ABSTRACT
The concept of general psychology is of an organism reacting to the physical environment, and improving in doing so by practice. Individual psychology not only recognizes differences in human organisms but emphasizes the truth that, in reacting in his special way, each individual builds a self whose parts are so organized that what is done in response to a situation is not wholly determined by either the situation or the sense and motor apparatus responding, but by the personality of the actor. Social psychology shows that there is also a social determiner of conduct. It no longer assumes a general “ social mind ” of which each individual mind is a part, but emphasizes the truth that the individual is directed and moulded by companions and by the customs and institutions of the group of which he is a part. These influences are shown to have more to do with determining behaviour than bodily structure or physical environment. Realization of the importance of personal and cultural influences in human behaviour has led to the present deep interest in social psychology, which is concerned with these interrelations.
