|
The London
School of Differential Psychology: The London School is not really a school or even a doctrine or a theory. Rather, it is a general view of psychology as a natural science and as essentially a branch of biology. Its central concern in variability in human behavior. It is Darwinian in that it views both interspecies variation and an important intraspecies variation (both individual and group differences) in certain classes of behavior as products of the evolutionary process. It is behavior-genetic in that the evolutionary process depends on genetic variation and selection, and the neural basis of behavioral capacities is subject to these evolutionary mechanisms the same as other physical characteristics. It is quantitative in that it emphasizes the objective measurement and taxonomy of behavior and the operational definition of latent traits or hypothetical constructs. It is analytical in that it subjects quantitative data to mathematical formulation and statistical inference. It is experimental in that it typically obtains measurements, both behavioral and physiological, under specifically defined and controlled conditions. It is reductionist in that it aims theoretically to explain complex phenomena in terms of simpler, more elemental processes. It is monistic (as opposed to dualistic) in that it neither posits nor seeks any explanatory principle that does not consist of strictly physical processes; it views complex psychological phenomena as emerging solely from interactions among more elemental neurophysiological processes in their past and present interactions with environmental conditions. Taken from: Jensen, A. R. (1998). Jensen on "Jensenism." Intelligence, 26, 181-208.
A systemized history of the London School has yet to be penned, but some invaluable information is housed in the following: Klie, P. (1997). Ninety Years of Psychometrics. In R. A. Peel (Ed.), Essays in the history of eugenics. London: Galton Institute. Lynn, R. L. (2000). The science of human diversity: A history of the Pioneer Fund. Lanham, MD: University Press of Americ. Wooldridge, A. (1996). Measuring the mind: Education and psychology in England, C.1860-C.1990.
| Philosophy | | Personnel | | Links | | Suggested Readings | |