of
social life. The gregarious instinct brings individuals together into
social groups, and probably also makes the individual crave
participation in the doings of the group. The sex instinct lends a
special interest to those members of the group who are of the opposite
sex, and the parental instinct leads the adults to take a protective
attitude towards the little children. Also, it is probably due to the
parental instinct that any one spontaneously seeks to help the
helpless. Self-assertion has plenty of play in a group, both in the
way of seeking to dominate and in the way of resisting domination; and
the submissive tendency finds an outlet in admiring and following
those who far surpass us. Thwarted self-assertion accounts for many of
the dislikes that develop between the members of a group. But none of
these instincts accounts for the interest in personality, or for the
genuine liking that people may have for one another.

Let a group of persons of the same age and sex get together, all
equals for the time being, no one seeking to dominate the rest, no one
bowing to another as his superior nor chafing against an assumed
superiority which he does not admit, no one in a helpless or
unfortunate condition that arouses the pity of the rest. What an
uninteresting affair! No instincts called into play except bare
gregariousness! {184} On the contrary, such a group affords almost or
quite the maximum of social pleasure. It affords scope for comradeship
and good fellowship, which are based on a native liking for people,
and not on the instincts.

Enough has perhaps been said to convince the reader that, besides the
things we like for satisfaction of our instinctive needs and cravings,
there are other things that we "just naturally like"--and the same
with dislikes--and that these primary likes and dislikes have
considerable importance in life.

Other Proposed Elementary Feelings

Pleasantness and unpleasantness are the only feelings generally
accepted as elementary, though several others have been suggested.

Wundt's tri-dimensional theory of feeling.

This author suggested that there were three pairs of feelings:
pleasantness and unpleasantness; tension and its opposite, release or
relief; and excitement and its opposite, which may be called numbness
or subdued feeling. Thus there would be three dimensions of feeling,
which could be represented by the three dimensions of space, and any
given state of feeling co