Psychologists as Testers

1. Psychologists as Testers Part 1 From Galton to Hollingworth

2. Themes in Ch. 6 • Psychology extends or justifies its reputation as an experimental quantitative science through • Psychophysics • Mental & Intelligence Tests • Personality & Selection Tests • Psychology seeks to promote “adjustment” among the diverse segments of society • Psychology is very much tied to the “capitalist, individualist, rationalist, and meritocratic, lift-yourself-up-by-your-[own]-bootstraps” mindset of American society more generally

3. Consider the followingfamily tree

4. George Walker Bush • Born 1946 • Yale 1968 • President 2001-2009 Son • George Herbert Walker Bush • Born 1924 • Yale 1947 • President 1989-1993 Father • Prescott Bush • Born 1895 • Yale 1917 • Senator from CT 1953-1962 Grandfather Francis Galton argued: Eminence runs in families Natural abilities are inherited The closer one is related the more likely that the eminence will be in the same field of achievement What do you think of the examples of the Kennedy & Bush families? Consider another family

5. Sir Francis Galton • 1822-1911 • Upper-class family (1st cousin of Darwin) • Explorer: Namibia (1850-52) • Meteorologist • Statistician • Psychologist-Researcher of Individual Differences, esp. Sensory Abilities, Intelligence • Twin-Studies • Word Association Test • Positive Eugenics: “Improving” the human race by selective breeding

6. Hereditary Genius • 1865 Paper: Hereditary Talent & Character • 1869 Book: Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Into Its Laws & Consequences • “Man’s natural abilities are derived by inheritance” • Used “normal curve distribution” (proposed by Adolphe Jacques Quételet) for both physical & mental characteristics • Family trees of “eminent individuals” (best 1 in 4000) show 1000 in 300 families. Eminence also is greater the closer the kinship. Relatives tend to do well in same areas of eminence. • Concludes that abilities are inherited • What about environment? http://www.tld.jcu.edu.au/hist/stats/galton/mactable1.gif

7. Alphonse Quetelet • Belgian statistician (1796-1874) • Measured many physical & behavioral characteristics to show what the “Average Man” was like • Used the normal curve distribution • Social science grounded in mathematics

8. Alphonse de Candolle challenged Galton: environmental influences are clear in lives of 300 scientists Galton conducted questionnaire survey of 200 Fellows of Royal Society: political, social, physical data sought Found data that did suggest an environmental influence on those who were already predisposed by their genetics English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture (1874) First clear use of term Introduced study of twins, esp. those separated at birth Hereditary Genius (2) http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/darwin/galton1.jpg

9. Anthropometric LaboratoryInternational Health Exhibition (London: 1885) > 9,000 people measured: physiological, sensory, perceptual abilities

10. Stimulus Chartused at theAnthropometricLaboratory http://www.mugu.com/galton/books/human-faculty/chart72dpi.jpg

11. James McKeen Cattell • 1860-1944 • Studied individual reaction differences in Germany with Wundt • Worked with Galton 1887-89 in UK • Developed 10 “mental tests” used at lab at U Penn 1889 • Wants to get precise measurements of basic mental & perceptual processes • Columbia U 1891-1917(fired for opposing WWI) • Founds Psychological Corporation 1920 Cattell’s 10 Mental Tests 1. Dynamometer Pressure. 2. Rate of Movement. 3. Sensation-areas. 4. Pressure causing Pain. 5. Least Noticeable difference in Weight. 6. Reaction-time for Sound. 7. Time for naming Colors. 8. Bi-section of a 50 cm. Line 9. Judgment of 10 seconds time. 10. Number of Letters remembered on once hearing.

12. World Columbian Exposition 1893Chicago • Joseph Jastrow (1863-1944) sets up 2-room exhibit showing instruments & psychological tests that fairgoers could experience • Emphasis on “science” in the spirit of the fair’s theme of modernity

13. LightnerWitmer & the Prehistory of Clinical Psychology • Witmer (1867-1956) sets up clinic at U Penn (1898) to help public school students with educational & other kinds of help for visual, hearing, reading problems, etc. • Calls his work “clinical psychology” & uses team of MDs, social workers, teachers & psychologists • Believed most problems were remediable, e.g., mental retardation could be helped with proper education. He rejected Galton’s heriditarian views

14. Sorting the Sexes • 19th C. views of women • Complementarity Hypothesis • Variability Hypothesis • Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley (1874-1947) • Using Cattell’s & others’ tests, found few reliable differences between M & W • Overlapping distributions • Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1886-1939) • Disproved “functional periodicity” in women’s mental & motor behavior • She & Harry H. tested effects of caffeine for 1911 Coca-Cola trial • Women tended to be shut out of academic jobs & took many more applied positions in period 1900-1950

15. Galton invented the term to refer to selective breeding of human beings (as alternative to Natural Selection) Influential in early 20th century, e.g., American Eugenics movement Nazi racial policies lead to rejection of eugenics Eugenics(Eu = good; -genic = birth) “Its first object is to check the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock.”Francis Galton, Memories of My Life (1908), his autobiography.