THE COMBINATION OF FEELINGS
BY C. H. JOHNSTON
The problem at issue in the present investigation concerns the combination of feelings. On the basis of theories as different in many respects as those of Wundt, of Titchener, of Lipps, etc., the feeling-state is always a unity. The affective process for Wundt must be always "coextensive with consciousness." When he chooses to speak of a "mixed feeling," it never for him signifies a "mosaic in consciousness," but is always a new Totalgefühl, which "swamps consciousness as a whole."
Titchener also believes that with every affective experience an inevitable and pervasive "tilting" of the whole organism occurs. W. McDougall, in his recent Physiological Psychology, makes the general statement that always a "massive state of feeling results" when many sensations are simultaneously excited, and that in such case we cannot "introspectively distinguish the feeling-tone of each sensation."
We started to examine by experiment and by introspection which feeling-effect really results from a combination of various impressions with affective tone, and whether it is really impossible that various feelings coexist and remain distinguishable. In case they can coexist, the question arises: What mutual influences can be discovered?
For the main part of our study the simplest possible feelings were chosen, because here presumably the subjects will not be forced to grapple with complex personal psychoses, necessarily confusing from their very richness. It was thought that here they could be more nearly normal, naïve, less artificial, and able to a maximum to rid themselves of preconceived personal opinions and unaccountable associations. Here, with simplest stimulations, unsophisticated necessarily, the hope at any rate is that work with a good number of subjects of distinct emotional temperaments may bring to light certain fresh simple introspective facts, which may in their turn offer valuable considerations concerning the psychology of feeling.
Throughout the course of the experiment, except in the advanced stage when more complex states were under consideration, sounds, colors, odors, simple figures, and tactual surfaces were used. In the late stage of the investigation sentences and pictures more or less morally and æsthetically suggestive served to furnish for study the complex feeling-states.
The progress of the investigation divides itself naturally into the following four distinct parts.
I. From every experience of each individual the investigator sought to obtain from the subject's own introspection at the time as adequate a description as possible of the particular feeling provoked by the chosen stimulus. The feelings studied in this first period of the investigation are entirely those which heretofore have not been at all classified except in terms of the objects which call them forth. Part I is concerned with single stimuli affecting only one kind of sense-organ, visual, tactual, auditory, or olfactory as the case may be.
Two requests were made of each subject, viz:
(a) To describe as clearly as possible how the particular experience felt.
(b) To report always all the accompanying physiological or physical processes which seemed to mean, to result from, or apparently only accidentally to accompany the stimulus judged by him to have a feeling-tone.
The work of the experiment covers a period of two years, and fortunately several of the subjects were available for the whole period. No subject was used for more than two hours each week. In the preparatory training with sensations from only one sense-organ, the range of colors, odors, etc., was chosen as follows: Twenty colors, and as many tactual surfaces, etc., were presented in turn, and each subject was requested to make his judgment as to the relative degree of agreeableness or disagreeableness of the feelings arising in the several cases. The scale of numbers from 1 to 7 served in the traditional way to indicate approximately the hedonic value of the feeling-tones, 1 signifying highest degree of pleasure, 2 very pleasant, 3 slightly pleasant, 4 indifferent, 5 slightly unpleasant, 6 very unpleasant, and 7 the highest degree of unpleasantness. Though the personal differences were in some cases rather striking, the individual subject from day to day showed a relatively constant standard. This was done in order simply to be able to choose approximately the stimulus in the individual case likely to call up the kind of feeling one wished to study more in detail, and thus facilitate the progress of the investigation. In this preliminary stage pleasant or unpleasant seemed to the subjects more or less an exhaustive account of these faint feelings. This was a means of eliminating practically indifferent shades, as there is here no special interest in the psychology of color as such.
II. Following upon this preparatory training, the second part of the experiment consisted in a similar study of the mutual influences of simultaneous feelings accompanying sensations from different sense-organs. How does the feeling of pleasure obtained from contact with a smooth surface influence the feeling occasioned by the sight of a pleasant or unpleasant object? Here, for example, colors were exposed in a large black frame manipulated by means of shutters easily opened or closed, at the same time that a tactual surface was being applied, or a tone from a tuning-fork was being sounded.
The introspection method was essentially the same here as in Part I.
(a) First, the subject was requested, without the necessary distraction of directing his attention at all to the bodily processes, to give himself up to the situation and to report as accurately as he could the kind of affective state experienced.
(b) Next, as in Part I again, in a repetition of the same experience, he was requested to be on the lookout for any and all accompanying bodily changes. The problem here was to discover to what extent the more complex state now in question would correspond to the specific and noticeable bodily reactions such as were noted in Part I, where single experiences presumably resulted. If different feeling-elements are in experience at once, can one fix upon correspondingly different suggested actions? Does the organism react to more than one situation, or to two sources of stimulation at once? Is affection present only when the whole organism is, to use Titchener's expression, "tilted" one way? Is the Totalgefühl the single undifferentiated result always, or can we here also detect such phenomena as summation, fusion, inhibition, and partial or total mutual reënforcement of the different feeling-components? Do the new reactions which seem to mean the feelings always refer to actions so inclusive as to result in the inhibition of any other tendencies to response, or is there sometimes a clear strife between two simultaneously conflicting feelings, two kinds of relatively self-dependent reactions both going on at once? Or again, when the hedonic or algedonic characters of two given simultaneous stimuli, such as a soft, soothing, pleasant touch with an irritating, exhilarating, invigorating but also pleasant yellow color, do not differ as to their pleasant-unpleasant character, must one be pale and empty "intellectual perception" when the other is being enjoyed? These are some of the questions that suggest themselves at once.
Not at this point, however, considering the dimensionality of feeling, the four simple combinations were first studied; such, for example, as (1) a pleasant color with a pleasant touch, (2) pleasant color with unpleasant touch, (3) unpleasant color with pleasant touch, and (4) unpleasant color with unpleasant touch.
III. This part of the work was an attempt to estimate the average time-interval in which feeling-tones develop, and what influences other feelings given simultaneously or immediately beforehand have upon the time-development of the feeling-tone in question. Will certain feelings hasten and others retard a third feeling whose character remains unchanged when it crosses the limen of awareness? Does the feeling, for example, aroused by contact with a soft, soothing, yielding tactual surface, put one in such a state that he will more or less quickly obtain pleasure from the visual impression coming from a soft rich red color? What effect will a feeling already aroused by a low tone have upon the time development of the feeling one gets from looking at a deep green color? Are there, again, pleasant feelings of certain dimensions which will be hastened by other feelings, and still others which, by the same means, will be retarded? If so, under what general principle do they seem to fall?
Here the time-development of a certain feeling-tone is taken when there are no other influencing factors. Then the comparison of this rate is made with the later reported time-interval when that feeling, again aroused, has been immediately preceded or accompanied by a feeling-tone from another source of stimulation. Here also feelings for colors presented in a frame, without any special suggestion of form in connection with them, were in like manner compared as to their time-development with the affective states arising from those same colors presented again enclosed in cardboard frames of special character. Some of these forms were very pleasing, such as upright ovals, small circles, etc., while others, frames cut purposely into irregular shapes, were to most observers decidedly unpleasant.
IV. Here complex feeling-states were in question, and evidence was sought as to how much could be detected here that would tend to substantiate or to call in question what seemed to be the fundamental principles of feeling-relations where the states are very simple. Further complications, such as three and even more stimulations at once, were tested. After this, feelings aroused by looking at pictures of statues were studied and described as accurately as possible. "Perry Pictures" were used. Dying Alexander, Venus of Milo, the Dying Gladiator, the Laocoön group, and Apollo Belvedere, served to introduce sufficient variety. Then copies of these same statues were cut out from the card and presented to the subject with the same colors before studied used as background. These were allowed to play their part in the feeling aroused therefrom.
After this, pictures more or less morally as well as æsthetically suggestive were used. Millet's Angelus and his Shepherdess Knitting and Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair afforded suggestion hints as to the contrasted motor significance of the complex states called forth. Here the attempt was made to find out in how far the feeling when once aroused is dependent upon the retained after-images or memory-images of the original visual stimulation, and what sort of feelings tend the longer to persist. Or again when both are taken in in quick succession, what sort of imagery and associations result. Are the resulting associations or images colored by both feeling-tones in any definite way? And if the feeling itself persists despite the loss of imagery, can it be referred merely to more internal sensations, or does there seem to be a necessity to consider it of purely central origin?
Such, in brief outline, has been the proposed method of study. In an experiment of this delicate nature there are clearly many things to guard against. There is danger that the investigator will unwittingly make suggestions to the subjects by his questions. There is a great danger of auto-suggestion on the part of the subject. The likelihood is also considerable that the subjects will fall into stereotyped forms of expression and general listlessness in introspection, where from week to week these simple experiences are being repeated for closer and closer examination. Again the special mood of the day will necessarily tend to affect all such feeling-attitudes toward slight stimulations supposed to have a feeling-tone. These and other dangers were recognized at the outset, and avoided as much as possible by such legitimate variations as could be introduced without changing the general purpose of the work. No subject was used when he felt, for whatever reason, unable to adapt himself to the conditions of the experiment. No subject knew anything of the recorded results of the others, and it was constantly urged that each person should wholly regard the present feeling in question, ignoring any remembered tone which that special stimulation had before afforded him.
It very soon became evident that the variations among individuals, especially as to the amount of feeling and the consequent ability to fix upon the special physical processes involved, were considerable. The subjects represent types. Hence, it seems necessary at once to mention briefly some characteristics of the persons themselves who have reported these various experiences. This was kept in mind throughout, and seems of decided significance in the interpretation of the recorded results. After an examination of the results of each individual, whatever remains that is common to all will be briefly summarized.
All the subjects were graduate students in Harvard University or in Radcliffe College. Seven of the twelve had had from one to five or more years' training in laboratory investigations. Two subjects were ladies, the rest were gentlemen.
Subject A was a man of bright cheerful pleasant even temperament, responsive, very musical, alert, physically vigorous, very careful in statement, and decided as to the distinctness of his emotional states. He uses his facial muscles a good deal while conversing.
Subject B is musical, sings a good deal, is not especially demonstrative, nor always able to become adapted to the necessarily oft-repeated stimulations from the same colors and tones. This subject is especially discriminating as to shades, and has decided preferences for certain colors.
Subject C usually found it difficult to find any decided feeling-tone for many of the stimuli used. This subject is rather reserved and undemonstrative as a rule. He is not at all musical, nor does he care for art. He is a rather cool but extremely careful observer, and is always guarded in his introspection.
Subject D is impulsive habitually, flashy, responsive, especially to any suggestion of an æsthetic nature, such as forms, and very decided as to his experiences. He walks with a quick nervous step, is sprightly always, vivacious in conversation and outspoken.
Subject E is rather non-emotional as he often says. He is very energetic, full of life, quick but not precise in all his movements, always on a tension, does not enjoy without effort anything so mild as the stimulations here used, and finds introspection of this affective nature difficult.
Subject F is careful, experienced in introspective work, musical, talks a great deal, enjoys this kind of work, has decided preferences, is athletic and energetic. This subject makes use of facial, arm, and shoulder gestures quite freely in general conversation.
Subject G has a penchant for talking a great deal, is decided in his likes and dislikes, musical, of an uneven temperament, sometimes cheerful, often cross, but always animated.
Subject H confesses he does not ever especially enjoy colors, nor respond with any sign of demonstration to any situations. He is steady, calm, apparently unruffled, and not an especially acute observer of his own states, proving in this experiment unusually undiscriminative as to simple experiences.
Subject I is rather morose, claiming to be habitually unmoved by even display of great passion or excitement. He finds it generally much easier to call up unpleasant than pleasant experiences, this being exceptional among the subjects. He is much slower than the average, and his feelings are not easily aroused. He is deliberative and confident as to his state of mind. He is nervous and often becomes fatigued before the hour's introspective work is over.
Subject J is nervous, of an uneven temperament, emotional, and quick to react to a situation of any kind, and, rather more than the others, subject to suggestion.
Subject K responds very quickly always, is habitually prompt and clear in statement, of an even temperament, and unusually interested in the experiment.
Subject L is unexperienced in this particular kind of work, but slow and careful. Though athletic, his movements are rather heavy. He is deliberate in speech and of an even, though rather undemonstrative temperament. He also is musical.
In order to verify my somewhat personal descriptions here recorded a questionnaire was given each subject to fill out according to his own personal judgment of his emotional disposition. This was done toward the close of the investigation, and the answers agree in the main with the descriptions offered above.
For the first month's preliminary practice, and with the purpose of stimulating curiosity and interest, and of testing the comparative richness of even slight feeling-experiences, a great variety of stimulations was used. Twenty different tactual surfaces from softest plush to very rough sandpaper served for the tactual impressions. Twelve different odors, as many colors differing in saturation and intensity, and tones from high and low tuning-forks, and noises variously produced, were employed as stimulations for the other senses. Besides these, circles, upright and horizontal ovals of various sizes, imperfect circles and ovals, and other irregular shapes were all presented in the same large black frame. When studied alone indifferent gray fillings were used. When complex states were in question colors served as fillings. When the subjects thus became accustomed to these very simple but very definitely felt experiences, in these for the most part habitually ignored affective elements of ordinary sensations, the investigation at once became narrowed to more careful and minute attention to a few of these feeling-tones. It was soon found also that odors could not easily be used in combination, since they effectively effaced all feeling-tones for the simultaneously given colors or touches. Five colors, fairly representative for all subjects of different kinds of feeling-tones, were chosen, and were used throughout the whole investigation. These were the following: a soft deep red, light brilliant yellow, deep pure green, saturated blue, and a dingy greenish-yellow. The dimensions of the exposed surfaces were six by six inches.
For tactual impressions of approximately equal value soft plush, velvet, and two kinds of sandpaper were used, and for tones high and low tuning-forks. All the above-named forms were used in connection with the chosen colors. The subjects differed considerably as to the amount of feeling that could be obtained from such material. The variation of kinds and of intensity in the same subject was sometimes noticeable from day to day, but not great. It is hardly necessary to give detailed quotations from each subject. The following summary of the results of the experimental work, however, contains nothing that was not frequently reported by a majority of the subjects. This, then, does not represent at all what was once or occasionally reported by individual subjects, but what after training seemed to be reliable and definite and constant feeling-states.