Background
Francis Galton is
one of the most seminal historical figures to which the field of psychology
owes a considerable debt. He was
born in Birmingham, England on February 16, 1822 and was raised by a family of
considerable wealth (Fancher, 1979).
Being of an affluent background he was afforded connections to a large
number of illustrious persons in England and was provided with a superior
education. Galton demonstrated a
high scholastic ability at King’s College, Trinity College, and Cambridge
University where he pursued his degree concentrating in mathematics (Watson,
1978).
Although
Sir Francis Galton never received a degree in psychology, he made numerous
contributions to the field. These
include being the earliest to use questionnaires, instigating the nature versus
nurture debate, pioneering a word-association test, developing the
correlational technique, and employing twin studies to explore inheritability. He is credited in areas other than psychology
such as meteorology, law enforcement - where he discovered fingerprinting,
comparison of species, and studying the effectiveness of prayer. Amid his versatile research, he created
the first tests of cognitive abilities, which drew on mental imagery in order
to access individual differences (Hergenhahn, 1986). Galton’s brilliance was highlighted through these
studies of individual differences, an area which has had an enormous impact on
psychology.
The Origin of
Species, written by his cousin Charles
Darwin, encouraged Galton’s interest in one of the most controversial
topics in modern psychology, which is that of hereditary influences versus
environmental influences on a person’s individualism
(Watson, 1978). According to Galton the idiom
“nature and nurture” is a:
“Convenient
jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable
elements of which personality is composed. Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world;
nurture is every influence that affects him after his birth. The distinction is clear: the one
produces the infant such as it actually is, including its latent faculties of
growth and mind: the other affords the environment amid which the growth takes
place, by which natural tendencies may be strengthened or thwarted or wholly
new ones implanted.” (Galton, 1874)
Initially, Galton
favored nativism (the nature theory); he supported his basic nativistic
position when he utilized twin subjects.
He observed that monozygotic twins were especially similar to one
another regardless of whether or not they were raised together. Dizygotic twins, on the other hand,
were more dissimilar to one another even if they were raised in the same household.
In 1874, Galton
wrote English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture, which addressed the nature nurture controversy. It included the results of a
questionnaire he used which asked the Royal Society about their political and
religious affiliations. They were
also surveyed why they became interested in science and whether this interest
was innate. Most ascribed their
fascination to science to genetic factors. After reviewing his results, Galton amended his belief and
concluded that the prospect for a high level of intelligence was inherited but
that it must be fostered by an appropriate environment. Galton clearly prompted the
nature-nurture debate, which remains the spotlight of interest in modern
psychology (Hergenhahn, 1986).
Galton introduced
the first word-association test to psychology. He used a list of 75 stimulus words with which he read and
noted his responses. His responses
to the words had a tendency to remain alike and they were typically taken from
his childhood experiences. This
prompted future studies by prominent psychologist such as Freud in the area of
psychoanalysis dealing with the unconscious mind and free association. (Crovitz, (1970) (p24-35)
Correlation
and Statistics
Galton suggested
the ideas of correlation and regression which have progressed to become two of
psychology’s most frequently exercised statistical methods. Galton explained that two variables are
“co-related” when the change on one is goes along with the average
by more or less deviation than the other in the same direction. “Thus the length of the arm is
said to be co-related with that of the leg, because a person with a long leg
has usually a long leg, and conversely…” (Hergenhahn, 1986).
Galton’s
student Pearson was responsible for developing the product-moment coefficient
of correlation known as Pearson’s “r”. In addition to producing a
correlation measure, he donated to statistics modern derivatives such as
methods for validity, reliability, and factor analysis (Fancher, 1979).
The term individual differences describes the
psychological differences and/or similarities between people. Galton thought that if differences
existed between people, they should be measured and documented. As a result, he launched the
investigation of individual differences in psychology and dedicated efforts to
its exploration. In this way
he fashioned a connection
between psychology’s evolutionary and developmental approach. (Hegenhahn, 1986). Galton performed brilliant work
relating to the concept of individual differences in human capacity.
Intelligence
Galton deemed a person’s intelligence a mean
to investigate individual differences.
At present, we consider intelligence to embrace thinking, analyzing,
reasoning, and problem solving; however, in Galton’s timeframe
intelligence was attributable to a person’s level of sensation. Galton assumed that individual
differences might be due to information perceived from the senses; so the more
the exposure to and the more versatile the stimuli, the higher the I.Q. In addition, the keener the senses, the
more intelligent a person was. To
examine intelligence he designed tools to measure sensory acuity. Some tests consisted of geometrically
shaped weights, others with abstract lines or colors, etc. (Watson, 1963).
Galton assumed that an individual’s
intelligence was inherited. He
aimed to measure the rate of prominence among the children who came from
illustrious parents in comparison to the frequency of famous children that came
from the general population. Galton
studied the offspring of “judges, statesmen, commanders, literary men,
scientists, poets, musicians, painters, divines, oarsmen, and
wrestlers.” He published his
results in Hereditary Genius:
An Inquiry into It’s Law and Consequences (1869), which revealed that “offspring of
illustrious individuals were far more likely to be illustrious than the
offspring of non-illustrious individuals.” (Hegenhahn, 1986, p. 184)
His study measuring intelligence provoked a
beguiling prospect - the idea of selective breeding. He considered improving the general intelligence of people
by advocating the reproduction of only individuals who were more gifted. This concept is referred to by Galton
as eugenics. Perhaps his concept
of eugenics is best articulated in his own words:
“Its (the aim of Eugenics) 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” (Galton, 1908, p 323).
He proposed that we investigate
ways to improve future generations by scientifically pairing couples who boast
desirable attributes. In his book Hereditary
Genius (1869), he encouraged this system of
eugenics:
“I
propose to show in this book that a man’s natural abilities are derived
by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical
features of the whole organic world. Consequently, as it is easy,
notwithstanding those limitations, to obtain by careful selection a permanent
breed of dogs or horses gifted with peculiar powers of running, or of doing
anything else, so it would be quite practicable to produce a highly-gifted race
of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive
generations.”
Galton was a pioneer in the study of mental imagery,
which he chose to study in order to further, investigate individual
differences. To accomplish this,
he created a questionnaire, which requested that participants visualize
something explicit and then describe aspects of the scenario such as clarity,
vividness, and location of objects.
He also asked about their faculty to perform this task and whether they
could imagine faces, surroundings, smells, sounds, etc (Walton, 1963). A study in which he asked people to
imagine their breakfast scene demonstrated normally distributed results; some
participants were easily capable of imagining this scene, whereas others could
not visualize it by any means. He
marveled why some were unable to form images. “He also learned that a person assumed that others had
similar imagery abilities based on his or her own skill (Hegenhahn, 1986).
Towards the end of the nineteenth century and
beginning of the twentieth century, particularly in England and the United States,
psychologists were recording and reporting development of mental
capacities. This was a result of
Galton’s pioneering work.
More specifically, research on intellectual development in not only the
individual, but ethnic groups and children multiplied (Watson, 1978). His results revealed that analogous
images were more likely to occur between siblings than between unrelated
persons.
Though now it is recognized that intelligence can
not only be assessed by sensory acuity tests, Galton’s endeavors both
served to identify the importance of studying intelligence and served to
inspire others to discover a viable mental test. This subject continues to be fundamental area of
interest in modern psychology.
Galton embraced the idea of individual differences
and dedicated many efforts to its exploration. While individual differences grew to be his mission in life,
he managed to initiate interest in many areas that are now part of psychology. The multiplicity and robustness of
Galton’s ideas are remarkable.
Few in the field of psychology are accredited with
as many “firsts” as Francis Galton. His firsts include the investigation of the nature-nurture
query, the use of questionnaires, the use of a word-association test, twin
studies, the development of the correlational technique, the study of
individual differences via intelligence testing and the study of visual
imagery. Throughout Galton’s
research, he showed a interest in the measurement of individual
differences. This was quite
possibly one that was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, which
pointed out that certain individual differences are more prone to survival than
others are. (Fancher, 1979)
Francis Galton contributed significantly to the
spread of knowledge about individual differences. Early experiments that he performed cleared a path for future
science of individual differences, which spills onto most all disciplines of
modern psychology. The fundamental
goal of differential psychology is mainly the understanding of behavior, which
is no different from that of any other type of psychology. If people are able to ascertain why one
person reacts differently than
another, we ought to
understand what makes people react the way they do. Current psychological testing reflects the influence of
recent findings regarding the nature of intelligence, the role of heredity and
environment and other topics of differential psychology, which Galton
initiated. For his large breadth
of contributions, Sir Francis Galton is regarded a noteworthy historical figure
to the field of psychology.
References
Crovitz, Herbert F.
(1970) Galton’s
Walk: Methods for the Analysis of Thinking,
Intelligence, and Creativity. New
York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.
Fancher, Raymond E.
(1979). Pioneers of
Psychology. New York: W. W. Norton &
Company.
Galton, F. (1908).
Memories of my life. London: Methuen.
Galton, F. (1874). English Men of Science: Their Nature
and Nurture. London: Frank
Cass Publishers
Hergenhahn, B. R.
(1986). An Introduction to the
History of Psychology. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Publishing Co.
Watson, Robert I.
(1963). The Great
Psychologists: From Aristotle to Freud.
Philadelphia:
Northwestern University
Watson, Robert I.
(1978). The Great Psychologists, Fourth ed. New York: J. B.
Lippincott
Co.