Psychology Quotes

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

The gifted child is not merely a brighter child, but a child who is qualitatively different in his intellectual and emotional make-up.

Psychology cannot attain the certainty and exactness of the physical sciences, unless it rests on a foundation of experiment and measurement.

The phrase 'nature and nurture' is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates two coordinate factors of environment and heredity.

Clinical psychology is the study of individuals, by observation or experimentation, with the intention of promoting change.

Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born.

Psychology is the science of mental life.

Psychology has a long past, but only a short history.

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, but conformity.

The most important function of the ego is to mediate between the demands of the id, the superego, and reality.

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

The infant's relation to the mother's breast is the prototype of all later object relations.

The child's ego is not a passive recipient of external influences but an active agent in shaping its own development.

The quality of the mother-infant relationship is a crucial determinant of the child's subsequent social and emotional development.

The child's tie to his mother is not a secondary drive derived from feeding, but a primary drive.

The most important thing to realize about intelligence is that it is not a single, unitary ability, but a collection of different abilities.

The personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation.

The individual is the only reality.

The tendency to conformity in our society is so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black.

Behavior that is unthinkable in an individual who is acting on his own may be executed without hesitation when carried out under orders.