MODERN PSYCHOLOGY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 2

MODERN PSYCHOLOGY

PROFESSOR FITT’S LECTURE OBSERVATIONS ON ANIMALS During his sabbatical year’s leave last year Professor A. B. Fitt, of the Auckland University College, spent a large part of his holiday in the United States learning all he could of psychological research in that country. Last evening at the University th* professor gave the first of a series of lectures on modern trends in psychology. His address dealt mainly with the observations of scientists in the mental behaviour of the lower animal? He found that “instinct” was no longer a magic word completely explaining the actions of animals, bur that certain species, notably chimpanzees, lived much above the of instinct and undoubtedly had intelligence. Professor Fitt outlined something of the work being done in the Phipps Clinic, at the medical school of the John Hopkins University, Baltimore, to determine the mental processes at rats. By State subsidy animal psychology was being studied nationally. The object was to throw light upon the understructure of mental processes and th* beginnings of mental activity. The investigators and other psychologists had made valuable contribution* to medicine and biology by approaching certain problems from a new angle. The resu’ts helped to throw light on the learning process. The speaker referred to the work b*ing done among the mentally afflicted at the Phipps Clinic, where there was a careful system of classification. It was unfortunate that New Zealand was still behind the times in the attitude of the public to mental disability. He knew of no institution In the Dominion with a similar atmosphere to that of the Baltimore clinic. The patients took a real interest in their own progress, and the outlook was one of hope for complete recovery.