Applied Psychology: Moving Towards a Practical Psychology Presented by Rachel D. Barnes, Ph.D.

This Seminar: Discuss Social Darwinism Explain how the theory of evolution was extended to machines Discuss the discrimination women experienced in the evolution of psychology Describe the testing movement

Herbert Spencer Only child to survive past early childhood Early interests were science, natural history, physics and chemistry Became schoolmaster, renowned as philosopher but many theories were proved wrong View of evolution encompassed all of nature, First used such terms as "system," "function," and "structure.“ “No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.”-Herbert Spencer

Social Darwinism Definition: the strongest or fittest should survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die Based on ideas of adaptation and natural selection Sometimes extreme: morally incorrect to assist those weaker than oneself, since that would be promoting the survival and possible reproduction of someone who was fundamentally unfit.

What do you think? Do you agree with the concepts that Darwin came up with? Can you think of ways that Social Darwinism can be used maliciously

How did economic forces influence the development of applied psychology?

Role of Women Discrimination based on belief in men’s intellectual superiority Kept out of many prominent universities Variability Hypothesis: notion that men show a wider range and variation of physical and mental development than women “The student trained to reach decisions in the light of logic and of history will be disposed to recognize that, in a democratic country, governed as this is by the suffrage of its citizens, and given over as this is to the principle and practice of educating women, a distinction based on difference of sex is artificial and illogical.”--Mary Whiton Calkins

Practical Psychology - Testing James McKeen Cattell –Emphasized statistics in psychology –Interested in eugenics - sterilization of delinquents –First to use term “mental tests” - tests of motor and sensory capacities, precursor to current testing Alfred Binet –Studied mental retardation in French school children –Developed tests with increasingly difficult questions, the tests measured attention, memory, and verbal skill –Mental age: age at which children of average ability can perform certain tasks

Continued Development of Testing Group Testing –Many were tested for quantifying soldiers’ abilities in WWI –Led to development for testing personality characteristics (I/O psychology)

Testing - Not SO Perfect Testing of immigrants showed that they are “feebleminded” Testing from WWI showed that “Whites” had high IQ’s than other population Horace Mann Bond showed the impact of environmental factors

How did forensic psychology come into existence?

Thank you for your time Please check grade feedback/ s Unit 5 ends tonight Unit 6 starts tomorrow Please be sure to continue reading and complete BOTH discussion questions Please contact me if you are struggling! QUESTION- worth it to spend part of one seminar discussing psychology careers/graduate school?