<div>EDITOR'S&nbsp; FOREWORD</div>

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<div>&nbsp; THE ENORMOUS GROWTH of scientific research and activity</div>

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<div>&nbsp; since World War II has included psychology as one of the</div>

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<div>&nbsp;recognized life sciences. Psychology now makes no small con-</div>

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<div>&nbsp;tribution to the rapid change in Western culture and civi-</div>

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<div>&nbsp;lization， a contribution that consists of a stream of new</div>

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<div>&nbsp;discoveries. There is also to be remembered， however， psy-</div>

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<div>&nbsp;ehology's contribution to its own maintenance. That lies in</div>

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<div>&nbsp;teaching， for every academic generation must train the next.</div>

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<div>&nbsp;The roots of psychology must grow if the branches are to</div>

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<div>&nbsp;spread and the seeds of new growth germinate in the class-</div>

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<div>&nbsp;room. Research would ultimately exhaust itself were adequate</div>

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<div>&nbsp;prior training of the scientists deficient. That fact is now well</div>

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<div>&nbsp;recognized in principle， if not always in practice.</div>

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<div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These short books are designed， in the first place， to make</div>

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<div>instruction easier. The ablest instructor is inevitably an indi-</div>

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<div>vidualist. He is never content to design his course to fit the</div>

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<div>idiosyncrasies of the other able man who wrote his textbook.</div>

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<div>A single text， moreover， seldom contains enough material to</div>

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<div>constitute all the reading a student needs. The instructor will</div>

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<div>wish to supplement his text and lectures and to have freedom</div>

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<div>in choosing what he shall add. The availability of many small</div>

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<div>books packed with solid reading enables the instructor to</div>

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<div>choose what he wants and makes their purchase by the student</div>

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<div>practicable.</div>

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<div>&nbsp;&nbsp; The other use of these books is to satisfy the intellectual</div>

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<div>curiosity of intelligent laymen. They are not so technical</div>

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<div>that professional men and thinking women who are keep-<br />

<div>&nbsp;ing an eye on the advance of civilization cannot use them</div>

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<div>&nbsp;to understand what the psychologists think and know. The</div>

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<div>&nbsp;philosopher， the historian， the lawyer， the physician， and the</div>

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<div>&nbsp;modern mother of grown children can surely employ these</div>

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<div>&nbsp;books in keeping up with the scientific times.</div>

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<div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Since World War II， psychology has been expanding in</div>

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<div>&nbsp;many directions， forming connections with social science， on</div>

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<div>&nbsp;the one side， and with biological and physical science， on the</div>

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<div>&nbsp;other. It has thus been said to be both &quot;sociotropic&quot; and</div>

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<div>&quot;biotropic&quot; as it turns now toward social science， now toward</div>

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<div>biological science. Scientific biology is older than scientific</div>

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<div>sociology， and thus biotropic psychology is older than so-</div>

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<div>ciotropic. As a consequence of its youth， scientific social psy-</div>

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<div>chology is at present less sure of itself than is physiological</div>

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<div>psychology or psychophysics， and for that reason Basic Topics</div>

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<div>in Social Psychology tend to stress the way in which facts are</div>

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<div>a function of method， to discuss how the facts were obtained，</div>

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<div>and sometimes to present contradictory findings. Such contra-</div>

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<div>dictions are no fault of the author， but rather that of the</div>

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<div>youthfulness of this science. With social psychology still wait-</div>

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<div>ing on maturity， these books give their readers an insight into</div>

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<div>a science that is still growing up.</div>

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<div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Edwin G. Boring</div>

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