) 1958, 2 (1):  28-37.  Abstract ( 744 )   After making a general review of the psychological science in German Democratic Republic, including its historical backgrounds, organizations, and plans for achievement as well as for cultivation of professional workers, the author considers the characteristics of psychology in DemocraticGermany as a close tie-up of theories and practices. Because of putting emphasis on the service to practical works, especially to productions and constructions, and because of attaining some significant success therein, psychologists have won support from various sides. Smother outstanding feature is a unification of teaching and research. By this unification, both are profitted. The technical side of psychology in Germany is also rated on a higher ievel.The author finally proposes that Chinese psychologists should make efforts to follow the examples furnished by their German colleagues. Related Articles | Metrics

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RESEARCH WORK ON PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC WOO CHIANG-LIN (Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica) 1958, 2 (1):  38-47.  Abstract ( 817 )   The present status of reaearch work into the psychology of personality in the German Democratic Republic is summed up under the following heads:1. The theory of personality and the method of studying it—The author briefly outlines the new theory of personality and new approaches in the field of personality research as propounded by K. Gottschaldt.2. The study of twin personality—The large-scale research work done by K. Gottschaldt on twin personality is described. Important conclusions derived from this study are stated.3. The study of personality through the psychology of thinking—The writer, presents a general outline of the 4 main groups of studies conducted by German psychologists, namely, (1) problem-solving ability, (2) tower-building ability, (3) mechanical thinking ability, (4) abstract thinking ability.4. The study of personality through social psychology—A sketch is given of a modified form of experimentation carried out by German psychologists regarding the level of aspiration, under conditions of both individual work and group cooperation.5. The application of the method of psychodiagnosis to the practice of socialist construction—The method of psychodiagnosis is widely applied in selecting young workers for verious factories, in characterizing the extent of abnormality of mental patients, in determiming the legal responsibity of juvenile delinquents. Related Articles | Metrics

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RESEARCHES IN PERCEPTION IN DEMOCRATIC GERMANY LUNG SHU-HSIU (Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica) 1958, 2 (1):  48-54.  Abstract ( 681 )   A brief note is first given on the close relationship between researches in perception and German psychology. Much emphasis is then put on the introduction of the research activities in perception carried out in the Institute of Psychology Humbolt University Berlin, Democratic Germany.Titles of research projects therein are listed, with illustrations of various methods and apparatus employed. Related Articles | Metrics

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NOTE ON TYPES CHARACTERIZED BY THE COUPLING OF THE HIGHEST NERVOUS ACTIVITY IN CHILDREN BY MEANS OF VERBALLY REINFORCED MOTOR CONDITIONING METHOD HSU SHU-LIEN AND K'UANG P'EI-TZU (Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica) 1958, 2 (1):  55-66.  Abstract ( 1042 )   We adopted Ivanov-Smolinsky's method of verbally reinforced motor conditioned reflex to investigate the characteristics of types in couplings of the highest nervous activity in children. This was done in the hope that it would be a start for further investigations of the typology of human highest nervous activity.Subjects Compriseds 43 primary school children of the first and second grades, aged 8—10. There were 3 basic experimental procedures: (1)to establish positive conditioned reflexes by means of a red light and an electric bell respectively, (2) to obtain the extination and restoration of conditioned reflexes formed with the electric bell and, (3) to establish the differentiation phase of a yellow light from the red light. In the mean time, each child was observed and investigated according to a planned outline.Experimental findings indicated that a group of children (10 in number)could not form the positive conditioned reflex. Even when the motor reaction occurred after the experimenter's instructions, it was easily affected by the inhibited reflex. Most of these children were considered by their teachers as pupils who observed disciplinary rules. The greater part of children, according to the principles of equilibrium and mobility, might be divided into 3 groups, namely, those with high equilibrium-mobility (17 in number), those with excitability (5 children) and the weak type (4 children). These characteristics agreed with those found in Ivanov-Smolinsky's laboratory. A small number of children (7), could not be grouped, for the time being, into any type.Experimental results were not always in agreement with observations and investigated materials.This method, to some extent, is able to disclose some characteristics with respect to equilibrium and mobility of the coupling function of children's cerebral cortices. But there is yet no indicator to show the absolute strength of the nervous process. Here, too, the reinforcement principle, as a method, becomes a main problem. For the elder children and adults, to form the conditioned connections through the use of simultaneous association of words and a certain stimulus may not be the principal form to establish the conditioned connection by the aid of words. Related Articles | Metrics

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A PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL STUDY'IN SPATIAL ORIENTATION OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN YEH HS(?)AN AND FANG Y(?)N-CHIU (Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica) 1958, 2 (1):  67-73.  Abstract ( 845 )   This experiment aims at investigating the development of spatial orientation of children in China.Experiment proceeded in situations, closely resembling playful activity, was divided into two parts: The first part was to search for toys "according to spatial impressions"; the second was to find toys "according to locations defined by verbal directions". The subjects were composed of 40 healthy Children aged 3—6, with 10 in each age group. Each child participated in both parts of the experiment.The following results were disclosed: (1) Children of 3 to 6 years old showed some age difference in discriminating directions. Children of the age-group 5 seemed to reveal a tendency showing tremendous progress in preception of direction.(2) The order of difficulty in discriminating different directions was: top, bottom, back, front, left, and right.(3) The age difference in discriminating directions and that in discriminating different directions were probably dependent on different ability to abstract and generalize, and on the level of differentiatial inhibition of the second signal system. Related Articles | Metrics

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HOW PAVLOV LOOKED AT PSYCHIC ACTIVITY AND PSYCHOLOGY CHAN YING (Tientsin Normal university) 1958, 2 (1):  74-86.  Abstract ( 819 )   For the sake of study, an attempt at classification into 4 stages of Pavlov's viewpoints concerning psychic activity and psychology was made by the author. The first stage, i.e., before 1904 when Pavlov received the nobel prize; the second stage, from 1906 to 1914; the third stage, from 1916 to 1927, when "Lectures on the function of the Cerebral Hemispheres" was first published; and the fourth stage, from 1927 to his death.The term "highest nervous activity" was first used by Parlor to indicate the activity of the cerebral hemispheres. At the later stage what he meant by this term had become a synonym of behavior, i.e., the psychic activity as what is commonly understood. This type of activity maintains the equilibrium between an organism and the environment. That which maintains the equilibrium inside the organism itself was referred by Pavlov as the lower nervous activity.At the second stage, Pavlov regarded psychic activities as mental ones, while at the third stage, what was meant by the term psychic activity seemed to be the internal reflective activities of man and higher animal. In his later life, he began to use external behavior to mean psychic activity.In the very begining, Pavlov very much looked down upon psychology. Even at the second stage, he still had a doubt as to whether psychology had the right to become a science. He regarded the defect in psychology as a lack of spatial nature, but he did not deny psychology to be a discipline concerning the human inner world. It was at the third stage when he started to indicate explicitly the possibility for both psychology and physiology to study the highest nervous activity. But psychology must be founded on the basis of physiology of the highest nervous activity. It was not until the last stage when he began to feel the way he rejected psychology in those early years as but a sort of "zeal", and proposed that psychology and physiology be mated. Related Articles | Metrics

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CRITICAL COMMENTS ON GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY CHU HSI-LIANG (Huachung Teacher's College) 1958, 2 (1):  87-100.  Abstract ( 897 )   Gestalt school revolted against the method of analysis and urged that the wholenessproperties furnished the problem most worth while in psychology. But Gestaltist did not recognize that an organized whole or a Gestalt was the result of the integrated processes of the analysing and synthesizing functions of the cerebral cortex; and the so-called "phiphenomenon" was also depended on the favourable conditions of the differentiation of time and space. It is unscientific and misleading to emphasize the wholeness-properties but to reject analysis.Gestalt school regards thought as relatively independent of sensory experience and considers "insight" (Khler) as pure thinking that does not come through traced associations or results of trial and error behaviour. Evidently, for Gestaltist, it is a "fact" that knowledge is not derived from the senses and man thinks without the help of a brain!Kurt Koffka stresses the importance of the "behavioural environment" and says, "The environment is always an environment of something, so my behavioural enviournment is the environment of me and my behaviour". In reality, this is a repetition of Avenarius' the "principal co-ordination", i. e., "the indissoluble co-ordination of the self and the environment".——There is nothing but a paraphrase of subjective idealism, while Kurt Lewin asserts that we must not merely consider the environment as it objectively exists, the environment also is psychological; it has meaning for the individual. For this reason, Lewin erroneously fabricates a new term, the "psychological environment" for the study of the broader aspects of human behaviour (Koffka's "geographical environment" and "behavioural environment" included). Ihdeed! This is a simple rehash of the "principal co-ordination", à la Koffka.In short, Gestalt school insists that the whole are given in advance of experience, or Gestalten are inborn units——This is essentially Kantian apriorism (Transcendental idealism). As a matter of fact, the notion of Gestalt is not very modern but it is "scientifically a step backward". Related Articles | Metrics