Question

Explain the rationale behind Galton's ideas regarding heredity. From current understandings of hereditary traits, genetics and human behavior explain the major issues regarding Galton's work.

Why did the ideas of Darwin and others like him have a prominent influence on psychology at the time? Explain the strengths and weaknesses of evolution and natural selection with regard to social theory and psychology.

What were the differences and similarities between Wundt and Titchener’s structuralism and Act psychology? Explain why the psychology of Wundt, and especially Titchener, did not last.

Justify your answers with appropriate research and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers. Provide an analysis of each peer’s postings while also suggesting specific additions or clarifications for improving the discussion question response.

Answer 1

The rationale behind Galton's theory or idea regarding heredity were:
1. According to Galton, intelligence is inherited and that people should be able to see patterns of higher intelligence which have been passed down throughout families. The differences between each person should be measured and classified.
2. Galton figured that in order to produce smarter offspring, the reproduction must happen between more intelligent people and this will discourage less intelligent people to mate, stating selective breading was the best method, Galton’s pairing of intelligible couples deemed a fit for society, in his mind.

Major issues regarding Galton's work are:

Galton was keenly interested in knowing whether human ability was hereditary, and proposed to count the number of the relatives of various degrees of eminent men. If the qualities were hereditary, he reasoned, there should be more eminent men among the relatives than among the general population.
Galton recognized the limitations of his methods, and hence studied the comparisons of twins. His method envisaged testing to see if twins who were similar at birth diverged in dissimilar environments, and whether twins dissimilar at birth converged when reared in similar environments.

Darwin believed in individual differences and had an influence on psychology by proving that behavior, was just as important to study as the mind was. By changing how we view human nature, there became large influences on other areas such as developmental psychology and animal psychology. Functionalism and behaviorism schools started developing and making a stance in psychology. A strength of Darwin’s theory is the survival of the fittest. If one is equipped enough to thrive in its surroundings, it will eventually become extinct. Animals must adapt to its habitat and natural selection will occur over time through mutation. A weakness in Darwin’s theory is that genetics was never involved with evolution or natural selection. We cannot just simply eliminate part of our genes which are hereditary in order to adapt. Physically, natural selection is not part of a human.

Structuralism and Act psychology are different in that Brentano believed it was more important to understand what the mind actually did instead of what it was made of. The mental process such as judging, loving and hatred, are acts outside of itself. Structuralism focuses on what the product of a humans mental actions are. Psychology is more of an experience than an experiment. A similarity between the two is that mental elements must contain sensations, images, and affections.
Structuralism did not last for very long because Wundt and Titchener’s philosophies were not including many new developments such as abnormal behavior and basic elements of human consciousness. After Titchener died, structuralism fell apart. In order to have a positive effect on development, you needed to incorporate a person’s personality and the differences in the human mind. Structuralism’s failure also came from introspection, it was very unreliable and was quickly thought of as retrospection.