An Individual Study

In addition to the good life of an individual, observed from the viewpoint of his own happiness and his own actions the importance of an individual as of a social unit can be overestimated through the prism of the social theory.

In recent years this emphasis has come to constitute a popular basis for the interpretation of social needs, for the statement of social goals, and for the explanation of certain tendencies. Allport, for example, insists that only within the individual can we find the behaviour mechanisms and the consciousness which are fundamental in the interaction between individuals. And Watson points out that "the twentieth century promises to be an epoch in which man, after centuries of effort expended in the attempt to extend his limited knowledge of the universe, will take up the study of himself in a spirit of intelligent, active interest, striving earnestly, and in a measure successfully, to attain self-knowledge. The truth which will eventually make men free will be the truth revealed by patient, careful study of the human individual." So, too, psychology entering into the practical realm of education, and psychiatry into the whole field of social work, are approaching the social problem from new angles. And the newer efforts of the sociologists and social workers through the case method of study and work, in evaluating normality and abnormality combine to give promise of greater results for social science by means of a stronger emphasis upon the individual as one avenue of approach. The individual is of peculiar importance in the whole scheme of social study not only because he represents the objective of society and is an index to the promotion of the good life by the good society, but also because in him will be found the key to the understanding of society and its problems. The individual, socially related, is the smallest unit of society. The individual is the unit upon which the institutions are built. Individual and social differences represent the basis of much modern social study and social work. Thus the student of social problems must follow his inquiry into the good life and the highest possibilities of the individual by asking many questions concerning the individual himself.

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