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FOURTH EDITION

What Is Psychology?
Foundations, Applications & Integration

Ellen Pastorino | Valencia College

Susann Doyle-Portillo | University of North Georgia

Australia ● Brazil ● Mexico ● Singapore ● United Kingdom ● United States

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What Is Psychology? Foundations, Applications, © 2019, 2016 Cengage Learning, Inc.
and Integration, Fourth Edition
Ellen Pastorino and Susann Doyle-Portillo
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For Ellie Joan
You are beautiful — from the inside out.
You are fierce — chase your dreams.
You are loved — deeply and always.
—Nona

For my husband, Eulalio Ortiz Portillo. Tú eres mi vida


y mi alma.
—Susann Doyle-Portillo

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About the Authors

Ellen E. Pastorino (Ph.D., Florida State University, 1990) is a developmental psy-


chologist who established her teaching career at Gainesville State College in Geor-
gia. As a tenured professor, she created and developed the college’s Teaching and
Learning Center, working with faculty to promote student learning. For the past 20
years, she has been teaching at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Here, too, she
has worked with faculty in designing learning-centered classroom practices. Ellen
has won numerous teaching awards, including the University of Georgia Board of
Regents Distinguished Professor, the NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award, and
Valencia’s Teaching and Learning Excellence Award. Ellen has published articles
in the Journal of Adolescent Research and Adolescence and actively participates in
many regional and national teaching conferences. However, her main passion has
always been to get students excited about the field of psychology. Ellen is a member
of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and she served for 10 years as
the Discipline Coordinator of Psychological Sciences at Valencia’s Osceola campus.
She has authored test banks, instructor manuals, and student study guides. While
working as a consultant for IBM Corporation, she developed numerous educational
materials for teachers and students. Her current interests include reaching under-
prepared students and educating psychology undergraduate majors about potential
job and career prospects. Ellen strives to balance her professional responsibilities
with her love of physical fitness and family life.

Susann M. Doyle-Portillo (Ph.D. in Social Cognition, University of Oklahoma)


is professor of psychological science at the University of North Georgia. She holds
bachelor’s degrees in engineering and psychology. She has published articles in
journals such as Social Cognition, Contemporary Social Psychology, the American
Journal of Health Education, and Personality & Individual Differences, but the
main focus of her career is teaching. During her career, Dr. Doyle-Portillo has
twice been listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. In addition to her
teaching and research activities, Susann has mentored many undergraduate re-
searchers and authored several test banks, instructor manuals, and student study
guides. She currently serves as the Associate Department Head for Psychological
Science at her institution.

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Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Brief Contents

1 The Science of Psychology 2

Part 1 ▶ Foundations in Biological Psychology 39


2 Neuroscience 42

3 Sensation and Perception 82

4 Consciousness 126

5 Motivation and Emotion 170

Part 2 ▶ Foundations in Cognitive Psychology 219


6 Learning 222

7 Memory 266

8 Cognition, Language, and Intelligence 306

Part 3 ▶ Foundations in Developmental and Social Psychology 353


9 Human Development 356

10 Social Psychology 414

11 Personality 466

Part 4 ▶ Foundations in Physical and Mental Health 501


12 Health, Stress, and Coping 504

13 Mental Health Disorders 546

14 Mental Health Therapies 592

A Statistics in Psychology 635

B Applying Psychology in the Workplace 649

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Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Contents

1 The Science of Psychology 2


1.1 What Is Psychology? 4
Correcting Common Misconceptions About the Field of Psychology 4
Psychology Will Teach You About Critical Thinking 6
1.2 The Science of Psychology: Goals, Hypotheses,  and Methods 7
Psychologists Are Scientists: The Scientific Method 8
Psychologists Ask Questions: Hypotheses 10
Psychologists Strategize: Sampling and Research Methods 10
1.3 Ethical Principles of Psychological Research 20
Ethical Guidelines for Participants 20
Ethical Guidelines for Animal Research 22
1.4 P
 sychology in the Modern World: Foundations and Growth 22
Psychology’s Roots and Modern Perspectives 23
Specialty Areas in Psychology 27
Gender, Ethnicity, and the Field of Psychology 28
Psychology Applies to Your World Training to Be a Psychologist 30
1.5 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 32
Studying the Chapter 33
Are You Getting the Big Picture? The Science of Psychology 36

Part 1 ▶ Foundations in Biological Psychology 39

2 Neuroscience 42
2.1 B
 illions of Neurons: Communication in the Brain 44
The Anatomy of the Neuron 45

Psychology Applies to Your World Can Exposure to Wi-Fi Hotspots Affect Myelin in the Brain? 46
Signals in the Brain: How Neurons Fire Up 48
Jumping the Synapse: Synaptic Transmission 50
Cleaning Up the Synapse: Reuptake 51

2.2 N
 eurotransmitters and Neuromodulators: Chemical Messengers in the Brain 52
Acetylcholine: Memory and Memory Loss 52
Dopamine, Serotonin, and Norepinephrine: Deepening Our Understanding of Mental Illness 53
GABA and Glutamate: Regulating Brain Activity 54

vii

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viii Contents

Endorphins: Pain and Pleasure in the Brain 55

2.3 The Structure of the Nervous System 56


Sensing and Reacting: The Peripheral Nervous System 57
Voluntary Action: The Somatic Nervous System 58
Involuntary Actions: The Autonomic Nervous System 58

2.4 The Brain and Spine: The Central Nervous System 60


The Hindbrain 61
The Midbrain 62
The Forebrain 62
The Cortex 66
The Specialization of Function in the Lobes of the Cortex 70

2.5 Technologies for Studying the Brain 73


2.6 The Endocrine System: Hormones and Behavior 75
2.7 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 76
Studying the Chapter 77
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Neuroscience 80

3 Sensation and Perception 82


3.1 Measuring Sensation and Perception: Psychophysics 84
The Limits of Sensation: Absolute Thresholds 84
The Just Noticeable Difference and Weber’s Law 84
Processing Without Awareness: Subliminal Stimulation of the Senses 85
Extrasensory Perception: Can Perception Occur Without Our Five Senses? 85
3.2 Vision: Seeing the World 86
How Vision Works: Light Waves and Energy 87
The Anatomy of the Outer Eye 88
The Retina: Light Energy to Neural Messages 89
Adapting to Light and Darkness 91
How We See Color 92
The Visual Pathways of the Brain 95
3.3 Hearing: Listening to the World 96
Environmental Noise and Hearing Loss 97
The Anatomy and Function of the Ear 97
The Auditory Pathways of the Brain 98
3.4 The Other Senses: Taste, Smell, Touch, and the Body Senses 100
Taste: Information from the Tongue 100
Psychology Applies to Your World Why Don’t We All Like the Same Foods? 102
Smell: Aromas, Odors, and a Warning System 103
Touch: The Skin Sense 106
The Body Senses: Experiencing the Physical Body in Space 107
3.5 Perception: Interpreting Your World 108
Using What We Know: Top-Down Perceptual Processing 109
Building a Perception “from Scratch”: Bottom-Up Perceptual Processing 109

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Contents ix

Understanding What We Sense: Perceiving Size, Shape, and Brightness 110


Depth Perception: Sensing Our 3-D World with 2-D Eyes 110
Perceiving Form: The Gestalt Approach 113
Perceiving Form: Feature Detection Theory 115
3.6 The Accuracy of Perception 116
Errors Due to Top-Down Processing: Seeing What We Expect to See 116
Errors Due to Perceptual Constancy: Tricks of the Brain 116
Cultural Factors in Perception 118
3.7 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 119
Studying the Chapter 121
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Sensation and Perception 124

4 Consciousness 126
4.1 Sleep, Dreaming, and Circadian Rhythm 128
Functions of Sleep: Why Do We Sleep, and What If We Don’t? 128
Variations in How Much Sleep We Need 130
Circadian Rhythm and Its Application to Our Lives 131
Stages of Sleep: What Research Tells Us 134
Dreaming: The Night’s Work 137
Sleep Disorders: Tossing and Turning—and More 138
Gender, Ethnic, and Cultural Variations in Sleep 141
4.2 Hypnosis 143
The Experience of Hypnosis 143
Variations in Hypnotic Susceptibility 143
Explaining Hypnosis: Applying Neodissociation and Response Set Theories 144
Evaluating the Research: What Hypnosis Can and Cannot Do 145
4.3 Psychoactive Drugs 146
Variations in Drug Use 147
Drug Tolerance and Substance Use Disorder 148
How Drugs Work: Biology, Expectations, and Culture 149
Alcohol and Other Depressants 149
Opiates (Narcotics): The Painkillers 155
Stimulants: Legal and Otherwise 156
Hallucinogens: Distorting Reality 160
Psychology Applies to Your World The Mystery of Bath Salts 160
4.4 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 164
Studying the Chapter 165
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Consciousness 168

5 Motivation and Emotion 170


5.1 Theories of Motivation 172
Motivation as Instinct 172
Motivation as a Drive 172

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x Contents

Arousal Theories of Motivation 174


Self-Determination Theory of Motivation 175
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 176
5.2 Hunger and Eating 178
The Origins of Hunger 178
Psychology Applies to Your World The Obesity Epidemic 184
The Battle of the Bulge: Why Is Losing Weight So Hard? 186
Culture and Weight-Based Prejudice 187
Eating Disorders: Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder 188
5.3 Sexual Motivation 193
Sexual Desire: A Mixture of Chemicals, Thoughts, and Culture 194
The Sexual Response Cycle 195
Variations in Sexuality: Generational, Age, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Differences 197
Whom Do We Desire? Sexual Orientation 199
5.4 Theories and Expression of Emotion 203
The James-Lange Theory of Emotion 204
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis 206
The Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion 206
Lazarus’s Cognitive-Mediational Theory of Emotion 208
Communicating Emotions: Culture, Gender, and Facial Expressions 209
5.5 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 211
Studying the Chapter 213
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Motivation and Emotion 216

Part 2 ▶ Foundations in Cognitive Psychology 219

6 Learning 222
6.1 Learning from the First Days of Life: Habituation 224
Paying Attention and Learning to Ignore: Orienting Reflexes and Habituation 224
Possible Benefits of Habituation: Protecting the Brain 225
Dishabituation 226
Practical Applications of Habituation 226
6.2 Classical Conditioning: Learning Through the Association of Stimuli 227
The Elements of Classical Conditioning 228
Factors Affecting Classical Conditioning 231
Real-World Applications of Classical Conditioning 232
Extinction of Classically Conditioned Responses 236
Psychology Applies to Your World Using Taste Aversion to Help People 237
6.3 Operant Conditioning: Learning from the Consequences of Our Actions 239
E. L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect 239
B. F. Skinner and the Experimental Study of Operant Conditioning 242
Acquisition and Extinction 244
Schedules of Reinforcement 245

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Contents xi

Discrimination and Generalization 249


Shaping New Behaviors 249
Decisions That Must Be Made When Using Operant Conditioning 250
The Role of Cognition in Learning 255
6.4 Observational Learning or Modeling: Learning by Watching Others 257
Albert Bandura and the Bobo Doll Experiments 257
Observational Learning and Cognition 259
6.5 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 261
Studying the Chapter 261
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Learning 264

7 Memory 266
7.1 The Functions of Memory: Encoding, Storing, and Retrieving 268
Explicit and Implicit Memory 268

7.2 The Development of New Memories 269


The Traditional Three-Stages Model of Memory 269
The Capacity of Short-Term Memory: Seven (Plus or Minus Two) 272
The Duration of Short-Term Memory: It’s Yours for 30 Seconds 273
Elaborative Rehearsal: Making Memories Stick 274
Levels of Processing 275
The Serial-Position Curve and Age-related Changes in Memory 276
The Working Memory Model: Parallel Memory 278
7.3 Long-Term Memory: Permanent Storage 281
The Capacity of Long-Term Memory 281
Encoding in Long-Term Memory 281
Organization in Long-Term Memory 282
Declarative and Procedural Long-Term Memories 283
Amnesia: What Forgetting Can Teach Us About Memory 286
7.4 Retrieval and Forgetting in Long-Term Memory 288
Recognition and Recall 288
Forgetting: Why Can’t I Remember That? 289
Psychology Applies to Your World Tips for Improving Your Memory 290
7.5 The Accuracy of Memory 295
Memory Is Not Like a Video Camera 295
Eyewitness Memory 296
7.6 The Biology of Memory 297
7.7 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 300
Studying the Chapter 301
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Memory 304

8 Cognition, Language, and Intelligence 306


8.1 Thinking: How We Use What We Know 308
Visual Images: How Good Is the Mental Picture? 308
Concepts: How We Organize What We Know 310

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xii Contents

8.2 Problem Solving: Putting Our Thinking to Good Use 315


Well-Structured and Ill-Structured Problems 315
Creativity: Overcoming Obstacles to Problem Solving 317
8.3 Reasoning, Decision Making, and Judgment 319
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning 319
Dialectical Reasoning or Thinking 319
Decision Making: Outcomes and Probabilities 320
Judgments: Estimating the Likelihood of Events 321
8.4 
Language: Communication, Thought, and Culture 323
How Humans Acquire Language 324
The Function of Language in Culture and Perception 326
Psychology Applies to Your World Are Humans the Only Animals to Use Language? 328
8.5 Defining and Measuring Intelligence 330
Measuring Intelligence by Abilities and IQs 330
The Nature of Intelligence: The Search Continues 335
Nature, Nurture, and IQ: Are We Born Intelligent, or Do We Learn to Be? 339
Diversity in Intelligence: Race, Gender, and Age 341
8.6 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 346
Studying the Chapter 347
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Cognition, Language, and Intelligence 350

Part 3 ▶ Foundations in Developmental and Social Psychology 353

9 Human Development 356


9.1 Human Development: How Does It All Begin? 358
Nature-Nurture Revisited: How Biology and Culture Lead to Diversity 358
Prenatal Development 359
Application: The Importance of a Positive Prenatal Environment 360
9.2 Physical Development in Infancy and Childhood 362
Brain Development 362
Reflexes and Motor Development 363
9.3 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood 365
Perceptual Development: Gathering Information from the Environment 365
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development 367
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development: Culture and Thinking 372
Moral Reasoning: How We Think About Right and Wrong 373
9.4 Psychosocial Development in Infancy and Childhood 376
Temperament: The Influence of Biology 376
Attachment: Learning About Relationships 377
Variations in Parenting Styles 379
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development: The Influence of Culture 380
Gender-Role Development 382

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Contents xiii

9.5 Physical Changes in Adolescence and Adulthood 385


Puberty: Big Changes, Rapid Growth, and Impact on Behavior 386
Brain Changes in Adolescence and Adulthood 387
Physical Changes from Early to Later Adulthood 389
Gender and Reproductive Capacity 390
9.6 Cognitive Changes in Adolescence and Adulthood 391
Formal Operations Revisited: Applying Cognition to Adolescent Behavior 391
Postformal Thought: Developing Adult Reasoning 393
Changes in Mental Abilities 393
9.7 Psychosocial Changes in Adolescence and Adulthood 395
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Adolescence and Adulthood 395
Emerging Adulthood 397
Variations in Social Relations in Adolescence and Adulthood 398
Parenting 402
Psychology Applies to Your World Career Development 404
9.8 Death and Dying 405
Emotional Reactions to Death: Kübler-Ross’s Stages 405
Bereavement and Grief: How We Respond to Death 406
9.9 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 408
Studying the Chapter 409
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Human Development 412

10 Social Psychology  414


10.1 Evaluating the World: Attitudes 416
Acquiring Attitudes Through Learning 416
Attitude-Behavior Consistency 417
Cognitive Consistency and Attitude Change 418
Persuasion and Attitude Change 419
10.2 Forming Impressions of Others 422
The Attribution Process 422
Heuristics and Biases in Attribution 422
10.3 Prejudice: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? 426
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination 426
Stereotype Threat: Prejudice Can Be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 427
Psychology Applies to Your World The Duplex Mind and Prejudice 428
Social Transmission of Prejudice 429
Intergroup Dynamics and Prejudice 431
Reducing Prejudice in the Real World 433
10.4 Being Drawn to Others: The Nature of Attraction 435
Proximity and Exposure: Attraction to Those Who Are Nearby 435
Similarity: Having Things in Common 436
The Importance of Physical Attractiveness 437
The “Chemistry” of Lust, Love, and Romance 438

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xiv Contents

10.5 Group Influence 439


Social Forces Within Groups: Norms and Cohesiveness 439
Conformity Within a Group 441
Is Working in a Group Better Than Working Alone? 443
10.6 R
 equests and Demands: Compliance and Obedience 446
Compliance Techniques: Getting People to Say “Yes” 446
Obedience: Doing What We Are Told to Do 448
10.7 Aggression: Hurting Others 453
Biological Theories of Aggression 454
Learning Theories of Aggression 455
Situations That Promote Aggressive Behavior 456
10.8 Choosing to Help Others: Prosocial Behavior 457
The Murder of Kitty Genovese 457
The Bystander Effect 458
Choosing to Help 458
10.9 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 460
Studying the Chapter 461
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Social Psychology 464

11 Personality  466
11.1 The Psychoanalytic Approach: Sigmund Freud and the Neo-Freudians 468
Freud’s Levels of Awareness 468
Freud’s Structure of Personality 469
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development 470
Neo-Freudian Theories Explaining Variations in Personality: Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney 473
Contributions and Criticisms of the Psychoanalytic Approach 474
11.2 The Trait Approach: Consistency and Stability in Personality 475
Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory 476
Psychology Applies to Your World Are You a Sensation Seeker? 476
Raymond Cattell’s Factor Analytic Trait Theory 478
Hans Eysenck Narrows the Traits: The PEN Model 478
The Five Factor Trait Theory 480
Genetic Contributions to Personality 481
Stability and Change in Personality 482
Contributions and Criticisms of the Trait Approach 484
11.3 The Social Cognitive Approach: The Environment and Patterns of Thought 485
Reciprocal Determinism: Albert Bandura’s Interacting Forces 485
Julian Rotter’s Locus of Control: Internal and External Expectations 486
Contributions and Criticisms of the Social Cognitive Approach 486
11.4 T he Humanistic Approach: Free Will and Self-Actualization 487
Abraham Maslow and the Hierarchy of Needs Theory 487
Carl Rogers and Self Theory 488
Contributions and Criticisms of the Humanistic Approach 490
11.5 Scientifically Measuring Personality 490

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Contents xv

Personality Inventories: Mark Which One Best Describes You 491


Projective Tests: Tell Me What You See 492
Rating Scales and Direct Observation 493
Clinical Interviews 494
11.6 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 494
Studying the Chapter 495
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Personality 498

Part 4 ▶ Foundations in Physical and Mental Health 501

12 Health, Stress, and Coping  504


12.1 What Is Stress? Stress and Stressors 506
Life Events: Change Is Stressful 506
Catastrophes: Natural Disasters and Wars 510
Daily Hassles: Little Things Add Up! 510
Conflict: Approach and Avoidance 512
12.2 The Stress Response 514
Cognitive Appraisal: Assessing Stress 515
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome: The Body’s Response to Stress 516
Gender and the Stress Response 518
Stress and the Immune System: Resistance to Disease 518
12.3 Coping with Stress 520
Problem-Focused Coping: Change the Situation 520
Emotion-Focused Coping: Change Your Reaction 521
Managing Stress: Applying the Research 523
12.4 Personality and Health 527
Type A Personality: Ambition, Drive, and Competitiveness 527
Learned Helplessness: I Can’t Do It 529
The Hardy Personality: Control, Commitment, and Challenge 530
12.5 Lifestyle, Health, and Well-Being 531
Health-Defeating Behaviors 531
Psychology Applies to Your World Technology’s Health Effects 533
Health-Promoting Behaviors 536
Happiness and Well-Being 538
12.6 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 539
Studying the Chapter 541
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Health, Stress, and Coping 544

13 Mental Health Disorders  546


13.1 What Is Abnormal Behavior? 548
Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders 548
Explaining Abnormal Behavior: Perspectives Revisited 549

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xvi Contents

13.2 The DSM Model for Classifying Abnormal Behavior 551


The Structure of the DSM 551
How Good Is the DSM Model? 554
13.3 Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Trauma-Related Disorders: It’s Not Just “Nerves” 555
Components of Excessive Anxiety 555
Types of Excessive Anxiety Disorders 556
Research Explaining Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Trauma-Related Disorders 560
13.4 Dissociative and Somatic Symptom Disorders: Other Forms of Anxiety? 564
Dissociative Disorders: Multiple Personalities 564
Somatic Symptom Disorders: “Doctor, I’m Sure I’m Sick” 565
13.5 Mood Disorders: Beyond the Blues 567
Depressive Disorders: A Change to Sadness 567
Bipolar-Related Disorders: The Presence of Mania 569
Research Explaining Mood Disorders 569
Psychology Applies to Your World Suicide Facts and Misconceptions 570
Gender and Depression 574

13.6 Schizophrenia: Disintegration 576


Individual Variations: Onset, Gender, Ethnicity, and Prognosis 577
Symptoms of Schizophrenia 578
Research Explaining Schizophrenia: Genetics, the Brain, and the Environment 579
13.7 P
 ersonality Disorders: Maladaptive Patterns of Behavior 582
Antisocial Personality Disorder: Impulsive and Dangerous 583
Borderline Personality Disorder: Living on Your Fault Line 584
13.8 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 586
Studying the Chapter 587
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Mental Health Disorders 590

14 Mental Health Therapies  592


14.1 Providing Psychological Assistance 594
Psychotherapy versus Biomedical Therapy 594
Who Is Qualified to Give Therapy? 594
Ethical Standards for Psychotherapists 595
Psychology Applies to Your World When Does One Need to Consider Therapy? 597
Seeking Therapy 598

14.2 Psychoanalytic Therapies: Uncovering Unconscious Conflicts 598


Traditional Psychoanalysis 599
Modern Psychoanalysis 600
14.3 Humanistic Therapy: Facilitating Self-Actualization 600
The Aim of Humanistic Therapy Approaches 601
Client-Centered Therapy: Three Key Ingredients 601
14.4 B
 ehavior Therapies: Learning Healthier Behaviors 603
Applying Classical Conditioning Techniques in Therapy 603
Applying Operant Conditioning Techniques in Therapy 607

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Contents xvii

14.5 Cognitive Therapies: Changing Thoughts 609


Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Therapy: Reinterpret One’s Viewpoint 609
Beck’s Cognitive Therapy: Replace Negative Thoughts 610
14.6 Group Therapy Approaches: Strength in Numbers 613
The Benefits of Group Therapy 613
The Nature and Types of Group Therapy 613
14.7 E
 ffective Psychotherapy: Do Treatments Work? 616
Conducting Research on Therapy’s Effectiveness 616
Factors That Contribute to Effective Psychotherapy 618
The Effectiveness and Ethics of Technology in the Delivery of Psychotherapy 619
14.8 Biomedical Therapies: Applying Neuroscience 620
Drug Therapies: Chemically Altering the Brain 620
Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Procedures: TMS and ECT 626
Psychosurgery: Deep Brain Stimulators and Targeted Brain Lesions 627
14.9 Integrating Psychology: The Big Picture 628
Studying the Chapter 629
Are You Getting the Big Picture? Mental Health Therapies 632

A Statistics in Psychology  635


A.1 Using Statistics to Describe Data 635
Graphs: Depicting Data Visually 636
Measures of Central Tendency: Means, Medians, and Modes 638
Measures of Variability: Analyzing the Distribution of Data 640
Normal and Standard Normal Distributions 641
The Correlation Coefficient: Measuring Relationships 642
A.2 Using Statistics to Draw Conclusions 645
A.3 Summary 646
Studying the Appendix 647

B Applying Psychology in the Workplace  649


B.1 Industrial and Organizational Psychology 649
Work in Our Lives 650
Types of Jobs 651
B.2 Selecting Employees: The Hiring Process 652
Job Analysis 652
Testing 653
Legal Issues 653
Recruitment 655
Making the Decision 656
B.3 Socializing Employees: Culture, Groups, Leadership, and Performance Appraisal 657
Organizational Culture and Climate 657
Groups and Teams 658

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xviii Contents

Leadership 658
Performance Appraisal 659
B.4 Employee Satisfaction: Attitudes and Behaviors at Work 661
Attitudes at Work 661
Behaviors at Work 663
Relation Between Attitude and Behavior 664
B.5 Summary 665
Studying the Appendix 665

Glossary 667
References 689
Name Index 775
Subject Index 807

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Preface

Together, we have more than 50 years of experience teach- sitting around him if they had read the reading assign-
ing Introductory Psychology. We have each spent the bulk ment—most replied they had not. He then said, “I read
of our careers teaching multiple sections of Introductory it, but man, I have no idea what they were saying in that
Psychology each semester—it is our bread and butter, so to chapter!” If we want students to read their textbooks, we
speak. So, it’s a good thing that Introductory Psychology is will have to give them books that they will want to read,
also our favorite course. Contrary to what many may think and that means giving them a book that they can under-
of professors teaching the same course over and over, it stand and one that they find relevant enough to be worth
never grows old for us. Teaching Introductory Psychology the time it takes to read. Motivating students to read is
allows us to touch on many different aspects of our fas- our primary mission, and we wrote What Is Psychology?
cinating field and to work with diverse students from all Foundations, Applications and Integration to give students
walks of life, such that no two classes are ever alike. a textbook that they would find interesting to read, easy
The uniqueness of each class is just one of the challeng- to read, and memorable.
es that keeps us excited about teaching this course. There
are others. Introductory Psychology classes are often full of
students who are just beginning their college careers—some Our Mission: Giving Students an Integrated
are fresh from high school; others are returning, nontradi-
tional students who’ve been out of the classroom for sev- View of Psychology that Aligns with APA
eral years. They come to us with the desire to learn about Guidelines
psychology, but often they face serious obstacles. Some are Getting students to read their textbook is a primary goal
overworked in their personal lives. Some have lingering of all instructors. Another important goal is providing
academic challenges. And most expect learning to be easier students with a comprehensive and integrated view of
than we know it to be. A big part of our mission is to help the field of psychology. We have long advocated for a
students overcome these obstacles and obtain success. “Big Picture” approach to the teaching of psychology, and
our previous editions of What Is Psychology? emphasized
the integrated nature of psychology as a field. Through
Our Mission: Motivating Students to Read the use of case studies that were woven throughout the
Getting students to read their textbook in preparation for chapters and through continually referring to material in
classes and exams is one of the biggest problems we face other chapters, What Is Psychology? encouraged students
as instructors. Like many professors, our experience has to see psychology as a whole rather than as a sum of
been that few students read assigned chapters prior to many parts.
class, and some even fail to read the chapters by the time The need to provide Introductory Psychology students
they take exams. For years, we have tried various meth- with an integrated view of psychology has also been recog-
ods of motivating students to read—pop quizzes, reading nized by the American Psychological Association (APA).
quizzes, test questions from material in the book but not In March 2014, the APA released guidelines for strength-
covered in class, and so on. None of these methods seemed ening the Common Core in the Introductory Psychology
to have much of an impact on students. course. A prominent theme in these guidelines is that all
Students’ free time is, of course, in short supply. And Introductory Psychology courses should present students
when they do have free time, reading a textbook doesn’t with a “big picture” view of psychology that integrates the
always seem like an attractive option. Students often find different perspectives that psychologists take in examin-
their texts difficult to read, boring, and full of content ing mental processes and behavior. Furthermore, in pre-
that is far removed from the concerns of their daily lives. senting this integrated view of psychology, Introductory
One of us overheard students speaking before class the Psychology courses should highlight the common themes
second week of the semester. One student asked those that tie the different perspectives or areas of psychology

xix

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xx Preface

together—themes that include the scientific method of re- Goal 3: Ethical and Social Responsibility in a
search, diversity and variations seen in human behavior, Diverse World
the applicability of psychology to real life, and the ethics
Learning Outcomes 3.1–3.3 pertain to students’ under-
that guide psychological research and practice.
standing and use of ethical standards to build interperson-
This call for a Common Core in introductory courses
al relationships and communities.
places the Introductory Psychology course in line with the
broader APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology 3.1 Apply ethical standards to evaluate psychological sci-
Major Version 2.0 (APA, 2013). These new guidelines for ence and practice
the major contain the learning goals that students should 3.2 Build and enhance interpersonal relationships
attain by the time they complete an undergraduate de- 3.3 Adopt values that build community at local, national,
gree in psychology. Each of these goals is broken down and global levels
into a series of specific learning outcomes that are divided
into two levels. The first level defines goals that students
should attain during their first three or four “foundation- Goal 4: Communication
al” psychology courses, while the second level defines Learning Outcomes 4.1–4.3 pertain to students’ demonstra-
goals for what students should achieve by the completion tion of effective writing, presentation, and interpersonal
of their degree program. Introductory psychology is clear- communication skills.
ly often the first foundation course taken by students who 4.1 Demonstrate effective writing for different purposes
may take just a few psychology classes or decide to major 4.2 E xhibit effective presentation skills for different pur-
in the field. These goals are numerically indexed; for ex- poses
ample, the first learning outcome under Goal 1 is Learn- 4.3 Interact effectively with others
ing Outcome 1.1.

Goal 5: Professional Development


A Summary of the New APA Learning Goals Learning Outcomes 5.1–5.5 pertain to students’ demonstra-
tion of the skills and knowledge necessary to meet their ca-
Goal 1: Knowledge Base in Psychology
reer goals in psychology, including self-management skills,
Learning Outcomes 1.1–1.3 pertain to students’ acquisi- project management skills, and the applicability of psychol-
tion of the key concepts, domains, and applications of ogy to various professional pursuits.
psychology.
5.1 Apply psychological content and skills to career goals
1.1 D escribe key concepts, principles, and overarching 5.2 Exhibit self-efficacy and self-regulation
themes in psychology 5.3 Refine project-management skills
1.2 Develop a working knowledge of psychology’s content 5.4 Enhance teamwork capacity
domains 5.5 Develop meaningful professional direction for life after
1.3 Describe applications of psychology graduation
As professors who also teach advanced courses in psy-
Goal 2: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking chology, we firmly agree with the APA that students should
be taught to see psychology as a unified whole rather than
Learning Outcomes 2.1–2.5 pertain to students’ under-
as a series of discrete areas of study. When students enter
standing and use of the scientific method, information lit-
advanced courses with a unified understanding of Intro-
eracy, integrative thinking, and use of sociocultural factors
ductory Psychology, they are much more likely to be suc-
in scientific inquiry.
cessful. And students who continue to build this big picture
2.1 Use scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phe- understanding of psychology throughout their coursework
nomena are the most successful in attaining their career goals at
2.2 Demonstrate psychology information literacy graduation. For this reason, we are very excited to intro-
2.3 Engage in innovative and integrative thinking and duce this new fourth edition of What Is Psychology? Foun-
problem solving dations, Applications, and Integration. This edition retains
2.4 Interpret, design, and conduct basic psychological re- the best features from our previous texts that have moti-
search vated thousands of students to actually read and learn psy-
2.5 Incorporate sociocultural factors in scientific inquiry chology. Just as the third edition focused on strengthening

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Preface xxi

the three themes represented in the subtitle: foundations, Dr. Jones has inadvertently introduced a confounding vari-
applications, and integration, this fourth edition is struc- able into his study. What is it?
tured around the guidelines set forth in the APA Guide- a. Participant race
lines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major Version 2.0, b. Confederate race
and the recommendations made by the APA’s Board of Ed- c. Experimenter race
ucational Affairs (BEA) Working Group to Strengthen the d. There are no confounds in this study
Common Core. While the APA 2.0 guidelines suggest learn-
ing outcomes for college psychology courses, the Common Scientific reasoning questions in other chapters may ask
Core proposes an optimal course structure to provide the students to identify independent and dependent variables,
best introduction to the field of psychology (APA, 2014). types of research designs being used, types of hypotheses
being tested, and so on. By continually reinforcing the use
of research methods in psychology, this feature helps stu-
What Is Psychology? Foundations, dents to build a strong foundation in their understanding of
Applications, and Integration the science underlying psychology.
What Is Psychology? Foundations, Applications, and Inte- In addition to understanding the scientific foundations
gration 4e retains all the pedagogical features of our previ- of psychology, students must also master the schools of
ous edition, as well as a new feature designed to further thought and content areas of psychology that have emerged
strengthen students’ mastery of the scientific methods in our field. Accordingly, the remaining chapters of the text
that form the ultimate foundation of our field. are organized around four foundational content areas: the
biological, cognitive, developmental and social, and physi-
cal and mental health areas of psychology. Content is di-
Foundations: Content Organized Around the vided to follow these topical sections of psychology while
Foundational Areas of Psychological Research creating manageable chunks of related material, allowing
professors to easily align their content with testing during
What Is Psychology? Foundations, Applications, and Inte-
the semester or quarter:
gration 4e is organized around the foundational areas of
psychology emphasized by the APA in the Common Core Chapter 1: The Science of Psychology
discussions. The text opens with the ultimate foundation of Part 1: Foundations in Biological Psychology:
psychology, the scientific research methods that inform all Chapter 2: Neuroscience
study of mental processes and behavior. An understanding Chapter 3: Sensation and Perception
of the research methods that psychologists use is essential Chapter 4: Consciousness
to building a comprehensive understanding of psychology. Chapter 5: Motivation and Emotion
Unfortunately, all too often, students tend to forget the Part 2: Foundations in Cognitive Psychology
research methods they learn in the first chapter as they are Chapter 6: Learning
reading and studying subsequent chapters in the text. To Chapter 7: Memory
remedy this, we have included a new feature in this edi- Chapter 8: Cognition, Language, and Intelligence
tion. Throughout all chapters in the text, students will be ex- Part 3: Foundations in Developmental and Social
posed to scientific reasoning questions. These questions can Psychology
be found periodically both in the quizzes that follow each Chapter 9: Human Development
section and in the end-of-chapter quizzes, where they are Chapter 10: Social Psychology
marked with this special icon . These questions are writ- Chapter 11: Personality
ten using concepts relevant to the topics of the chapter, and Part 4: Foundations in Physical and Mental Health
they give the student the opportunity to review the research Chapter 12: Health, Stress, and Coping
methods learned in Chapter 1. For example, a scientific rea- Chapter 13: Mental Health Disorders
soning question from Chapter 10 reads: Chapter 14: Mental Health Therapies
Dr. Jones wants to test the hypothesis that being with one’s
own in-group (as opposed to being in the company of out- Applications: Integrating Psychology Through
group members) increases the likelihood that one will
express having racial prejudices. To test this hypothesis,
the Use of Case Studies
Dr. Jones interviews White participants in the presence One of the best ways to motivate students to read is to
of White confederates and Black participants in the pres- capture their curiosity from the very beginning. If psy-
ence of Hispanic confederates. In conducting this study, chology is interesting for students, they will read. Each

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Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xxii Preface

of our previous texts drew rave reviews from students for 2.1.2 Signals in the Brain: How Neurons Fire Up
the use of attention-grabbing case studies at the opening 2.1.3 Jumping the Synapse: Synaptic Transmission
of each chapter. In Foundations, Applications, and Inte-
This numeric coding scheme allows for relevant ma-
gration 4e, we continue this tradition. Each of the four
terial to be indexed back to the applicable section of the
foundational sections of the text opens with a case study
text, tying content to each section heading. Through
that illustrates how the content covered in the chapters
numbering, the learning objectives, quizzes, review
of that part helps us understand the behavior and mental
summaries, and visual summaries at the ends of each
processes of a real-life person. The case studies are com-
chapter are easy to reference to a specific location with-
pelling stories of people who have faced life’s challenges
in the text. Numeric coding also makes it easy for in-
with courage and grace. For example, the biological part
structors to assign specific portions of chapters, and for
opens with the case study of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a
students to find that material across media, creating a
man who wrote a moving book that was later turned into
smoother experience when moving around in the physi-
a movie, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, while in a state
cal text or between the text and digital formats. Through
of locked-in syndrome that left him completely paralyzed
the use of these numeric codes, students can quickly tie
save the ability to blink his left eye. The developmental
content from a variety of sources back to specific sec-
and social psychology part begins with the story of Hon-
tions of the text.
gyong Baek, a woman who survived many challenges, in-
cluding the Korean War and devastating personal losses,
but still managed many triumphs in her lifetime. Each of
the case studies is woven throughout all of the chapters Learning Objectives that Are Aligned with the
of that part of the book, providing students with a view of APA Learning Goals and Outcomes
the content that is both integrated and applied to real life.
Each chapter opens with the Learning Objectives, which
By using one case study to tie all of the related chapters
are numerically indexed to the appropriate Learning Goal
together, students are encouraged to see the material as
and Learning Outcome in the new APA Guidelines for the
a whole rather than as a series of disparate parts; and in
Undergraduate Psychology Major Version 2.0 (APA, 2013).
doing so, they begin forming an integrated “big picture”
Learning Objectives are also numerically indexed to the
of psychology.
section heading of the chapter in which the relevant ma-
terial is covered. This allows both the instructor and the
student to quickly assess which objectives are covered
Integration: The Big Picture
in each discrete section of the text, and which APA pro-
To further facilitate the development of an integrated, “big gram outcomes are being addressed in that section. For
picture” view of psychology in students, each chapter clos-
example, here is a sample of the learning objectives for
es with a section called Integrating Psychology: The Big
Chapter 8. The index numbers on the left refer to the rel-
Picture. In this section, we revisit the part case study and
evant sections of the chapter. The codes on the right re-
use it as a vehicle for both reviewing the content of the late the learning objectives to the specific APA Learning
chapter(s) of the section and previewing the content of the Outcomes.
coming chapter(s). Through Integrating Psychology: The
Big Picture, students begin to see that all of the material fits 8.1 Describe how we represent knowledge in our mem-
together—what has been learned informs what is yet to be ory. (APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
learned. 8.1 Describe how we organize knowledge in our mem-
ory. (APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
8.2 Describe the different types of problems we face
Numerical Indexing Allows for Easy Cross- in life and the ways in which we may try to solve
Referencing them. (APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
8.2 Describe common obstacles to problem solving.
Throughout the text, numeric indexing is used to help stu-
(APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
dents quickly locate relevant information. All primary and
8.3 Describe the processes of deductive and inductive
secondary heads for the chapter are also numerically in-
reasoning. (APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1)
dexed with a sequential code. For example, here is the in-
8.3 Describe the factors that affect decision making.
dexing for a portion of Chapter 2 content:
(APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
2.1 Billions of Neurons: Communication in the Brain 8.3 Describe the process of judgment and heuristics
2.1.1 The Anatomy of the Neuron that bias our judgments. (APA 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 3.3)

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Other documents randomly have
different content
before the revolution, but when that event arrived, Namur was
amongst the first places that hoisted the standard of revolt. There
seems, in fact, to have been something between treason and
cowardice in the conduct of the garrisons, who occupied every
fortress in Belgium, and who, with the single exception, I think, of
Antwerp, surrendered them to the “patrioterie” without lighting a
match.
In public buildings, Namur, has nothing to exhibit, except two
moderate churches: one of them, the Cathedral, contains some
paintings, and the tomb of the gallant Don John of Austria, the
natural son of Charles V, Barbara Blomberg of Ratisbon, who
assumed the credit of being his mother, in order, it is said, to conceal
a more illustrious parentage. Don John, who, as the grand admiral at
Lepanto, combined, in his own person, the functions of a naval as
well as a military commander, added to both the genius of a
diplomatist, and was invested with the government of the Low
Countries after the pacification of Ghent. He, in person, obtained
possession of the citadel of Namur, by going thither under pretence
of visiting the Queen of Navarre, Margaret of Valois, who was
enjoying the gaiety of Spa, and being permitted to walk on the
glacis, and finally to view the interior, by the young son of the
governor, in the absence of his father, he took the opportunity to
entrench his immediate guard as a garrison in the name of his
brother of Spain, who the next year rewarded his bravery, by
causing him to be poisoned, to avoid a marriage, which he
apprehended between the hero of Lepanto and Queen Elizabeth of
England. He died at the camp of Bongy, a short distance from
Namur, in 1578, when only thirty-three years of age.
The other church, that of St. Loup, is overlaid with a profusion of
decorations of all descriptions, paintings, carved confessionals and
gilded altars, its floor is of variegated marble, the columns which
sustain the vaults of the roof are polished porphyry or red granite,
with square plinths, interposed between each tambour in the shaft,
and the ceiling which is of solid white stone, is laboriously chased
from end to end in a multitude of florid devices, so accurately raised
out and under cut, that the whole looks like a Chinese sculpture in
ivory. Tradition says, the carving of the entire roof, was the work of
one individual monk of the Jesuits, by whom the church was
erected.
The town itself has nothing else to shew, except its tall gaunt-
looking old houses, crowded into narrow lanes and passages, the
dullness of which is only relieved by the showy windows of its shops,
shining with cutlery and polished brass work, the staple trade of
Namur. It divides this manufacture with Gembloux, a little town, a
few miles to the north, which is as famous for the coarser articles of
“Sheffield ware,” as Namur is for the finer. The prosperity of the
trade, however, has been declining ever since 1814, when Belgium
not only lost the French market, but the protection of the French
douaniers to protect her own from being invaded by the English; her
decline was consummated by losing, in addition, the supply of the
Dutch colonies, by the events of “the glorious days” of September
1830, and the entire of the workmen now engaged at Namur, do not
exceed one thousand. Cheapness is of course their grand aim, and
some penknives which we bought surprisingly low, we speedily
discovered, like Peter Pindar’s cutlery to be “made for sale.”
The Athenæum of Namur has attained some celebrity by the chair
of geology, which was established by the King of Holland, and for
the study of which, the rocky ravines and valleys of the environs
present abundant opportunities.
The Hotel de Harscamp is excellent, and after a most comfortable
night, disturbed only by the thundering moans of a most
inopportune réveille, rung, from the bells of the church hard by,
every night at eleven, and every morning at four o’clock; we started,
before breakfast the following morning for Huy and Liege, along the
descent of the Meuse. The same delightful scenery accompanied us,
which we had overtaken the evening before on descending to
Namur. On either side, high, beetling cliffs of limestone and basalt,
in every crevice of which, spring the hardy roots of the little
mountain ash, now covered with its ruby berries, and from every
crag, luxuriant creepers hung down their “lush of leaves,” which the
early frost was already beginning to tinge with crimson. Every spot
that could afford soil for the roots of a tree, was covered with
waving foliage, and into the rich recesses of the cliffs ran up little
velvety meadows from the verge of the river, in which were nestled
some of the most beautiful and romantic villas and chateaux.
Occasionally, on the summit of the steep ravine, in the distance,
were perched the buildings of a suppressed convent, or the ruins of
some feudal castle; and the very limestone rock itself, worn into
fantastic shapes by the weather, not unfrequently presented all the
features of a fortress, jutting out over the river below it. The road
ran along a broad, rich plain, intersected by the river, with fruit-trees
planted along the hedge-rows, and yellow crops of corn which had
not yet been severed. The boats were already on the river, and
innumerable cars and waggons were toiling along the road, laden
with produce for Namur—it was precisely the scene and the season
described in Wordsworth’s sonnet:

The morn that now along the silver Meuse,


Spreading her peaceful ensigns, calls the swains
To tend their silent boats and ringing wains,
Or strip the bough, whose mellow fruit bestrews
The ripening corn beneath.

But the beauty of the Meuse is its least recommendation to the


affection of the Belgians; and, like the vale of Avoca, and the banks
of some other equally exquisite streams, which are “sacred only in
song,” its picturesque attractions, are, at every spot, most rudely
torn away by the very matter-of-fact speculators of the
neighbourhood, in the search of the mineral treasures which they
conceal. Rocks of black marble are rolled down to the edge of the
road, and left ready for transport to the river; limestone is tumbled
from the cliffs, and numerous manufactories of alum are constructed
between Namur and Schlayen. These and the other riches of the
Meuse, its floors of coal and beds of iron render this rugged defile
the most important and valuable possession of the crown.
At Andennes we passed the first of those vast manufactories, the
establishment of which has made the name of one Englishman more
renowned in Belgium than those of all its native speculators
combined—Mr. William Cockerill. Every district of the kingdom
exhibits some memorial of his enterprise, and there is scarcely a
branch of the national industry which, if it does not owe its
introduction to his suggestion, is not indebted to his genius for its
improvement. He came to Verviers in 1798, an humble mechanic, in
search of employment, returning with a numerous family from
Stockholm, where he had been to erect some apparatus for spinning
wool. He obtained an engagement with a house there to construct
for them machinery for the same purpose, similar to that in use in
England, and by dint of singular talents, unwearied industry, and
energies almost unparalleled, he speedily elevated himself to wealth
and importance; mines were sounded at his suggestion, iron-works
constructed, cotton-mills built, woollen-machinery erected, in short,
every department of Belgian art received a new impulse under his
all-grasping and comprehensive superintendence, aided by the
munificence of Napoleon, and, subsequently, by the equally ardent
co-operation of King William of Holland, who seemed to place the
national funds for the promotion of industry, almost at his disposal.
Under the powerful influence of France, and even afterwards with
access to the extensive markets and colonies of Holland, the
vastness of his speculations were not disproportionate to the wants
and commercial connexions of the kingdom. But the simile of a tub
for a whale is no actual exaggeration to represent the incompatibility
of his Leviathan establishments, to the puny resources of the new
and independent kingdom, within which they were suddenly walled
up by the revolution of 1830. The gross of green spectacles which
Moses brought home from the fair, were not more utterly
disproportionate to the wants of the family of the Vicar of Wakefield.
The establishment of Andennes had been originally constructed by
the act of the government and the King of Holland, for the printing
of calicoes in the style, and with a view to out-rival the English—
every process was borrowed from them, the machinery, the
workmen, the designs, were all brought from England, and, for a
time, the concern seemed to be prosperous. But the events of 1830
soon put a stop to that; it was useless to print calicoes while there
was no stranger to buy, and no one at home to wear them, and in
the course of a few years, the works were sold by order of the
government to pay off their advances, and bought by their original
promoter, who converted them into a paper-mill.
This trade is now one of the most prosperous in Belgium. She
formerly imported her paper from France at from twenty to five-and-
twenty per cent. dearer than she can now produce it for herself,
thanks to the ingenuity and enterprise of Mr. Cockerill, which gave
the manufacture a new character by the introduction of the
machines for producing the entire contents of the vat in one
continuous sheet. Since that period, the manufacture has advanced
with a rapidity that is quite surprising. In 1836 there were seven
machines on the same construction in use in Belgium; in 1839
nineteen, but of these six have now been attached to Holland by her
acquisitions in Luxembourg and Limbourg. The value of their
produce is upwards of nine millions of francs per annum, and their
success has communicated an impulse to the production of books at
Brussels, that has rendered it likewise one of the most important
and promising branches of the national industry.
A few miles from Andennes, after passing a romantic old ruin of the
castle of the Dukes of Beaufort near Bien, we stopped to breakfast
at the foot of the romantic fortress of Huy, which was long
considered as the portal of the Meuse, till its inefficiency was
demonstrated by Marlborough and Marshal Villeroy in “King William’s
wars,” who took and retook it four times within as many years,
almost without a struggle.
CHAPTER IV.
HUY, SERAING, LIEGE, AND VERVIERS.
Huy—The citadel—Churches—The mineral and coal
districts of Belgium—Prosperity of coal mines—Quantity
produced in Belgium compared with other countries—Its
price at Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp—Panic in 1836
for the exhaustion of coal in Belgium—Scenery of the
Meuse—Remarkable individuals born in its vicinity—
Chateaux of Aigremont and Chokier—Seraing—Immense
extent of the works—Its produce within its own walls—
History of the establishment—Palace of the Prince
Bishops of Liege—Encouraged by the King of Holland—
The building—Huge steam engine—Surprising extent of
the operations carried on—Iron works—Halls for
construction of machines—Vast numbers of workmen
employed—Its exports—Mr. John Cockerill—Extent of his
speculations—Development of Seraing attributable to
them—Its future prospects—Policy of England in regard
to the export of machinery—Importation of machinery
into Belgium—Road to Liege—Liege—No sympathy with
its history—Turbulent and unamiable character of its
ancient populace—Prince Bishop declares war upon
France—Share of the Liegois in the revolution of 1830—
Her threatened attack upon Seraing—The town—
Manufacture of fire-arms and cannon—A flax mill—Its
churches poor—The Palais de Justice—University—
Scenery of the Vesdre—The railroad—Chaud-fontaine—
Spa—Deserted—Verviers—The town—Conduct during the
revolution—The woollen trade of Belgium—Want of
native wool—Extent and decline of the trade—Its causes
—Statement of M. Briavionne—Joint Stock Companies in
Belgium—Account of two at Verviers—The mania for
speculation—Its failure—The Prussian frontier—
Limbourg—Prospects of Belgium—Her bad condition—
Policy of the King of Holland—That of the present
government—Present aspect of their trade—
Impossibility of competing with England—Character of
the Belgian mechanics—Ruinous effects of the “Repeal of
the Union.”

Huy is beautifully situated at the angle, where a mountain torrent


pours past it to the Meuse. Its fortress stands on a bold detached
rock, of great height and breadth, around the base of which the
town is built almost upon the sands of the river; and beneath its
shelter are collected the churches, monasteries, and houses of the
ancient city. The fortifications are now in excellent repair, having
been restored after the war by English engineers under the direction
of Colonel Blanshard, at the expense of the King of Holland; but the
town itself is fast hurrying to decay. Its vicinity to Seraing, the seat
of the once powerful Prince Bishops of Liege, rendered Huy a place
of evident interest as an ecclesiastical frontier as well as a military
one; and the church militant below, emulous of the strongholds of
earthly power above, had within the small circuit of its wall no less
than a cathedral, fourteen churches, and a still greater number of
monasteries, abbeys, and convents, all of which, with the exception
of the cathedral and a richly carved gateway that conducts to it, are
now in ruins.
Here, for the first time in Belgium, we saw vineyards and their
“purple store;” but the wine is execrable, and used only for the most
inferior purposes. The position of Huy on the river, and its admirable
facilities for traffic, made it a flourishing entrepôt for grain and
agricultural produce, in which it carries on a bustling traffic on the
river; as well as in the produce of its numerous quarries. A short
distance from Huy commence the coal fields, which extend to the
district surrounding Liege, the working of which was attempted so
far back as the 12th century. In coals, Belgium is, perhaps, the
richest country of the west of Europe, with the single exception of
Great Britain; the districts in which it abounds being, in England, in
the proportion of one-twentieth of her entire surface; in Belgium, a
thirtieth; and in France only a two hundredth part. But her success
in raising them is not in the same proportion, England having
produced, in 1838, twenty-three millions of tons; France, two
millions and a half; and Belgium only four.
The principal mining districts are in Hainault, where those of
Charleroi and Mons are not only the most productive, but exhibit the
best specimens as to quality; those of Liege, which are next; and
those of Huy and Namur. Some valuable coal mines at Limbourg
have been ceded to Holland by the treaty of 1839, another cause of
dissatisfaction to the Belgians. The prosperity of the mining trade
has been affected by all the changing fortunes of the country; but its
general march, though liable to great vicissitudes, has been in the
ultimate result successful and improving. A few years since such was
the rage for joint stock speculations, and the mania for erecting
machinery in Belgium, that a panic was excited lest the veins of coal
and iron should be exhausted prematurely, so rapid was the
consumption of both which the force of speculation had produced.
The price, in consequence, rose from 50 to 100 per cent, and an
application was made and acceded to by the British Government, to
permit the free exportation of coal from Newcastle to Flanders; but
in the year following the alarm subsided, from very natural causes,
and the price returned to its former level.
The quantity produced in Belgium for some years past has not
exceeded, on an average, three millions of tons; and the ordinary
price has been about 10 francs at the pit’s mouth. The cost of
carriage, however, and the variety of modes and distances of
conveyance, render its prices at the various places of consumption
extremely unequal. According to M. Briavionne,[10] the following was
the scale in 1837:—
AT BRUSSELS:
For large coals (droits d’octroi included), 42 francs for the
ton of 1000 kilogrammes[11].
For manufacture (gailletes), 32 francs.
AT GHENT:
For domestic use 29f. 17c.
For manufactures 22f. 6c.
For slack 18f. 16c.
AT ANTWERP:
For large coals 36f. 55c.
For manufacture 26f. 30c.
For slack 22f. 30c.
The price of coals in England, at the same period, was twenty-two
to twenty-three shillings for what cost thirty-five at Brussels; and
from sixteen to twenty for the others, for which the Belgians paid
from twenty-five to twenty-seven. The cost at the pit’s mouth, at the
same time, was but a shade higher at Newcastle than at Hainault or
Liege,[12] so relatively imperfect are the means of communication in
Belgium as contrasted with those of Great Britain; and, besides, the
coal floors are much more accessible and thicker in the latter country
than in the other, where the upper strata has been already pretty
well exhausted by upwards of six hundred years of continued
workings.
We left Huy by the bridge, which here carries the road from the
right to the left bank of the river; and continued its descent towards
Liege.
The view, on looking back at this hardy old town, is remarkably
striking—its citadel almost by nature a fortress, independently of
engineering; and, at its foot, the antique cathedral, founded by Peter
the Hermit. The banks of the Meuse, and the Vesdre, have been
prolific in great names; Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first
crusade, was born at Poisy, on the borders of Namur; Tilly, one of
the great military adventurers of the Thirty Years, came from a
village still nearer the Meuse; Hersthal, the birth-place of Pepin, “the
Mayor of the Palace,” and the founder of the kings of the second
race in France, lies a mile below Liege; and at Herve, between it and
Verviers, Lebrun, the minister of France, who died on the scaffold, in
1794, was employed as the editor of a provincial newspaper.
The scenery, on either side of the river, improves in richness, but
loses in grandeur, as we approach Liege. The ravine through which it
rolls, between Huy and Namur, widens out into a fertile valley
towards Seraing, still enclosed, however, by precipitous cliffs, on
which castles, châteaux, and monasteries are perched, in positions
that seem, from below, at least, to be all but inaccessible. Two, in
particular, are most strikingly picturesque—the châteaux of
Aigremont, between Flaune and Engis, and another above the village
of Chokier, at present occupied by a Russian nobleman, whose
visitors would certainly require a balloon and a parachute “to drop in
upon him.”
On driving round a projecting angle of the cliff, at a turn in the
course of the river, we came in view of the vast buildings and
innumerable chimneys of the great iron works at Seraing. These
enormous works are certainly one of the wonders of Belgium; and
Europe, in point of extent, possesses nothing to compare with them.
Nor can one regard this vast temple to the genius of Fulton and
Watt, without emotions of amazement, at the lightning speed with
which their discoveries have revolutionized the whole aspect of
European industry, and created wants and expedients which, half a
century ago, were unfelt and unknown; but the pressure of which, at
the present day, has forced into existence such a gigantic
establishment as Seraing. Compared with the largest manufactories
in England, Seraing is as a mammoth to an ant-hill. The quantity of
actual creative power which it engenders and pours forth, year by
year, is, perhaps, equal to that of a whole generation of artizans, in
the best days of Flemish prosperity; and a river, of ordinary current,
flowing through a country of manufactures scarcely communicates a
greater impetus to the production of the necessaries, or the
comforts of life, than the steam engines which Seraing is capable of
sending forth in the compass of a single year.
The circuit of its own walls encompasses everything essential to the
completion of the most ponderous engine;—two coal mines are
worked within them—the iron ore is raised, washed, and smelted on
the spot; canals and railroads, all within its gase, convey those
cumbrous materials from process to process, from furnace to forge,
till the crude mineral which, issued from the earth in its ore, is
carried from the ware-room in the form of all but intelligent
machines.
Seraing was many years in attaining its present singular
development. It was commenced in 1817, by the sons of the
ingenious individual, whom I have already mentioned as entering
Verviers an impoverished mechanic, and finally contributing, by the
impulse of his single mind, to advance the march of manufacturing
improvement in Belgium by, at least, half a century. The buildings in
which, or rather, around which its multifarious works are now
congregated, was formerly the magnificent palace of the Prince
Bishops of Liege, on whose abolition it became the property the
crown. The brothers, Charles James, and John Cockerill, whose
father had already established extensive manufactories of machinery
at Liege and transmitted them to his children, conceived the idea of
transfering their industry to Seraing, struck with its commanding
advantages, the presence of coal and iron, and its facilities of water
communication in every direction, by means of the river which
flowed below its walls. To occupy all its space, one wing was fitted
up for the spinning of linen yarn, and was so employed till 1822,
when the extension of their business in the other branches, required
the rooms which it engrossed. In 1819, they commenced raising
their own coal; and in 1824, they were enabled to work iron, the
produce of their own mines and furnaces. The extraordinary
encouragement given to every species of manufacture requiring
machinery, under the régime of Holland, was a source of continued
prosperity; and even the unhealthy plethora of speculation, which
has existed in Belgium since the revolution, however disastrous to
others, afforded constant employment to the workmen of Seraing,
and contributed to expand it to its present unexampled extent.
At the little village of Jemeppe, which is on the same side of the
river with the high road, we left the carriage, and crossed over in a
ferry boat to the works, over which we were obligingly conducted by
one of the superintendants. The outward edifices are all in the same
condition as when occupied by the Prince Bishop, and one wing is
still the residence of Mr. Cockerill’s family. It consists of three
squares, or courtyards, opening one into the other by noble
archways, the first of which is still surmounted by the arms of the
prelate, with his motto—“je maintiendrai.” The grand front contained
the apartments of the Prince himself, the second court that of his
officers and suite, and the third was appropriated for the household
and stables, and now forms, with the floors on the second story, four
apartments, each two hundred feet in length! The whole building,
with its noble façade, and the remains of fine timber which surround
it, still retains an air of magnificence suitable to its former fortune.
The gardens in the rear are now all covered over with workshops,
forges, furnaces, and store-houses; and behind these, still further
retiring to the river, are the coal fields and iron mines; the whole
forming literally a town within itself, daily animated by upwards of
2,000 workmen, in all the various branches of its comprehensive
system.
Externally, except from the smoke of its chimneys at a distance,
one would scarcely discern the nature of the vast operations going
on within; but before the grand entrance on the bank of the river
there lay a huge specimen of its productions,—a gigantic cylinder, for
a steam-engine to be sent to Prussia, of two hundred and fifty horse
power, and of such dimensions, that this one limb of it alone was
seven feet in diameter, and weighed upwards of twelve tons. Besides
two huge furnaces for smelting the raw ore, there are upwards of
thirty others for the washing, puddling, and treatment of the iron in
its various stages; eighty forges, two iron founderies, and one of
copper; one vast hall for the construction of boilers, another for fly-
wheels, and all the portions of steam-engines, and a third for
locomotives; besides innumerable apartments for every other
species of heavy machinery, rooms for designers and magazines of
models. (The spinning, and other light machinery, is manufactured
at another establishment at Liege.) The whole is set in motion by
seventeen steam-engines, whose united power exceeds nine
hundred horses, and the consumption of coals for these and the
furnaces is four hundred tons a day, the cost of raising which, we
were told, was fifteen francs a ton. Its productions comprehend the
whole range of English machinery for every department of industry,
and its produce is exported to every manufacturing country to which
it has a commodious communication—to Russia, to Prussia, to
Germany, Spain, Italy and France and even to South America. Every
new invention which succeeds in Great Britain has been re-produced
at Seraing, within a short time of its appearance with us.
The rooms and vast halls, from the ample construction of the
building, present an appearance quite startling to a stranger, who
may not be prepared for the unusual spectacle of a single chamber
fitted up with five hundred vices along the sides, and all alive with
the rush of wheels and the din of machines of every description, in
action in the centre. The workmen are all Belgians, not a single
English mechanic being now employed. Their tools, however, were
chiefly from Manchester, and in reply to a remark, that at Ghent the
Phœnix made its own; the superintendant observed, that they had
tried the experiment and found that they could be had both cheaper
and better from England. So many as 2,800 workmen have been at
one time employed at Seraing, at wages varying from three francs a
day to five or six, but would average about four francs round,
exclusive of designers, whose gains are more considerable. The
establishment has been latterly less regularly employed, owing to a
damp upon speculation in general, and the completion of the
contracts for the various railroads, and not above 2000 hands are
now engaged. The whole concern is, likewise, at present in
confusion, owing to the recent death of the proprietor, which will
occasion the entire to be disposed of for the settlement of his affairs.
The extent of his speculations in every branch of industry, and
almost in every country of Europe, is almost incredible. He was
concerned in no less than fifty different mines, and factories for
spinning and weaving cotton, woollens, and linen, for the
manufacture of paper and printed calicoes, for grinding flour, making
carding machines, and in short, every promising branch of industry
in Belgium, France, and Germany. His property at Seraing has been
estimated (I cannot answer for how correctly) at 10,000,000[13] of
francs, and his factory for spinning machinery at Liege 3,000,000,
his paper mills and buildings at Andennes 2,900,000, his flour mills
at Cottbus, in Silesia, 500,000, his woollen factory at St. Denis
500,000, his card machinery at Spa 400,000, and his shares in
various other manufactories in Belgium and elsewhere 25,000,000.
In Belgium, in fact, there has been a mania for joint-stock
speculation, scarcely equalled by the bubbles of 1825 in Great
Britain, and attended with equally ruinous results. Mr. Cockerill’s
encouragement and participation in these adventures to such an
extent, is one source of the activity and astonishing development of
Seraing; the funds of these adventurers and his own, along with the
rest, being vested in the purchase of machinery manufactured by
himself. In the event of their success, the speculation might have
been a wise one, but followed as they have been in most instances
by disappointment, the result to the proprietor of Seraing, at least,
can have been little more than keeping his forges employed out of
his own capital.
Still whoever may have been the individual sufferer, Seraing is a
stupendous example of enterprize and skill, and if placed upon a
suitable financial basis, with its singular facilities of fuel and iron,
cannot fail, under almost any circumstances, to be a vigorous
concern. The quality of its iron is excellent: this ore yields from
twenty-five to seventy-five, and some veins so much as eighty-five
per cent.; though that of Belgium in general does not exceed thirty
per cent.; and except for some very fine purposes. Seraing is
perfectly independent of any importation beyond its own walls. For
copper and brass it is, however, dependent upon England and
Sweden, none whatever being produced in Belgium, so far as I could
learn. One invaluable benefit it has already rendered to Belgium, it
has served as a vast college for the education of mechanics; and in
the course of twenty years, it has produced thousands of artizans
who have branched off into the other provinces, and formed the rival
establishments of Ghent, Brussels, Charleroi, Mons, Namur and
Tournai. “The Belgians,” says M. Briavionne, “have a natural taste for
mechanics, and combine the two essentials to success—
perseverance and enterprize. But these qualities would never have
been called into action, nor their own resources developed had
England, from the first, permitted the free export of her machinery,
or Belgium imposed any restrictions upon its import.”[14] The
importations of machinery from England, notwithstanding native
enterprize have been very considerable more especially of those
half-animated engines know by the inappropriate, and ill-understood
term of “tools,” which seem to be the very life and sustenance of the
rival manufacture of Belgium. In 1830, the Belgian official returns
exhibit an import to the value of only 46,372fr., in 1835 it had risen
to 464,377fr., in 1836 to 3,291,275fr., in 1837 it was 2,851,451fr.,
and in 1838, 4,708,237fr.
From Seraing to Liege, a distance of three or four miles, the drive is
exceedingly beautiful, the valley of the Meuse here expands into
broad and luxuriant meadows, and the steep cliffs which
accompanied us from Namur, lean back into rich and verdant hills
whose summits are covered with timber, and their base studded with
white and cheerful villas. In the midst of this picturesque scenery,
the old town of Liege bursts upon us at a sudden turn of the road,
built at the foot of the steep hill of St. Walberg which is covered with
its churches and palaces, and spreading down to the Meuse which
sweeps round its base to meet the waters of the Ourthe and the
Vesdre which unite within it.
Liege is certainly the least interesting of all the great towns of the
Netherlands, not that the events of its ancient times are less stirring,
but the character of their prominent actions is less engaging and
their quarrels less chivalrous; in its modern state, it possesses
scarcely a single attractive remnant of antiquity—no paintings, no
statues, no architectural beauties or remains. Its streets are narrow,
irregular and dirty, and the houses devoid of any thing venerable or
characteristic. Still the old chronicles of Monstrelet and Philip de
Comines, and the quaint tradition of the “wild boar of Ardennes” and
the feuds of the Dukes of Brabant and Burgundy, with the insolent
burghers, and the alternate ascendancies and indignities of the
Prince Bishops, and the rude and savage deeds of the inhuman Louis
XI, are all full of historic interest, though of a repulsive and painful
kind.
Liege had been the See of a Bishop for fourteen hundred years,
when the annexation of Belgium to France put a close to the dynasty
of its sovereign prelates. Its rank was such amongst ecclesiastical
cities, that it was visited by the Popes and the Emperors; and its
citizens intoxicated, at once, with affluence and arrogance became
the most turbulent and insubordinate faction that ever “strangled the
prosperity” of a community. M. Ferrier in an historical résumé,
prefixed to his “Description de Liège,” thus sums up the condition of
the burghers in the 12th century. “The morals and manners of the
citizens became corrupted, at once, by the acquisition of
extraordinary wealth, and the extortion of inordinate privileges from
the Prince Bishops who were their ecclesiastical sovereigns. The
artisans accustomed to extravagant gains, gave but a portion of their
time to industry, and devoted the rest to the discussion of affairs of
state, in the places of public resort. The Prelate Albert de Cuyck,
unable to subdue their murmuring and disquieted spirit, retreated
behind concession after concession, till in 1198, he confirmed to
them a Charter, which invested the men of Liege with privileges such
as were unheard of in the age in which they lived. But these
concessions so far from tranquillizing, seemed but to excite them to
fresh demands—the more ample the favours yielded, the more
exorbitant became their further requirements—till in the end, their
restless ambition embroiled the city in contests of blood such as
have tinged the page of their history from century to century. The
clergy, at first, made common cause with the people against the
power of the haute noblesse, who enjoyed at once all military and
magisterial authority in the state; till the multitude disturbed from
the pursuits of peaceful industry, became, at length, the sport of
ungovernable impulses, sometimes generous in their origin, but
which were too often degraded into brutalized ferocity for the mere
gratification of revenge. The nobles were the first sacrifice to the
popular demands, and the clergy who succeeded to their power,
became in turn their fellow victims.” The whole story of their
contests is, in fact, one succession of revolts, not for the redress of
wrongs or the assertion of liberty, but for the lust of licentious and
uncontrolled democracy. Occasionally, too, in the long succession of
its Prince Bishops, there occurred some whose authority, instead of
being exerted to control, was but employed to exasperate the fury of
the populace, and to such an air of arrogance did some of these
kingly prelates assume, that one of them, John Louis d’Elderen,
presumed, single-handed, to declare war against Louis XIV in 1686!
who rewarded his temerity by directing Marshal Boufflers to beat
down the fortification of Liege about his ears, an instruction which
he duly attended to.
In later times, Liege was a fief of the empire, and the Prince
Bishop, the elector, had a vote as representing a portion of the circle
of Westphalia. In 1830, its inhabitants, with a true hereditary taste
for turmoil, were the first to take up arms on the intelligence of the
revolution, and a band of patriots, mustered and marshalled by M.
Rogier, marched from Liege to Brussels to aid in expelling the house
of Nassau, but with the intention of merely transfering the kingdom
from that dynasty to France, a project which was overruled by the
clergy and the northern insurgents. With that frightful impulse which
in popular, not less than individual frenzy, drives its victims into the
violence of hatred of all that they ought to cherish, and has
sometimes forced maniacs to eat their own flesh;—the first fury of
the patriots was directed against the manufacturing establishments,
whence they drew their bread; and nothing but the firm affection of
the workmen at Seraing to their master, and the resolution to protect
his property, saved that magnificent temple of industry from being
itself committed to the flames, by the worshippers of the rival
goddess of liberty.
With less of elegance and attraction, there is an equal air of
business-like energy and bustling activity in the streets of Liege, as
at Ghent. The Meuse is navigable from the city to the sea, and its
quays are frequented by the craft, which convey its produce to the
various cities along its course, Ruremonde and Venloo to Gorcum,
Dordrecht and the Rhine. Its streets are crowded with an incessant
stream of waggons, carriages and carts, and in the better streets
and squares, the shops are as gay and attractive as those of the Rue
Montagne de la Cour at Brussels.
Coupled with its ancient fiery and quarrelsome disposition, its chief
manufacture is a characteristic one, being that of cannon and fire-
arms, which it at one time, exported to Spain, Portugal, Holland and
America. Under France, the imperial factory of arms furnished
annually, twenty-seven thousand muskets for the imperial army. A
story is told that the rest of the trade, anxious to share in the profits
of the monopoly, besought Napoleon to admit them to a share of the
supply, and presented him with a finely-finished piece as a specimen
of their talents. But as, either by accident or malice, the bore of the
barrell was too narrow to admit the ramrod, the Emperor gave no
other answer than a frown to their ill-supported petition. Under
Holland in 1829, the production of Liege amounted to no less than
190,660 stand of arms; in 1836, it rose to nearly double that
quantity, but it is at present, fallen much below one half, and the
trade is still in a state of decline. The manufacture is carried on at
the homes of the workmen, who, nevertheless, established a perfect
division of labour in producing the various parts, and can furnish the
entire at a lower rate than either Birmingham or France, a double-
barrelled gun can be had for thirty or even twenty francs. The
percussion lock has not yet been substituted in the Belgian army for
the flint. The cannon foundery is calculated to produce 300 pieces a
year; and in 1837, the most flourishing period of the trade, it even
exceeded that number.
There is a flax-spinning mill at Liege with 10,000 spindles, the
property of a joint-stock company, of whom Mr. Cockerill was the
chief proprietor. Its works are now languid, owing to a want of
consumption, and a gentleman acquainted with its affairs, spoke
very despondingly of its prospects. Coals, though found in the
immediate neighbourhood, are dear, as they lie deep, and we saw
them generally mixed into balls with clay for the use of the stoves in
the hotels and private houses, an indication that their price is a
stimulant to economy.
As might be anticipated from its having so long been the residence
of the most eminent prelate in the Low Countries, Liege abounds in
churches, there being some eighteen or twenty for a population of
50,000 inhabitants. They are, however, destitute of all attractions,
except that of St. Jacques, which is a very excellent example of florid
got his architecture. The others are common-place structures,
devoid of all valuable decorations of any kind, except a few
indifferent statues by Delcour the sculptor, who was himself a native
of the city. The Palais de Justice was formerly the residence of the
Prince Bishops, and in its ample arcades, supported by truncated
columns, exhibits traces of its former magnificence. The University,
which has some eminent professors, especially of natural philosophy,
was another foundation of the King of Holland, and besides a library
of some seventy or eighty thousand volumes, contains Museums of
Natural History, and Minerals of unusual value. But every thing
connected with modern Liege is common-place and uninteresting; its
only charm is its exquisite situation at the juncture of the three
beautiful valleys of the Meuse, the Ourthe and the Vesdre, and a
very brief sojourn is sufficient to satisfy the stranger in pursuit of
“fresh fields and pastures new.”

We left Liege before breakfast for Verviers through the exquisite


valley of the Vesdre, which, as it is narrower and more tortuous than
the descent of the Meuse, excels it in picturesque beauty, though
inferior in the grandeur of its general effect. The entire line of the
road was through richly wooded glens and ravines, where the river
had forced a passage between the fantastic cliffs which time had
wrought into shapes like fortresses or the battlements of ruined
strongholds. Below, the Vesdre itself, too shallow to be navigated,
twists round each sweep of the winding cliffs, now shining in the
sunlight, and again scarcely visible under the dark shadows of the
trees and rocks. The lover of the picturesque will shudder to be told,
that it is through this charming valley that the railroad is to be
carried to connect Liege with Verviers on its way to Cologne, and
even now the engineers are at work levelling, blasting, and
uprooting to make way for it, cutting off a projecting cliff here, and
filling up a useless ravine there, and flinging lofty embankments
across the entrance of the sweetest recesses of the valley, into
which you are only admitted to have a peep through the archway on
which the train is to traverse the highway.
About four miles from Liege, in one of the glens of this beautiful
river, is Chaudefontaine, a spring which has long been the holiday
resort of the Liegois, and has now grown into a miniature watering
place, with its hotels and other agrémens. And half way to Verviers,
a road striking in between the hills on the right leads to Spa, one of
the superannuated favourites of fashion, which has long since
yielded the throne to younger and gayer rivals. The crowd now rolls
past the turn in the road which leads to it, eager to reach Carlsbad
or Wisbaden, and no longer contented, as in the Sir Charles
Grandison age, to pace the “Promenades de quatre heures,” walk
minuets in the “Vauxhall,” or make stately excursions to the cottages
of Marmontel’s Annette and Lubin. Still the country and scenery
around it, and the magnificent mountains and woods of the
Ardennes yield, in nothing, to the attractions of the later protegées
of ton, but along with the rest of the ungrateful crowd, we too
declined the open door of the antiquated and neglected beauty, and
kept on the road to Verviers.
Verviers is a long straggling, but by no means ordinary town,
stretching along the banks of the Vesdre, whenever the command of
the stream presented a desirable site for a factory. In this, nearly
20,000 inhabitants and their machinery are located along the
stream, and the uplands forming, certainly, one of the most cheerful
and healthy manufacturing communities in Europe. The grand
staples, are wool in all its varieties of worsted and cloth, in the
production of which the valley has long enjoyed a high reputation in
Holland and France, and its goods are still exported to Italy and the
Levant. Like the people of Liege, the workmen of Verviers caught the
infection of the revolutionary mania in 1830, but their madness
exhibited itself in a still more savage form. On the first intelligence of
the revolt, they sprung, eager for the fray, and at once manifested
their wishes, by hoisting the tri-colour of France, with whom they
demanded an instant incorporation. The town has neither fortress
nor garrison, and for two days it was the scene of the most
disgusting and uncontrolled excesses. The people assembled in
tumultuous masses, and with shouts of “liberty,” tore down the royal
insignia of the Netherlands, and razed to the ground the houses of
the government officers; factories were destroyed, machinery
demolished, and the whole property of the flourishing valley seemed
destined to destruction from the freaks of this drunken revolution. At
length the soberer citizens, forming an urban guard and a council of
safety, succeeded in restoring order, and securing their property
from the fingers of the children of “Freedom.”
The woollen trade of the Andennes, is one of the oldest national
occupations of the Netherlands, and for the share of it which we
enjoy in England, we are indebted to the fanatical fury of Philip II.,
whose persecutions drove the weavers of Brabant and Flanders to
seek an asylum with Elizabeth in England. Unlike its other great
staple of linen, however, Belgium, in her woollen manufacture, is
dependant upon others for the raw material which she employs; the
entire of her possessions do not feed beyond a single million of
sheep, and her annual imports of wool from Germany, Holland,
England and Spain, exceed 15,000,000 francs. The two grand seats
of the trade, though distributed over a considerable district of the
south, are at Verviers and Dison, which each produce annually from
30 to 35,000 pieces of thirty ells of Brabant in length. The
manufacture is chiefly carried on in the houses of the workmen, and
in some places, especially at Dison, the employers are so deficient in
capital, that the truck system is universal, and the weaver paid by a
portion of his own produce, which he must afterwards sell under the
pressure for bread, at such a price as he can get for it; an act of
injustice to the operative, which must always tend to the manifest
injury of prices, and undermining of the trade.
Down to 1814, the trade was in every way prosperous, but the
successive curtailments of consumption, first by the exclusion from
France, and, finally, by separation from Holland, have shaken its
stability, and brought it into a state of considerable peril at the
present moment. Still the number of factories have not diminished,
although the rate of profits has been cut down to the lowest possible
figure, especially at Verviers. It gives employment, at present, to
between 15,000 and 20,000 individuals of all ages, whose wages
vary from half a franc per day for children, to two francs, and two
francs and a half for their fathers. The countries to which Belgium
still exports are Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Levant, and
Holland; but a commercial treaty between the latter country and
France, is said to have been framed with a view to transfer to French
cloth, the preference now given to that of Verviers in the Dutch
market. Her exportations, however, exhibit an incredible decline
since the revolution. In 1831, its value amounted to twenty-seven
millions of francs; in 1832 to twenty-three; in 1833, it fell to one
half, and in 1836, declined to six millions and a half, a diminution
which is ascribable to numerous causes, but chiefly to its exclusion
from Germany, by the operation of the Prussian commercial league;
the states of which were once, previously, its most valuable
consumers. Germany, in 1831 and 1832, took no less than 1,000,000
kilogrammes of Belgian cloth, which fell, in 1833, to 344,000, and on
an average of the four succeeding years, has scarcely exceeded
250,000.
It is not difficult to imagine the vicissitudes of the woollen trade of
Belgium, thus driven, within five-and-twenty years, from the markets
of France and her colonies, Holland, Java, and Germany, and, shut
up within the narrow circle of her new independence, to maintain a
competition with her two powerful rivals—the English and the
French. Its present condition and prospects are thus noticed in the
intelligent volume of M. Briavionne. “After having participated, for so
many years, in the splendour of the Empire, the woollen
manufactures of Belgium underwent a decline in the early stage of
her connexion with Holland, which she ultimately recovered, and
with such a firm success, that the events of 1830 inflicted on it but a
momentary injury. The close of 1831, and the years 1832, 1833 and
1834, were, on the whole, a period of satisfactory trade. But now
commenced a struggle of every description, and the clothing for the
army being speedily accomplished, it became essential to look for
new outlets abroad. But just at this crisis came the consolidation of
the Zoll-Verein in Germany—the plague, which ravaged the Levant—
the cholera, which terrified Italy—and, above all, the commercial
calamities of the United States in 1836 and 1837, each and all of
which interfered directly with her demand; and, to crown all, a
period of depression in the home market in 1838, and last year
arrived, simultaneously with a change in public taste, as to the
fashion of dress, which altered the whole character of their
productions, and imposed the expense of new machinery, and
differently constructed apparatus of all kinds. The general result is,
at present, a weighty depression, especially in the poorer districts of
Dison; and one may sum up the recent history of the trade by
saying, that the two first years after the separation from Holland
were good—1834, disastrous—1835 and 1836, passable—1837 and
1838, bad—and 1839, equally so.”[15]
Verviers is an open, gay looking country town, not like the
manufacturing places of England, which are dense, red-bricked rows
of smoky houses, thickly huddled together—but with broad, sunny
streets, and handsome white houses; the dwellings of the
proprietors and their factories, being equally ornamented on the
front next the street. The country around it, though beautiful, is
barren, and provisions of all kinds are as expensive in Verviers as in
Brussels.
M. Gaudry, an intelligent proprietor of several manufactories, to
whom we brought letters, gave a deplorable account of the recent
joint stock speculations in Belgium, which seem to have been carried
on to an extent of capital, and with a recklessness in management
that is quite inconceivable. Verviers was a favourite field for their
operations, owing to the variety of its resources, which presented
something to suit every appetite of enterprise; and as works in
actual operation were much more seductive baits for shareholders,
concerns were bought up wholesale from their proprietors at the
most extravagant rates, to be sold out again in retail shares to the
joint stock amateurs. One coal mine, in the vicinity of the town,
which had nearly ruined its proprietor, was greedily purchased by the
projectors of one of these schemes, making its owner’s fortune just
in time to conceal his actual ruin, and after being worked for a short
time, ended in the bankruptcy of the new company—but, of course,
not till it had amply rewarded the secretaries, solicitors, and
directory. A worsted manufacturer, in like manner, who was on the
verge of insolvency, offered his mills to a joint stock proprietary, who
eagerly accepted them on his terms—paid a sum for the concern,
which he forthwith invested in land, and gave him a salary, for
managing his own works, more than equal to all the profits they
ever realized.
It will scarcely be believed, though it is a fact, that between 1833
and 1838, one hundred and fifty or sixty companies of this kind,
actually invested three hundred and fifty millions of francs, or about
£15,000,000, in speculations of this kind—for insurances, mines,
machine making, public works, export associations, glass
manufactories, sugar refineries, cotton and flax mills, printing,
brewing, in short, every imaginable undertaking that could be
described in scrip.
The mania originated with some similar undertakings projected by
the King of Holland, but which being prudently conducted were
moderately successful. But never was theory more vividly
exemplified, in practice, than were the warnings of Adam Smith
realized in the case of the Belgium companies; without either of his
two essentials to success—“monopoly or defined and limited action;”
they burst at once into all the pathless wilds of speculation and
extravagance. To success in any industrial undertaking, two things
are essential, mind and money; but the shareholders of a company
contribute only the latter, leaving the supply of the former to a
directory: the partners are only called upon to pay and not to think,
so that the mass of their capital is unrepresented by an equivalent
proportion of intellect and forethought. The general result of this, is
the failure that invariably accompanies neglect, and even the works
which are undertaken are never pushed with vigour, or expanded by
new discoveries and inventions. These are the offspring of that
anxious exertion of all the faculties of the brain which accompanies
the watchful prudence of a man, who has his whole fortune at stake,
and is dependent upon his individual genius. But the holder of a
joint-stock share, who throws his contribution into the general fund,
and sends twice a year for his dividend, (perhaps, without receiving
it,) has neither the information nor the interest that are
indispensable to stimulate improvements.
Mistakes and errors are thus constantly occurring, and losses
supervene; these, on their first appearance, would alarm and deter a
private individual from incurring further risk, and he would prepare,
at once, to retrieve his capital; but to the officers of a company
these occurrences are matters of comparative indifference, so long
as the last shilling of the paid up funds remains to meet their
salaries as they fall due. And even the proprietary themselves,
though conscious of the diminution of their profits, do not feel it so
acutely, coming as it does off so large a fund, and are, besides,
spurred on by the spirit of rivalry to incur the temporary loss, in
order to drive some competing company from the field, which is only
to be done by the largeness of their transactions; on the principle of
the match-seller, who lost a trifle upon every bundle, and would be
ruined were it not for the vast extent of the business which he did.
The results of this system were not slow in developing themselves
in Belgium; one by one they began to strain, break, and give way;
distrust was every hour growing blacker, when the bank of Belgium,
which had been similarly formed in 1835, with a capital of twenty
millions of francs, and had encouraged the establishment of some
twenty or thirty other joint-stock speculations, with a capital of fifty
millions more, suddenly suspended payment in 1838, and universal
dismay and confusion followed; bubbles burst in all directions, those
concerns which were unsound exploded at once, and others more
substantial suspended their operations, and resorted to fresh calls
and loans to enable them to proceed. In the mean time, prices and
the wages of labour had been fluctuating like the waves of the sea
under this financial tempest, at one time raised to the highest pitch
by the demand for machinery created by such vast simultaneous
exertions, and anon reduced below a remunerative level by the
ardour of their competition with each other. Several of these
companies still survive, but almost universally struggling with the
difficulties in which they have involved not only themselves, but
those private individuals whose steady and lucrative trade they had
invaded in the rage of their speculations.
From Verviers to Eupen, the Prussian frontier, the road is high and
uninteresting; it speedily leaves the charming valleys of the Vesdre
behind, and comes within sight of the ruins of Limbourg, one of the
most melancholy scenes of desolation I have seen—it stands lonely
and apart upon the summit of a rocky eminence, the remains of
what had once been a city, now a wilderness. Its rugged walls
covered with green moss, scarcely a roof visible, and the remnants
of its shattered fortifications flung, like a torn banner, across the sky.
It has still, however, a few wretched inhabitants, who are engaged in
the zinc mines in its vicinity. It seems incredible that this stranded
wreck, was once the capital of a duchy and the residence of a
sovereign.
It is impossible to turn one’s back upon this most interesting and
enterprising country without emotions of deep anxiety as to its
future destiny. Its political fortunes would require something more
than ordinary foresight to predict, and the recent possibility of an
European war, elicited the avowal of how slightly France would
regard the treaties of 1831 or 1839, did Belgium stand for one
moment in the way to obstruct her designs, either of aggression or
defence. But those for whose future lot the strongest sympathy is
excited, are her skilful artisans and her energetic and adventurous
manufacturers and merchants. Merchants, indeed, she has but few,
for nature and providence seem to have combined to render Belgium
a workshop rather than a warehouse. Austria, by the base desertion
of her shipping interest, in becoming a party to the closing of the
Scheldt at the treaty of Munster, compelled her to turn her attention
inwardly upon herself, and to seek to replace by the loom and the
hammer, that which she had lost by the annihilation of the sail and
the helm. Under France, and with the all-powerful protection of
Napoleon, her capabilities were developed to the fullest extent of her
capital and her means, all Europe affording a market for her
commodities, and creating a demand almost beyond her power to
supply.
With the events of 1815, and her annexation to Holland, that vast
outlet was contracted to a narrower space, and the King, on
assuming the direction of his affairs, found a nation of mechanics,
whom it became his province to provide with profitable employment.
In the attempt to do this, it is questionable whether he did not
overstep the bounds of prudence, and lead, by the system he
adopted, to the further development of powers which were already
simply sufficient for their functions;

As worldlings do, giving the sum of more


To that which had too much—

Individual enterprise was superseded rather than assisted; and the


expedients of the government tended to injure it in one respect by
relieving it from the effects of its own errors, feeding it with capital,
and carrying off its surplus production through societies which
purchased at a handsome price to export at a loss. Even with all
these appliances, her resources and powers were developed beyond
the legitimate means of their employment, and the 15,000,000 of
her population and colonies, whom Holland, compelled to give a
preference to her productions, were inadequate to their
consumption. What then must have been her condition, when in
1830, those 15,000,000 were reduced to something more than
three, whilst her machinery and powers of production remained the
same as before?
The new government, it must be admitted upon all hands, in spite
of the murmurs of those, the evils of whose condition lay too deep
for superficial remedies, such as the ministry had it in their power to
apply, have left no practical expedient untried to afford them relief,
but as yet in vain; and the history of one year seems but to afford a
painful contrast with the greater prosperity of that which preceded
it. Money, so far as it was available, has in no case been spared.
Mechanical and commercial education, both theoretical and practical,
has been duly attended to; prizes and honours have been awarded
to successful industry; and communications, both by highways,
railroads, and canals, have been lavishly provided to invite
consumption and demand; but no government can possibly afford
the Belgians or procure for them, that which alone can be a
fundamental remedy—a market proportionate to their machinery.
In every thing that is the offspring of manual labour brought to
bear upon native produce, their manufactures are successful; but so
soon as they are either obliged to bring their raw material from
abroad, or to come into competition with the machinery of more
populous countries, their advantages suddenly disappear. Thus in
iron work in general, cutlery, ordinary machinery, and hardware,
they excel; as well as in the production of lace and of linen yarn, in
distillation or brewing, in the manufacture of furniture and paper,
and, in short, in all the indispensable requisites of a home
consumption. On the other hand, their coal and their iron, though
abundant, lie deeper and dearer than those of their most formidable
rivals in Great Britain; and copper, which is equally essential to
extensive operations in machinery, they have none. Their trade
would lose its pre-eminence could the Irish be once induced to
adopt their processes for the preparation of flax; their cotton
manufacture is in the agonies of dissolution, and their silk has
already departed. Their woollens, their sugar refiners, and other
once fruitful fields of enterprise and wealth, are no longer to be
relied on; and, in a word, the whole frame-work of their system is
labouring under a plethora, for which no ingenuity has yet sufficed
to invent an effectual relief.
One expedient, may, perhaps, suggest itself, that if her
manufacturing force is too great, it should be directed into other
channels, and her powers of production reduced into an accordance
with her demand and consumption. But, independently of the fact,
that her agriculture, which lost, equally with her artizans, an outlet
in the colonies of Holland, is already overstocked, and would afford
no reception to her surplus mechanics, the production of her
machinery, even if reduced within the wants of a population of three
or four millions, would still be undersold by those of her rivals,
whose consumption extends over a vastly more extended field.
England with two hundred millions of subjects in India and the West;
Russia with 66,000,000; Austria with half that number; the German
League with twenty-four, and France with thirty-five millions, would
render it utterly beyond the power of Belgium to enter any neutral
market in the world in competition with them, or even to supply her
own, unless at a sacrifice.
The character of the Belgians for industry, frugality, and skill, is not
surpassed by that of any artisan in the world, but these,
unfortunately, are not the only requisites to success. “The sufferings
of the Belgian mechanics,” says M. Briavionne, “are all referable to
their unfortunate political position; but, formed in a school of long
adversity, they have learned to discover, even in their misfortunes, a
fountain of higher qualities, which has sustained them in their
painful struggle. Prodigal in prosperity, adversity has served to teach
them economy—to render them systematic, patient, and
persevering. Nurtured in luxury, they have become reconciled to
privations; and the Belgian manufacturer has long since learned to
place his sole reliance upon untiring labour, and unyielding industry.
Less adventurous than the American, or the Englishman, he has
more fore-sight, moderation and patience, than them both.”

“The condition of the population,” adds M. Briavionne, “may be thus


summarily described;—of four millions of inhabitants, one is in
independence, (l’aisance), another in want, (besoin), and the
remainder floating between these two points.”
But another reflection naturally forces itself upon the mind of any
one who sympathises with the artisans of Belgium, generous,
industrious, and deserving, as they have here been described—who
and what is it that have reduced them to this condition of suffering
and privation? The answer is but too obvious; and those who were
the base instruments of their ruin, if they have not discovered the
effects of their own crime, in the stagnation of all national
prosperity, must, long ere this, have learned it in the “curses, not
loud but deep,” with which their actions are assailed, by their dupes
and victims. Belgium has, years ere this, discovered the truth of the
maxim, that it is—

“—better to bear the ills we have,


Than fly to others we know not of.”

If, under the successive sovereignties of Austria and France, and as


an integral portion of that of Holland, she had not the poetical
satisfaction of being “a nation instead of a province,” she had, at
least, the substantial enjoyments of liberty, wealth and remunerative
industry, blessings which even “hereditary bondsmen” might hesitate
to exchange for bigotry, poverty and decay.

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