Stephanie Gleason '04

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. 

Nature vs. Nurture

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).       

Word Association

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).

Individual Differences

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.” 

Predictably, Galton’s dogmatic eugenics hypothesis was pigeonholed as an ethical concern more than one relative to science.  Nonetheless, it serves as an important topic of study for the interest of psychology.

Mental Imagery

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: FrankCass 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.