Lesson 6 - Evolution and Individual Differences

Question 1

What were the common beliefs in the 1800s regarding the Earth and its inhabitant species?

Answer 1

Common belief in the 1800s: all animal species were unconnected, unrelated, and unchanged since creations
• The Earth was only 6.000 y.o.
• People were not part of the natural world, they were above it
Few wanted to challenge Biblical stories of creation

Question 2

Describe the contributions of Al-Jahiz

Answer 2

• 9th century Arabic writer and polymath
  
  • Wrote the “Book of Animals” and the “Book of Living Beings”
  • Discussed 350 species of animals
  • Suggested that animals adapt to survive
  • Only the fittest survives
  • This is all done in accordance to God’s will

Question 3

Who was Erasmus Darwin?

Answer 3

• Darwin’s grandpa
  
  • Suggests that all warm-blooded animals evolved form a single line
  • Mentions that God set life in motion but did not interfere (deism)

Question 4

Describe the work of Thomas Malthus

Answer 4

• English demographer and economist
  
  • Published “An Essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society”
  • Suggested population growth will always tend to exhaust the food supply
  • Became instrumental in theories about controlling reproduction
  • Piqued the interest of Charles Darwin

The food supply and the population size are kept in balance by the war, starvation and disease

Question 5

Describe the contributions of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Answer 5

Outlined a theory of evolution
• Suggested a transformational type of evolution that led to the inheritance of acquired characteristics

Wrote the books:
• 1802: Research on the Organization of Living Bodies
• 1809: Zoological Philosophy
• 1815: Natural History of Invertebrate Animals

Noted that fossils resemble living species
One of the first scientists to state the organisms change over time
• Due to demands of their environment as well as an innate urge to become more complex and perfect (similar to Aristotle’s entelechy)

Question 6

Describe Lamarck’s theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

Answer 6

Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
• Environmental changes during the lifetime of the organism resulted in structural changes in plants and animals
• Organisms could change during their lifetime by selectively using or not using various parts of their bodies
• These changes would then be passed on to the offspring, which in turn enhanced their chance of survival and survival of the species
= Premise of Use or Disuse
• Ex: Giraffes developed their long neck to get to high leaves in trees

Question 7

Describe the contribution of Charles Lyell. He is known to have paved the road for what?

Answer 7

Scottish geologist
Wrote Principles of Geology (1830)
• Suggests that the Earth had passed through various stages of development

Uniformitarianism
• All features of the earth’s surface were produced by biological processes (ex: physical, chemical)
• Caused changes over the course of time
• Are still active today

Refuted that change came from something catastrophic such as the flood from the biblical story of Noah’s ark
Everything in the present is linked to the past
Paved the road for evolutionary biology

Question 8

Describe the contributions of Robert Chambers

Answer 8

Writer and philosophist
Wrote Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Origins of Life by Spontaneous Generation
• Coined by Francesco Redi (1668)
• Life can be generated by something non-living
• Caused a shift in popular opinion and captured the attention of Darwin

Because maggots could grow out of rotting meat, life could begin from something that is not alive

Question 9

Define Chambers’ principle of transmutation

Answer 9

Everything currently in existence has developed from earlier forms. Suggesting early ideas of man being descendent of primates (unfortunately also brought extremely racist ideas)

Question 10

Describe Darwin’s childhood and expedition on the HMS Beagle

Answer 10

Born to an eminent family
• Father: Prominent physician
• Grandfather: (Erasmus) Physician who had an early theory of evolution
He did not do well in school
Had one passion: entomology (Study of bugs)

At Cambridge: met the botanist John Henslow who would recommend he go on an expedition on the HMS Beagle

Voyage on the HMS Beagle
Darwin was hired as a naturalist/scientist for a 5 year scientific expedition
• Fitzroy was the captain of the boat and hoped that Darwin would find things to confirm Biblical theories
• Took him to Galapagos island
• Darwin read the book “Principles of Geology” which made him start to doubt the Biblical account, specifically stories like Noah’s ark.
• Fitzroy’s mental health was declining, and he was probably guilty of leading Darwin to contradict the Bible, so he died by suicide

Question 11

Describe Darwin’s 3 key observations that he did on the HMS Beagle

Answer 11

1- Continuity of species through history
• Fossils from extinct species were similar to modern species (ex: armadillo)

2- Species vary globally
• Rheas in South America, ostriches in Africa, and emu in Australia
• Certain species of animals only inhabit certain parts of the world:
• Rabbits in European grasslands but not in South America
• Kangaroos only in Australia
• No snakes in New Zealand

3- Species vary locally
• Noticed:
• 68 species of beetles in Brazilian forests
• Variations of Rhea within South America
• Finches with different beaks
• Thick to feed on seeds
• Narrow and sharp to eat insects
• Narrow to eat buds and fruits
• Sharp to use tools and pry out grubs
• These individual differences were modifications of the original finch
• The variations allow the species to survive even if one food source was depleted, then those that had the beak suited for a different food source would survive

Question 12

Describe Darwin’s theory of Natural selection

Answer 12

Natural selection: mechanism of change
1. Traits are inherited, or passed from parent to offspring
2. More offspring are produced than are able to survive
3. Offspring vary among each other in terms of traits
Offspring with inherited characteristics
• Allow them to best compete for limited resources
• Will survive and have more offspring than those individuals with variations that are less able to compete

Question 13

Describe Darwin’s principle of Descent with Modification

Answer 13

Traits that are beneficial for survival and reproduction are adaptive
• Because traits are inherited, the next generation should be at an advantage
Descent with modification: process of change in populations over generations
• The traits providing reproductive advantage become more common within the population

Question 14

What is Darwin’s Struggle for Existence theory?

Answer 14

Resources for survival and reproduction are limited
The capacity for reproduction in all organisms exceeds the availability of resources to support their numbers
THEREFORE
• There is a competition for those resources in each generation
• The less the resources, the greater the competition

Question 15

What is Darwin’s survival of the fittest by natural selection’s theory?

Answer 15

Evolution: results from the natural selection of variations among members of a species that prove to have survival value
• No progression or goal: just happens due to natural environmental pressures

Most adaptive traits = fittest

Fitness: ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment

Question 16

What did Darwin believe about the difference between humans and higher mammals? What did this lead to?

Answer 16

Darwin: “There is not fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties”

Darwin suggested a continuity between animals and humans
In 1895, he published the book “On the Origin of Species” in which he discussed:
• Descent with modification
• Evolution
• Suggestion of a lineage close to that of non-human primates

All animals were connected and related to each other and diversity of life was a product of modifications by natural selection, which favoured certain traits over others

The Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
• Book from Darwin
• Suggested that animals had the ability to express emotion
• Idea of Animal Psychology: there was not a sharp distinction between humans and animals

Question 17

How did Darwin paved the road for comparative psychology?

Answer 17

Because of his belief that there is not a sharp distinction between humans and animals, and that all structures are adaptive

Laying the groundwork for a new movement
Darwin’s suggestion of continuity from animal to humans paved the road for comparative psychology

* Importance of Individual differences: as a species evolve, its physical structure is determined by the requirements for survival
* Functional Psychology: Focus on the adaptive value of physical and mental traits

Biologists began to regard each anatomical structure as functional and adaptive
Psychologists would begin to examine mental processes this way

Question 18

How was Darwin’s mental health?

Answer 18

Suffered much anxiety
Developed neurotic symptoms:
• Trembling
• Depression
• Vomiting
Overcome by worry caused by the fear of his theory being condemned
He worked on his book for 22 years before presenting it to the public
An idea that directly contradicts biblical teachings had everyone re-evaluate their connection to the animal kingdom

Question 19

What was the societal outcome of the theory of evolution?

Answer 19

Outcome of the theory of evolution: interest in individual differences - used as a means to judge others very quickly
Take this information and use it to advantage better our society

The best intentions will turn dark very quickly

Question 20

Describe the Spencer-Bain principle by Herbert Spencer

Answer 20

Spencer-Bain Principle
Frequency/Probability of a Behaviour:
• Increases followed by a pleasurable event
• Decreases followed by a painful event

Proposed: these propensities for various behavioural responses could be passed onto offspring
• Could we use the principles of evolution to push forward the right traits and proper behaviours?

Question 21

Who coined the expression “survival of the fittest”?

Answer 21

Although Darwin gets the credit for that expression, it belongs to Spencer who coined it in 1852
Knowledge and experience could be explained in terms of evolutionary processes
• Through evolution - differentiation occurs - systems become increasingly complex - more toward perfection

Question 22

How did Spencer develop his theory of Social Darwinism? What is this about?

Answer 22

To Spencer, there was a purpose and directionality to evolution:
• It didn’t just happen based on the environment
• It was a way to get to perfection
• Called Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism: the development of all aspects of the universe is evolutionary. Including human character and social institutions
• Proposed that governments should allow survival of the fittest to operate freely
• Let the characteristics, institutions and people who are not fit to survive die out. The state should not interfere
• Since it fit with capitalism it was well accepted at the time

Question 23

Why did Galton become interested in the inheritance of mental abilities?

Answer 23

Was fascinated with individual differences
• Became interested in studying the inheritance of human abilities
• Believed that the potential for high intelligence was inherited, but it must be nurtured by a proper environment
• Introduction of the nature-nurture controversy

1869: Hereditary genius
• He discusses the biographies of scientists and physicians and found that they had inherited a specific type of genius or talent
Easy for Galton to see the merit of heritability
• His grandfather was Erasmus Darwin
• His cousin was Charles Darwin
• Began reading and writing at the age of 2.5 y.o.

Question 24

Define eugenics and positive eugenics

Answer 24

Refers to selective breeding in the aim to reduce human suffering by breeding out disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the population
• Positive eugenics: does not mean good; means adding something to favour procreation of intelligent people (like incentives)

Galton also believed that no amount of mental or physical exertion will enable a person to rise above their genetics

Question 25

What happened when Galton merged his concept of inheritance of mental abilities with eugenics? However, what need did this bring?

Answer 25

Goal was to encourage the birth of intellectual and discourage the births of “unfits”
• Proposes positive eugenics to foster the improvement of inherited qualities in humans
Eugenics: From the Greek word Eugenes, “good in stock, hereditary endowed with noble qualities”

Need for intelligence technique
• How do we know who is intelligent and who is not?
Galton decided that tests were needed to identify those who could become eminent
If possible, keep those that were not from procreating

Question 26

How did Galton study associations?

Answer 26

Walked around and focused his attention on one object until he could think of associated items
He also kept track of:
• The diversity of associations
• The reaction time (time it took to make the associations)
• Then traced back the associations to his childhood and adolescence, suggesting the importance of childhood experience

Question 27

How did Galton study mental imagery? What were the conclusions?

Answer 27

One of the firsts to study it
With the use of questionnaires, he asked people to imagine scenarios
• Evaluated the responses in terms of the vividness of the reported imagery and carried out a number of analyses
• Found that this ability fell into a normal distribution
• Some people being excellent at imagining
• While others had a difficult time - possibly being less creative (stereotype that will linger)

Question 28

What happened at the International Health Exhibition?

Answer 28

1884: Galton set up the Anthropomorphic Laboratory at the International Health Exhibition
• Visitors paid 3 pence to take part in mental tests
• Collected data on more than 9,000 humans

Mental tests: tests of motor skills and sensory capacities (unlike intelligence tests)
• He assumed intelligence could be measures with motor capacity and sensory acuity

Question 29

Name some tools for mental tests

Answer 29

Mental Tests: Tools
Some included:
	• Photometer (testing perception of tint)
	• Calibrated pendulum
	• Weights to be arranged
	• Bar with variable distance scale
	• Bottles with various substances

Question 30

Describe the statistical findings of Adolphe Quételet about BMI

Answer 30

Adolphe Quételet
Belgian astronomist, mathematician, etc
Wrote “L’Homme Moyen”
• Talked about the Basal Metabolic Index (BMI)
• If you plot the height of a large enough sample, it falls onto a bell-shaped curve or normal distribution

Regression towards the mean: property of any scatterplot where the linear relationship has a slope of less than 45 degrees
• The median is a more accurate depiction than the mean

Question 31

Describe the fun facts about Galton

Answer 31

• Tried to simulate paranoia
• Believed that society should focus on a strong human race rather than worry about getting into heaven (except he suggested this to be one via eugenics)
• Obsessed with keeping track of things: counted numbers of yawns, brush strokes, etc
• Counted by odours rather than numbers
• Arithmetic by smell
Power of prayer to produce results

Question 32

Describe the contributions of Galton

Answer 32

• The study of the nature-nurture question
  * The conduction of twin studies
  
  • The use of questionnaires in research
  • The use of word-association tests
  • The study of imagery
  • The development of correlational techniques

Question 33

Describe the work of Cattell

Answer 33

In 1883, Cattell Began working in Wilhem Wundt's lab
	• Earned his PhD
	• Interested in reaction times
	• Notes individual differences
	• Began Galtonian type testing

Question 34

Describe Cattell’s testing on college students, as well as the results

Answer 34

Cattell designed a series of 10 tests that he administered to college students
• Goal: determine the variation of performance on various tests

1. Dynamometer pressure (hand grip strength)
2. Rate of movement (time of slow movement or quick blow)
3. Sensation area (2-point sensitivity)
4. Pressure causing point
5. LND in weight (finding JND)
6. Reaction-time for sound
7. Time for naming colours
8. Bi-section of a 50 cm line
9. Judgment of 10 seconds time
10. Number of letters remembered on once hearing

Little intercorrelations among the tests
Little correlations between the tests and student’s success in college
• Interest in mental testing began fading with these results

Question 35

What happened at the World’s Columbian Exposition?

Answer 35

• Chicago
  
  • Organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Colombus’s voyage to the New World

Joseph Jastrow (1863-1944)
Involved in organizing the psychology exhibit
Suggested to showcase these mental tests
2-room set up
• Charts and graphs and a collection of experimental instruments and apparatus
• Experience of mental tests (not much valid, but fun to do)
• Piqued the interest of the public and of other scientists

Question 36

Describe the complementarity and the variability hypotheses

Answer 36

Complementarity hypothesis: men and women display complementary, but not directly comparable, psychological and intellectual strengths
• Made for a strengthening of social groups and pair bonds
Variability hypothesis (Darwin): males of a species show more variability, more flamboyant secondary sex characteristics, therefore women:
• Are average,
• Have less evolved brain
• Less likely to achieve (intellectually)
• Less likely to benefit from education

Question 37

How was the variability hypothesis tested?

Answer 37

Asked 25 male and 25 female psych students to produce a list of 100 words as quickly as possible
• Women lists had less variety, more words about wearing apparel, furniture, food
• Men lists had more variety, more animal and abstract words

Question 38

Describe the work of Mary Whiton Calkins on the Variability hypothesis

Answer 38

Mary Whiton Calkins ran the same test in 1894 and 1896
On 50 women in Wellesley College
• Percentage of different words for men = 55%
• Percentage of different words for women = 52%
• Women talked more about clothes
• Women and men talked equally about furniture

Question 39

How did Helen Bradford Thompson Woodley further challenged the idea of sex differences?

Answer 39

Helen Braford Thompson Woodley further challenged the idea of sex differences
Findings: Tests of motor ability, coordination, card sorting, precision of drawing a line, reaction times, and others
• Men had shorter reaction time
• But women were more accurate
• Men were better on motor skills
• But women had better sensory discrimination, memory, and association abilities
• Men were better on tasks requiring ingenuity
Far more differences within than between groups
Criticism: her participants were female students, which were considered to be “different than the average women in terms of intelligence”

Question 40

What were the results of Leta Hollingworth’s empirical study?

Answer 40

Test the widespread belief that women’s mental and motor performance becomes impaired during menstruation
Finding: there is no mental or motor inefficiency in women during their menstrual cycle

Question 41

Outline the work of Alfred Binet

Answer 41

The important variables on which people differ are complex, higher-order processes that vary according to age
Tested his 2 daughters on memory, conservation, visual acuity, reaction time
• 1890: published 3 papers on the data collected
• 1894: headed up to the newly created Lab of Physiological Psychology in the Sorbonne

Question 42

Describe the research of Binet with Henri

Answer 42

Main objective: study individual differences in psychological processes
• Shifted the testing from Galton’s type (focusing on motor/sensory activity) to higher mental processes
A series of simple tests:
• Memory
• Nature of memory images
• Imagination
• Attention
• Power of understanding, observing, defining and distinguishing
• Suggestibility
• Aesthetic feeling
• Moral sentiments
• Muscular force and force of will
• Motor ability and accuracy of estimates made by the eye

Question 43

Describe the work of Binet with Simon. What did Simon bring to Binet’s work?

Answer 43

Henri and Binet had come up with 10 faculties that should be assessed then worked on developing tests for many years but were largely unsuccessful
• Had low internal consistency
• Scores were unrelated to one another
• Did not give a complete picture of abilities

Binet worked with Simon, who worked at a facility for disabled people, which would help to extend the sample of tested individuals

Question 44

How did Binet and Simon helped the French govt?

Answer 44

During this time, post-industrialization in France helped more children to attend school
• 1882: the French Government passed a law that established mandatory primary education for all children aged 6-14 y.o.
• Helped some children go to school with others, while years ago they would have never stepped foot in a school

In 1905, French Govt tasked Binet and Simon to identify the children who required special education due to mental disability
• Tried various tests on children already identified as developmentally delayed an those identified as normal, age 2-12, to see which tests would differentiate the 2 groups
• Developed a set of 30 tasks of increasing levels of difficulty (to identify what was called “mental level”, and later “mental age”)

Question 45

What were the views of Binet on his own tests?

Answer 45

Even with the success of tests, Binet
• Believed that intelligence could be conceptualized as multifaceted and malleable
• Intended the test to be a time-specific glimpse of the child’s current state of functioning
• Believed that children could improve their scores and change their level of intelligence by doing various exercises (called mental orthopedics)
• Admitted that these tests were fallible and should be considered as levels

Question 46

How is IQ calculated? Who found this? Describe IQ

Answer 46

In 1912, William Stern divided the mental age by their chronological age to calculate IQ

The intelligence ratio of mental age / chronological age should be multiplied by 100
• Is stable through a lifetime
• A measure of an innate, largely unchangeable and constant individual quality

Question 47

Who brought the Binet-Simon scale to the USA, and how was it used then?

Answer 47

Henry Godard
• Brought the Binet-Simon scale to the USA
• Translated it to English
Suggested it was a reasonable way to assess the relation between family background and intelligence

Question 48

Describe the Kallinkak family case study and its outcome

Answer 48

From New Jersey
Both strands of the family descended from one man, who got children with a “feeble-minded” women met in a tavern, and a Quaker women (considered upper class)
• The side of the illegitimate children scored lower on tests
• Considered as scientific proof that descent did influence intelligence

Many states passed sterilization laws (some up into the 1970s)
• Mental testing of immigrants
• Resulted in deportation

Question 49

Why and how was the Binet-Simon scale re adapted?

Answer 49

Lewis Terman found that the Binet-Simon Scale yielded inconsistent results in American children
• Easier for young children
• Harder for older children
He revised and adapted the test until he got consistent results for children of the same age

The Stanford-Binet test
• Yielded an average score for children of different ages to be 100
• Standardized on a large sample of 905 American schoolchildren
• The standard test for measuring intelligence until the middle of the 20th century

Question 50

How was intelligence testing used in the army?

Answer 50

IQ testing also became a way to assess particular abilities and a way to identify vocation and ranking in a society that was meritocratic
• WWI became a means to test that on a large sample

The US govt was looking for a way to test army recruits to make a recommendation for their placement in the army

Question 51

Who organized intelligence testing in the army? How?

Answer 51

Robert Yerkes proposed that points be given for questions on the intelligence test and analyzed this manner without respect to age
• Developed the Wechsler Adult intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• And the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

	* Yerkes organized the testing program for the army (WWI), aka the Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits
		* Binet tests were not appropriate due to the large sample
		* Some were unable to read
			* Army Alpha test was used for literate people
			* Army Beta test was used for illiterate people
		* Tested about 200,000 recruits a month, 1.75 million by the end of the war
		* Recruits were stressed to take the test, some never held a pen before

Question 52

What were the results of intelligence testing in the army?

Answer 52

Proved to be highly correlated with education rather than innate ability
Results were used to rank men in the army and in society

Data Analysis
The average mental age of recruits was only 13 years
• 12 y.o. Was considered the age limit for mental feebleness
• People of colour were considered less intelligent, and it was an excuse for the govt that had a eugenic agenda

Do these tests actually measure intelligence?
• The army dropped intelligence testing 2 months after the war’s end

Question 53

What was the concern about the deterioration of national intelligence? What was the presumed cause of it?

Answer 53

Following WWI, there was great concern that the nation’s intelligence level was deteriorating
• Yerkes,. Goddard and Terman thought that this problem was caused by immigration
• Intellectually “inferior” people were reproducing at a faster rate than normal or above-normal people

Findings
• The Army suggested a correlation between IQ and race

Considerations
• The lack of access to education and resources that people of colour were experiencing influenced their results
• Tests could be measuring the effects of early experience and education rather than intelligence, thus influencing the results for people of colour

Question 54

What was the debate around IQ testing in America?

Answer 54

In America, IQ testing was at the forefront of many debates
• Mass testing - not effective and leads to issues with validity
• Social Darwinism and Eugenics reinforced by these tests - dark part of psych history
Many people question the legitimacy of what IQ testing implies

Question 55

What did Hernstein and Murray : “The Bell Curve - Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life” suggested regarding IQ distribution in the population?

Answer 55

Suggested that people of colour were inferior in intelligence

Top of the spectrum: independent professions, large employers, etc
Middle: respectable working class
End: Criminals, paupers, undesirables (people of colour)

Question 56

How was IQ testing in France?

Answer 56

France
• Did not feel the need to mass test
• Maintained Binet’s assumption that there are other factors of IQ
• Tests remained a means to help children

Question 57

How was IQ testing in Britain?

Answer 57

• Charles Spearman’s two-factor theory of intelligence: 1904 “General Intelligence: Objectively Determined and Measured”
  
  • Suggested that a general factor, G or general intelligence, worked through specific intelligences to produce abilities on specific tasks

Question 58

How was IQ testing in Germany? Define differential psych and psychotechnics

Answer 58

Differential Psychology:
• The approach of German psychologist Wilhem Stern which stressed the understanding of the total personality in its individuality, what he later terms “psychoanalytic psychology”
Psychotechnics:
• The practice of studying the individual differences for “human management purposes”, especially in industry and business