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Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
Richard Lynn
Published: 2012/12/01
Abstract
Sir Francis Galton was the founder of the quantitative study of the psychology of individual differences. In his work on intelligence, he identified the general factor later demonstrated by Spearman, the importance of heredity, race differences, and dysgenic fertility. His proposals on eugenics were widely accepted in the first half of the Twentieth Century, but have subsequently been largely rejected. With the benefit of hindsight, his article reviews Galton’s contributions to differential psychology, and assesses his conclusions in the light of current knowledge.
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