Chapter 7 - Francis Galton and individual differences Flashcards
Francis Galton
Charles Darwin’s younger cousin
- became fixated on the idea of identifying human psychological variables such as individual differences
- he believed they consisted of physical and mental characteristics
- he concluded that intelligence must be an innate characteristic
anthropometric laboratory
people could be measured on any trait and afterwards could compare their results with those of other people
- founded by Galton
Adolphe Quetelet
established that some traits are normally distributed
- measurements fall mostly in the middle range rather than at the extremes
-e.g. height and intelligence
the role of environment for success
Galton believed that environmental advantages could affect a person’s intellectual abilities
pedigrees of eminence
in certain families there tend to be certain traits that are favourable
adoption or biological relatedness
only in cases where there is a biological relation do talents go together
Alphonse de Candolle
interested in the importance of environmental factors
- studied scientists’ biographies and analyzed them
- concluded that although heredity did play a role, good environment was the reason talents developed
twin research
these studies examined the extent to which twins seperated immediately after birth were still similar
eugenics
improving the human race through selective breeding
- developed by Galton
positive eugenics
combining 2 smart people and encouraging them to have offspring
negative eugenics
prohibited people who were considered stupid or disabled from having children
regression to the mean
if your measure something extreme for the second time, the results will be closer to the average score
regression line
the steepness of the line indicates how much correlation there is
Pearson’s r
-1 = strong negative correlation
0 = no correlation
1 = strong positive correlation
word association technique
records the first reaction that comes to mind when seeing a list of stimulus words
