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FUNCTIONALISM:
ANTECEDENT INFLUENCES
Chapter 6
Lecture Prepared by: Dr. M. Sawhney
TOPICS
1.
Scientist Captivated by Childlike Jenny
2.
The Functionalist Protest
3.
The Evolution Revolution: Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
4.
Individual Differences: Francis Galton (1822-1911)
5.
Animal Psychology and the Development of Functionalism
SCIENTIST CAPTIVATED BY CHILDLIKE
JENNY
 Jenny, 2 year-old orangutan displayed at the London
Zoo (1838)
 Wore a girl’s dress
 Sat at a table
 Used a spoon to eat from a plate
 Drank from a cup
 Understood her keeper’s directions
 Recognized what she wasn’t allowed to do
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V2N4nQAr5I
THE FUNCTIONALIST PROTEST
 Charles Darwin changes psychology:
 No longer concerned with the structure of consciousness but its
function
 Functionalism: concerned with how the mind functions and how it is
used by organisms to adapt to the environment
 Focus on practical, real-world consequences
 Protest against Wundt and Titchener’s systems
 Asks: What does the mind do? How does it do it?
THE EVOLUTION REVOLUTION:
CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882)
 Evolution: suggestion that living things change
with time
 Idea does not begin with Darwin:
 Erasmus Darwin: wrote that all warm-blooded
animals evolved from a single living filament
 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck: theory of evolution that
emphasized modifications to bodily form in
order to adapt
 Theory of inheritance of acquired characteristic
 Charles Lyell: suggests earth had passed
through various stages of development
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
THE EVOLUTION REVOLUTION (CONT’D.)
 Zeitgeist of the time:
 Scientists learning more about the species that inhabit earth (biology)
 Centuries of accepting biblical explanations leaves questions: How
could Noah fit so many species into the arc?
 Examples like Jenny show that animals can be similar to human beings
 Discovery of fossils that didn’t match living species
DARWIN’S LIFE
 Grandfathers were two of the most famous men in England
 Did poorly in school
 Interest in natural history
 Was a naturalist on the HMS Beagle
 1831-1836
 Explored South America and Tahiti
 Gather data on animal and plant life
 Darwin began to formulate his theory of evolution
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
THE JOURNEY OF THE BEAGLE
http://www.biography.com/people/charles-darwin-9266433
DARWIN’S LIFE (CONT’D.)
 Three years later: developed neurotic
symptoms: trembling, depression, vomiting, etc.
 Worry caused by fear of his theory being
condemned
 Works on his book for 22 years before presenting
it to the public
 Motivated by another theorist (Wallace) on the
verge of a similar idea
WHY DARWIN PUBLISHED HIS THEORY
 June 1858, received a letter from Alfred Russel
Wallace
 Wallace wrote a theory of evolution similar to
Darwin
 Asked questions, “Why do some die and some live?”
 This was addressed at the Linnaean Society
 In 1859, Darwin published “Origin of Species”
 Immediately sold out
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF
NATURAL SELECTION
 Fundamental points
 Natural selection of traits best suited for the
environment
 Survival of the fittest: elimination of those
not fit for the environment
 Variation is a law of heredity
 The finches’ beaks: evolution at work
 In just one generation, whether conditions
cause changes in beak size
 Evidence that evolution can be rapid
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcM23M
-CCog
DARWIN’S INFLUENCE ON PSYCHOLOGY
 The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,
Darwin’s most directly related work to
psychology.
 Focus on animal psychology
 Emphasis on the functions rather than the
structure of consciousness
 Acceptance of methodology and data from
many fields
 Focus on the description and measurement of
individual differences
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: FRANCIS GALTON
(1822-1911)
 Worked on mental inheritance and individual
differences in human capacities
 Similar research by Juan Huarte (1530-1592)
 Book entitled: The Examination of Talented
Individuals
 Example of the influence of Zeitgeist
GALTON’S LIFE
 Born in 1822
 Estimated IQ of 200
 Began medical training at age 16
 After the death of his father, he pursued his own interests
Darwin’s Cousin
Became interested in studying the inheritance of
human abilities and individual differences.
Many interesting achievements

Invented the weather map

Was the first to suggest using fingerprints for
identification.
STATISTICAL METHODS
 Galton was impressed with Quetelet’s “average
man”.
 Developed his own statistical methods in order
to quantify and analyze data
 Applied the normal curve to mental
characteristics
 Proposed that the mean and standard deviation
were the most useful for describing data
 Used correlation as a tool and graphed the
correlation coefficient
 The correlation coefficient is denoted as : r
MENTAL INHERITANCE
 Looks at examples of genius in history
 Shows that genius is inherited and a specific form of
genius
 Proposes eugenics to foster the improvement of
inherited qualities in humans
 Proposed the development of intelligence tests
 Financial incentives for those who score high
MENTAL TESTS
 Galton assumed intelligence can be measured with
sensory capacity
 Established the Anthropometric Laboratory, 1884.
 Mental tests: tests of motor skill and sensory
capacities (unlike intelligence tests)
 Invented instruments to measure motor capacity
 Collected data from more than 9,000 people
 Each person took a total of 17 tests
 A century later this data was analyzed and found to
have high test retest correlation
Galton established his Anthropometric
Laboratory to collect data on human
psychometric capacities.
Archives of the History of American
Psychology/University of Akron
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:
FRANCIS GALTON (1822-1911) (CONT’D.)
 Galton’s work in other areas:
 The association of ideas: Galton researched the
diversity of associations and the reaction time
 Created a list of 75 words
 After one week, measured reaction time for word
associations
 40 percent associations come from childhood
 Developed the word association test
 Mental imagery: Galton used survey methods to
determine that mental imagery also fits a normal
curve
 Arithmetic by smell and other topics: Galton’s
attempt to count by odors instead of numbers
ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE
DEVELOPMENT OF FUNCTIONALISM
 Darwin’s theory of evolution leads to a focus on animal psychology
 Idea that no sharp distinction exists between humans and animals
 Increased interest in how animals function
 May reveal knowledge of how humans function
GEORGE JOHN ROMANES (1848-1894)
 Wrote the first book on comparative psychology: Animal Intelligence
 Developed the “mental ladder” on which he ordered animals in terms of mental
functioning
 Method of anecdotal observations, termed introspection through analogy
 C. Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936)
 Recognized the weaknesses in anecdotal and introspection-by-analogy methods
 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
 Believed animal behavior should not be overestimated to higher mental processes