Functionalism’s Antecedents – Galton and the Animal PsychologistsFrancis Galton (1822-1911)Francis GaltonSlide 4Hereditary Genius (1869)MethodologyMental TestsGalton’s London LabSlide 9Association ResearchMental ImageryHow Bizarre, How BizarreFunctionalism and Animal PsychologyGeorge John Romanes (1848-1894)George John RomanesResearch MethodsThe Mental LadderSlide 18Contributions to PsychologyC. Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936)C. Lloyd MorganSlide 22Comparative PsychologyDiscussion QuestionsSlide 25Slide 26Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29DISCUSSION QUESTIONSWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH, 2015FUNCTIONALISM’S ANTECEDENTS – GALTON AND THE ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGISTSFRANCIS GALTON (1822-1911)•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibTtzQW6cD4FRANCIS GALTON•Astronomers brought our awareness to individual differences•Weber, Fechner, and Helmholtz reported individual differences in their work, but did not study them systematically•Wundt and Titchener didn’t think psychology was the place for the study of individual differences•Darwin’s variability hypothesis brought us back to individual differences•Galton studied mental inheritance and the individual differences in human capacities, bringing the variability hypothesis to lifeFRANCIS GALTON•Very smart – supposedly had an IQ of 200!•Studied many areas of science – primarily medicine and mathematics•A phrenologist had told him that his head was not the right shape for scholarly activity•Instead, he should pursue and outdoor life–This was when he went to Africa•When he returned, he continued to write about travel and also studied meteorology •Read his cousin Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and he became interested in the social implications of evolutionHEREDITARY GENIUS (1869)•“Eminent men have eminent sons.”–Concluded this by studying the ancestry of notable people (interestingly, he had no sons)–This led to the study and encouragement of what he called eugenics, the science of good qualities that are passed on genetically–Felt that this was a function of genetics, not opportunity, and that people could not change their genetic endowment–Encouraged artificial selection–Applied statistical methods and testing to the likelihood of producing good offspringMETHODOLOGY•Galton <3 Statistics! •Inspired by Belgian mathematician Adolph Quetelet (1796-1874) , who was the first to use statistics and the bell curve for biological and social data–“L’homme moyen” (the average man)•Galton extended this to mental capacities (intelligence, etc.) using means and standard deviations•He also laid the groundwork for correlation research, and his student Karl Pearson (1857-1936) developed the Pearson product-moment coefficient of correlation (r for regression)MENTAL TESTS•Though James Cattell, a fan of Galton and a student of Wundt, would go on to originate the term “mental tests,” they were kind of Galton’s idea•Mental tests: tests of motor skills and sensory capacities; intelligence tests use more complex measures of mental abilities•He thought the higher the sensory functioning, the higher the mental functioning (this is very Lockian!)GALTON’S LONDON LAB•Had 17 tests!•Used things like dog whistles, precision tests with which a subject could match two spots of color, tests of reaction time, weights to be arranged in order of heaviness, tests of depth perception and olfactory discrimination•Sounds a lot like the research that was being done in early physiology!FRANCIS GALTON•The study of the lives of gifted people has continued to be studied in many ways•Terman’s “termites”•Intelligence testsASSOCIATION RESEARCH •Was the first to use word-association tests, which would later be used heavily by Jung•Echoing Ebbinghaus, he prepared a list of 75 words and recorded how long it took him to produce 2 associations for each word–He traced about 40% of his associations to childhood, supporting the importance of childhood and adolescence in psychology–Was also amazed that the things he came up with were things he thought he’d forgotten•This supported the idea of the unconscious mind, and Freud loved itMENTAL IMAGERY•Studied the images people could think about and concluded that this ability was also normally distributed•Imagining breakfast exampleHOW BIZARRE, HOW BIZARRE•Galton wasn’t really a psychologist, but he accomplished a lot of psychological research in only 15 years of trying•He studied many other things–How paranoid schizophrenics think–How prayer influences life–Counting•Coughs and yawns•Brushstrokes•Counting system using smellsFUNCTIONALISM AND ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY•Before Darwin, animals were considered automata•If mental functioning could now be seen as continuous between animals and humans, we’d better study animals and get some intelligence tests together•Stories began to circulate about brilliant feats performed by animalsGEORGE JOHN ROMANES (1848-1894)GEORGE JOHN ROMANES•British physiologist, considered a “shocking dunce” as a child (Richards, 1987, p. 334)•Darwin gave him his notebooks on animal behavior•Published Animal Intelligence (1893), the first book on comparative psychology, intended to show how similar animals and humans were in their mental functioningRESEARCH METHODS•Used the anecdotal method to collect data–The use of observational reports about animal behavior, from untrained sources in this case•Then, he used introspection by analogy–A technique for studying animal behavior by assuming that the same mental processes that occur in the observer’s mind also occur in the animal’s mind•Concluded that animals are capable of the same kinds of rationalization, ideation, complex reasoning, information processing, and problem solving abilities as humansTHE MENTAL LADDERTHE MENTAL LADDER•Really loved cats•“Cats in such cases have a very definite idea as to the mechanical properties of a door; they know that to make it open, even when unlatched, it requires to be pushed…First the animal must have observed that the door is opened by the hand grasping the handle and moving the latch. Next, she must reason, by “the logic of feelings,” if a hand can do it, why not a paw? …The pushing with the hind feet after depressing the latch must be due to adaptive reasoning (Romanes, 11883, pp. 421-422)CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY•Though his methods would NOT be considered okay by today’s standards, he did
View Full Document
Unlocking...