top of page

Francis Galton 

February 16, 1822 (Sparbrook, Birmingham, England) to January 17th, 1911 (Haslemere, Surrey, England)

 

Notable professional dates for the psychologist:

  • 1869 - Published Hereditary Genius

  • 1874- Published English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture

  • 1882- Fingerprints ideal index of personality trait

  • 1889 - Published Natural Inheritance

  • 1908 - Founded the Eugenics Society of Great Britain

Description of the socio/politico backdrop of the time period:

     Early 20th century: The field of psychology was still developing. Funtionalism, psychoanalysis, and structuralism were instroduced and established. Books were being published and clinics were being established all around Europe and America. The world broke out into WWI and psychological and appittude tests were administered to soldiers. Shortly after Galton's death, the Nazis began to persecute the psychologists. 

Major contributions of research/experimentation:

  • First to develop certain specific mental tests to measure one’s level of sensory capacity

  • First to examine fingerprints and scientifically determine that they could be used for purposes of identification  

  • He began the discussion of Nature vs Nurture by comparing fraternal and identical twins, developing behaviour genetics

  • Created word-association tests

Key terms/concepts associated with psychologist:

  • Questionnaires- A list of questions submitted for replies that can be analyzed for usable information

  • Mental tests-  any various standardized procedures applied to an individual on order to ascertain ability or evaluate behavior in comparison with other individuals

  • Statistics-  Mathematical procedures used to describe numbers to draw inferences from those numbers

  • Eugenics- A field of study concerned with the genetic quality of humans

  • Correlation- Statistical index used to represent the strength of a relationship between two factors

  • Psychometrics- The area of psychology that concentrates on and specializes in mental testing

School of Thought/Perspective:

     Francis Galton’s school of thought is evolutionary psychology. He studied heredity and eugenics. He also studied the differences between individuals.

Stance on nature vs. nurture:

     People that agree with the nature side say that whatever DNA and genotype we are born with will determine who we are and also our personality traits. People that agree with the nurture side agree that we are born with “a blank state” and we learn about life while acquiring different attributes as we learn about different experiences and interactions in the world. Francis Galtman was the first to bring up the dicussion of nature vs. nurture by studying twins, and he was on the nature side. Galtman was convinced that intellectual ability was inherited and to be a “genius,” it had to run in your family.

Unit most likely to cover his/her contributions:

     The unit that is most likely to cover his contributions is unit 11, testing and individual differences. Francis Galton was the first to distribute mental tests and questionnaires.

bottom of page