Since these tendencies are the result of responses to stimuli they may
be modified by attention either to the stimuli or to the reaction that
attends the stimulation. Four methods call for our consideration:
1. The method of disuse.
2. The method of rewards and punishments.
3. The method of substitution.
4. The method of stimulation and sublimation.
No one of these methods can be said always to be best. The nature of the
person in question, his previous experience and training, together with
the circumstances attending a given situation, all are factors which
determine how we should proceed. The vital point is, that both as
parents and teachers we should guard against falling into the rut of
applying the same treatment to all cases regardless of their nature.
1. THE METHOD OF DISUSE
This method is largely negative. It aims to safeguard an individual
against ills by withholding stimuli. The mother aims to keep scissors
out of reach and sight of the baby that it may not be lured into danger.
Some parents, upon discerning that the pugnacious instinct is
manifesting itself vigorously in their boy, isolate him from other
boys--keep him by himself through a period of a year or more that the
tendency may not be accentuated. Other parents, observing their
daughter's inclination to be frivolous, or seeing the instinct of sex
begin to manifest itself in her interest in young men, send her away to
a girl's school--a sort of intellectual nunnery.
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