William Stern

“ It is impossible to take an individuality merely as an aggregate of contents of consciousness; for, on the one hand, that which appears in consciousness is by no means identical with the real and essential kernel of individuality; and on the other, the multiplicity of the psychical content is combined into a single organic whole which can be explained only by a unitary purposeful principle of activity (aus einem einheitlichen zielstrebigen Ta ttgkeitsprinzip) . ”

“ Supernormal young people must be psychographed with the greatest precision and with reference to every sort of endowment. The significance of inheritance, milieu, and education in their develppment must be determined. We must discover whether there is not possible, even in early life, a clear differentiation between "infant prodigies" in the strict sense (i.e., children with accelerated development, who later soon come to a standstill) and real child geniuses, like Mozart, who afterward as adults retain their supernormality. ”

“ The Question of Individuality (individuelle Fragestellung) has to do with the knowledge of a single individual personality in and for itself, whether in relation to its total psychical makeup or in relation to a particular aspect, as character, intelligence, etc.
The study of individuality has, up to the present, been a matter either of the historical sciences (biography) or of certain practical disciplines (lists of individualities in schools, alienists' tests of intelligence, characterological indications of the graphologists and the like) . ”

“ All studies of individuality so far suffer from one common defect: The selection of the characteristics and attitudes which have been tested in the individuals examined has been a matter of chance, dependent on subjective preference or preconceived meaning on the part of the investigator. Each biographer has reported particular marks as "essential" for the characterization of his hero; the rest he has disregarded or merely touched upon. No two alienists have made use of the same experiments for testing the intelligence of their patients ”

“ In the schools, on the other hand, exceptional talents may remain undiscovered, because they cannot reveal themselves in the school machine, which must be adapted to the average; and thus they run the risk of degeneration. Kerschensteiner has discovered such instances in the case of artistic endowment. Finally the schools are dangerous for those of exceptional powers because such children do not have to bring their powers to maximal tension; they do not have to steel their wills and train their sense of duty. ”

“ New methods for the empirico-psychological investigation of individuality are now being worked out at different places in Europe. The correlation of psychical characteristics is being studied by Spearman and Kruger and by Heymans; Heymans, Sommer and others are engaged upon inheritance of psychic characteristics, the study of families and the like; in England the recently founded Eugenics Laboratory is especially devoted to this problem. With the problem of the mental endowment and intelligence of school children are busy Binet, Meumann, Stern and others. ”

“ Every individuality is therefore a "person" in the sense of the following definition: "A person is such an existence as, in spite of the multiplicity of its parts, presents a real unity, having a character and a value of its own; and as such exhibits, in spite of a multiplicity of subordinate functions, a unitary and purposeful self-activity." (Person ist ein solches Existierendes, das trotz der Vielheit der Teile eine reale eigenartige, eigenwertige Einheit darsiellt, und als solche trotz der Vielheit der Teilfunctionen eine einheitliche, zielstrebige, Selbsttatigkeit vollzieht.) ”

“ The testimony of adolescents and children demands special consideration. While the juvenile offender before the court receives a wholly different treatment from the adult, the juvenile witness is not thus distinguished, It is not borne in mind that the usual procedure of interrogation greatly diminishes the value of child testimony and at the same time puts the juvenile witness in moral peril. ”

“ It teaches, for example, that colors to which particular attention has not been given are especially ill remembered; that times of a few minutes are almost always considerably over-estimated; that the main outlines of an event, if they have been followed with attention and if the witness has not shared especially in the emotions involved, are commonly correctly reproduced; that on the contrary, things observed without attention are very liable to distortion. ”

“ The collection of such lists, questionaries and formularies of individuality, brought together in the Berlin Institut für angewandte Psychologie, shows that a veritable chaos reigns in this matter and that in consequence a comparison of the tests of individuality made use of by different observers is nearly impossible. ”

“ In these studies of little children a change from the method so far pursued is desirable, and in this direction, namely: parents must give themselves more and more to co-operative work in observation. The usual limitation to the first three years of life should be given up; many functions begin to show their most interesting development only between the fourth and sixth years. Observation, moreover, should not be confined alone to the most elementary functions ”

“ In the case of the complex functions again, it is very hard to separate the actual capacities of intelligence (Intelligenzanlagen) , which it is desired to test, from the objective effects of instruction, training, etc. Thus, for example, many of the alienists' socalled tests of intelligence are really tests of information and scholastic attainment. ”

“ The segregation of boys and girls in separate schools has always been undertaken chiefly on non-psychological grounds; and the supporters of co-education have likewise on their part been pursuaded that fundamental psychic differences do not exist. ”

“ In school and at home one has constantly brought before him reports by children as to experiences which they have had or stories which they have heard. It is clear that these reports are not worthy, off-hand, of full credence ”

“ The naive human being is much inclined to affirm any idea presented to him, that is, to credit it with an objective existence. Suggestive questions of this sort operate with especial force in the case of young and uneducated persons; more with women than with men. ”

“ The comparison of the facts and the report can be made only when the latter has been analyzed into its single statements (Einzelangaben) and the percentage of right, wrong and indeterminate statements has been calculated; and, because of the varied character of the statements, it is necessary to calculate separately the proportions for particular categories (e. g., with reference to matters of color or of space relations) as well as to make a general calculation. ”

“ Separate classes in the common schools for specially brilliant pupils; èlite gymnasia, with wholly different courses of study and different requirements, for picked groups of those most exceptionally talented, without reference to family or property ”

“ Just these natural attitudes resist all schematization as yet; nevertheless they are, on the one hand, the chief material of biographical-historical studies, and, on the other, in the case of psychographing a living individual who can be subjected to experiment, indispensable for completeness. In view of this, the Scheme must try to formulate more exactly the data with reference to natural attitudes in such a manner that they may appear as reactions to definite stimuli occurring in the course of life, e. ”