ch. 7: measuring the mind: Galton and Individual Differences

Question 1

Francis Galton (1820s)

Answer 1

promoted the notions of hereditary intelligence and eugenics

laid the foundation for modern intelligence testing and the broad field of behavior genetics

Question 2

anthropometric laboratory

Answer 2

exhibit by Galton where visitors were administered neurophysiologically based tests that are conceived as prototypes for modern intelligence tests

Question 3

psychology of individual differences

Answer 3

focuses on the measurement and study of differences between individuals on a psychological characteristics, rather than general qualities of that characteristic

Question 4

hereditary genius

Answer 4

Galton’s influential but inconclusive book

established the strong statistical tendency for eminence to run in families and argued that this was primarily for genetic reasons

introduced the idea of comparing similarities between adoptive vs biological relatives to differentiate hereditary from environmental effects

Question 5

alphonse de candolle (1800s)

Answer 5

swiss botanist

collected biographical information on more than 300 eminent European scientists, which pointed to the strong importance of environment relative to heredity, in contrast to Galton’s position

Question 6

English men science: their nature and nurture

Answer 6

gallons book revealing the results of his self questionnaire study of the backgrounds of English scientists, stimulated by de candolle, which polarized the phrase nature vs nurture

Question 7

eugenics

Answer 7

term by Galton to describe his project for improving the human race through selective breeding

Question 8

intelligence tests

Answer 8

tests that reveal differing degrees of intelligence and natural ability

the tests developed by Galton did NOT correlate with meaningful accomplishments

Question 9

mental imagery

Answer 9

phenomenon studied by Galton, when he asked subjects to imagine various scenes and describe them in detail as to brightness and color, distinctness, apparent location, etc.

Question 10

word association experiment

Answer 10

involves recording the first reactions that come to mind when seeing a list randomly presented stimulus words

may have partially inspired Freud’s free association technique and Jung’s word association test

Question 11

Galton’s twin studies and the nature nurture issue

Heritability

Answer 11

the percentage of characteristics variability within a population that is determined by genetics

Question 12

separated twin study

Answer 12

identification of an adult group of unquestionably monozygotic twins reared in separate, independent environments wise study is potentially useful in determining the relative influences of heredity and environment