A History of Psychology
Chapter 6:
Functionalism: Antecedents Influences
I. The Functionalist Protest

A. concern: What do the mind do?

B. First uniquely American system of
psychology

C. against Wundt's and Titchener's systems

E. Application of psychology: how people
function in and adapt to different environment
II. Forerunners of Functionalism

A. Darwin: On the Origin of species (1859)

B. Fechner: Elements of psychophysics (1860)

C. Galton: individual differences (1869)

D. Wundt: Principles of physiological Psychology
(1873-1874)

E. Animal psychology experiments (1880s)
III. The Evolution Revolution:
Charles Darwin(1809-1882)

A. his life
 As a boy, he showed
little indication of
becoming a scientist.
 Studied in Cambridge
University; but he spent
time drinking, singing,
or playing cards
III. The Evolution Revolution:
Charles Darwin(1809-1882)



B. His works
1. Until a trip to observe a variety of plant and
animal life, he spent his time developing a theory
of evolution
2. 1859: On the Origin of species
 a. data to support the idea of evolution
 b. variation among members of a species
 natural selection
 e. failure to adapt results in failure to survive….
III. The Evolution Revolution:
Charles Darwin(1809-1882)



C. Darwin's influence on psychology
1. Intriguing the possibility of continuity
in mental functioning between humans
and lower animals.
2. Psychologists realized that the study
of animal behavior was vital to our
understanding of human behavior
III. The Evolution Revolution:
Charles Darwin(1809-1882)

C. Darwin's influence on psychology

3. evolutionary theory changed:
 Psychology’s subject matter:
 from elements to functions of consciousness

Psychology’s goal:
 how humans and animals functioned in
adapting to the environment.
III. The Evolution Revolution:
Charles Darwin(1809-1882)



C. Darwin's influence on psychology
4. Broadening the methods in
psychology
5. increased focus on individual
differences and measuring those
differences
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

A. Individual differences before Galton

1. the topic was considered inappropriate for
psychology except Juan Huarte.
 Huarte: The Examination of Talented
Individuals

2. had been examined by Weber, Fechner,
Helmholtz
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)


B. Galton's life
1. Bone in 1822 near
Birminghan, England

2. From a wealthy and
intelligent family; his cousin is
Charles Darwin

3. Possessed an extraordinary
IQ (200)
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

B. Galton's life

4. Medical training under father insistence

5. Pursued his interests in math but returned to
medicine

6. After his father’s death, he pursued what he
likes
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

C. Mental inheritance
 1. 1869: Hereditary Genius
 a. eminent men have eminent sons
 b. each famous person inherited a specific
forms of genius
 c. founded the science of eugenics;
 d. eminence was solely a function of
heredity, not of opportunity
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

2. 1874: English Men of Science

3. 1889: Natural Inheritance


4. 1901: founded a Journal, Biometrika

IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

5. established Eugenics Laboratory at
University College, London


6. 1904: founded organization for
promoting his idea on improving the
mental quality of the the human race.
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

D. Statistical methods

Adolph Quetelet (1796-1874):
1. first to apply statistical methods and

normal curve to biological and social data

Francis Galton (1822-1911):

1. assumed similar results would hold for
mental characteristics (e.g., grades)
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

2. developed mean and standard deviation


3. produced the correlation
 a) validity, reliability, and factor analysis were
from Galton’s research on correlation

b) his student Pearson developed productmoment coefficient of correlation

C). Pearson's r: for recognition of Galton's discovery
of regression toward the mean
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

E. Mental tests

1. originated by Galton, but the term was
from McKeen Cattell


2. Assumed that intelligence can be
measured in terms of sensory capacities


3. This assumption based on Locke's
empiricism
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

E. Mental tests
 4. developed his own instruments to
measure sensory capacities; later
became a standard psychology lab
equipment
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

E. Mental tests
 5. 1884: established Anthropometric Laboratory

a. aim: the definition of the range of human
capacities of the entire British population

b. human capacities: height, weight, strength
of pull and squeeze, hearing, version, etc.

c. to determine its collective mental resources
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

E. Mental tests

6. his data reanalyzed by American
psychologists.
 a. They found his data were statistically
reliable (1985)

b. provided information on developmental
trends on weight, arm span, breathing, and
strength of squeeze.
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

F. The association of ideas
 1. two issues in association
 a. diversity of associations of ideas

b. the time required to produce
associations
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

F. The association of ideas
 2. Galton found
 a. 40% of associations traced to events in
childhood and adolescence

b. found the importance of unconscious (later
impacted Freud)

c. word-association test: first experimental
attempt to examine associations
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

G. Mental imagery

1. first extensive use of psychological questionnaire
(e.g., images were dim or clear.. etc)

2. determined imagery distributed normally in the
population

3. Images described by women and children were more
detailed and concrete.

4. found similar images more likely to occur between
siblings than between unrelated persons
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

H. Additional research

1. self-induced paranoia

2. validity of religious beliefs

3 .power of prayer

4. Society goals should be to improve human
race through eugenics
IV. Individual Differences:
Francis Galton (1822-1911)

5. Counting yawns and coughs at the
theater or lectures as a measure of boredom

6. arithmetic by smell


Assigned numerical values to odors and
learned to add and subtract by thinking of them
G. Comment
 1. breadth of topics researched
 2. greater impact than Wundt
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

A. Before Darwin:


no concerns about the animal mind
B. Darwin:



1. No sharp distinction between humans minds
and animals minds
2. Mental abilities exist in animals, e.g., pain,
pleasure, or sexual passion
3. search for evidence on animal intelligence
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

C. Wundt

1. Even animals that displayed minimal
sensory capacities imply the possession of
judgment and conscious inference

2. "inferior" animals had less education and
training rather than necessarily lesser
abilities
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

D. Studies of animal intelligence

1. George John Romanes (1848-1894)

2. Conwy Lloyd Morgan(1852-1936)
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

1. George John Romanes (1848-1894)

British physiologist

formalized and systematized study of animal
intelligence


Darwin chose Romanes to apply theory of
evolution to the animal’s mind
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

1. George John Romanes (1848-1894)

1883: Animal Intelligence
 1. first book on comparative psychology
 2. purpose: demonstrate
 high level of animal intelligence
 its similarity of animal intelligence to human
intellectual functioning
 the continuity in mental development
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

1. George John Romanes (1848-1894)
 Two methods to study animals
 anecdotal method: The use of
observational reports about animal
behavior.

introspection by analogy: A technique for
studying animal behavior by assuming
that the same mental processes that occur
in the observer’s mind also occur in the
animal’s mind.
V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

1. George John Romanes (1848-1894)

criticisms:
short on scientific rigor
 the line between fact and subjective
interpretation in his data is unclear.

V. Animal Psychology and the
Development of Functionalism

2. Conwy Lloyd Morgan(1852-1936)
 Romanes designated Morgan as his successor

proposed a law of parsimony:


The notion that animal behavior must not be
attributed to a higher mental process when it can be
explained in terms of a lower mental process.
He was the first scientist to conduct large-scale
experimental studies in animal psychology.