awareness—from the complex mode of cognition possible to man, to the far more limited range of awareness
possible to a frog.
The more complex and highly developed the nervous system of a given species, the greater is the range of its
consciousness—measured in terms of ability to discriminate, versatility of action or response, general capacity to
cope with the external environment. Man's is the most highly developed nervous system and his is the widest range
of awareness; the chimpanzee's is less, the cat's still less, the frog's still less.
Living species differ not only in their overall range of awareness but also in the sensitivity of specific sense
modalities; a dog's sense of smell, for instance, is more developed than man's. In judging a given species' range of
awareness, one does not consider the sensitivity of a particular sense modality out of context; one judges in terms
of the species' overall capacity to discriminate and to vary action in coping with the environment. (In the case of
man, of course, his greatly superior power of discrimination is a product of his conceptual faculty.)
The fundamental question to be asked about any existing thing is: Is it living or inanimate? The fundamental
question to be asked about any living organism is: Is it conscious or not? The fundamental question to be asked
about any conscious organism is: What is its distinctive form of consciousness? Every living species that possesses
awareness survives by the guidance of its consciousness; that is the role and function of consciousness in a living
organism. One cannot understand the characteristic behavior of a particular species without reference to its specific
form and range of awareness. Thus, the study of the psychology of any given species is the study of the attributes
and characteristics which that species possesses by virtue of its distinctive form and range of consciousness.
While psychology is concerned with all conscious organisms, it is primarily concerned with the study of man. The
psychologist's interest in other species lies, predominantly, in the light his investigation might cast on human
beings. The science of human psychology is the study of the attributes and characteristics which man possesses by
virtue of his distinctive form and range of consciousness.
The central and basic task of psychology is to understand the nature and consequences of man's distinctive form of
awareness;