Problem tendencies in children : a method for their measurement and description / Willard C. Olson, University of Michigan.

Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, [1930]

©1930

v, 92 pages ; cm

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"Human personality has become within a decade a center of interest for students in several fields of scholarship. Primary among those who have experienced a renewed concern in such problems are individuals and groups whose approaches emerge from basic interests in psychology, in sociology, in medicine, or in education. From these several sources there is growing up a new body of knowledge and belief about the nature of character and the means of producing and controlling it. Of major significance among our changing views is the belief that, personal maladjustment, whether it takes the form of delinquency and crime or that of mental aberration is not clearly dichotomized from normal- behavior. Extreme variability, the sort that calls for social suppression, bulks large in our thinking because its consequences are conspicuous crime or insanity. Milder personality disorders grading down from such extreme variations become increasingly numerous as they approach the usual behavior characteristics of normal persons. As the outcome of many studies, it becomes fairly clear that the incidence of personality traits, as well as that of conduct disorders, assumes the form of the normal surface of frequency. It follows that between the highly variant behavior of recognizedly abnormal individuals. and that of persons accepted as entirely normal there is a twilight zone where conduct is erratic, motivation more complex, and the controlling forces highly confused. Multitudes of children and adults fight the battle for personal integrity in this uncertain area. Accompanying this recognition of the widespread incidence of behavior difficulties is the growing understanding of the genetic character of human personality. The persons and things that surround an individual set the stage for action. environmental pressures impinge their stimulations to conduct, and infant and early childhood experiences trail the individual far beyond the date of their first appearance, sometimes playing superficially over the scene of mature life, but at times deeply coercive of adult conduct. Along with these new insights into human nature comes a clearer appreciation of the part that the school may play in shaping the individual for successful action in life. The school is society's most pervasive agency for this purpose, and its preventive function is seen to be even greater than its corrective service. Its obligation is to shape procedures so as to make desirable conduct the most likely outcome of childhood and adolescent training. It must sharpen its understanding, restrain its destructive influences, and make its whole program contribute to the making of desirable personality and conduct"--Foreword. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

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February 12, 2016

Modified form of thesis submitted to Univ. of Minnesota, 1926.