The Antecedents of Functionalism

The Functionalist Protest Structuralism was too limiting What does the mind do? Functionalism is all about applying knowledge

Evolution before Darwin Plato and Aristotle Christian thoughtDivine Creation Erasmus Darwin Set it and forget it Jean Lemark Environmental changes result in structural changes Charles Lyell

Humans and Ape-like creatures

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Party Boy from Rich Family

HMS Beagle Captain Fitzroy was a deeply religious man Trip lasted from 1831-1836

Journey of the HMS Beagle

Survival of the Fittest (or good enough)

The constant battle between creationism and evolutionary perspectives exists today

Darwin’s Contribution A focus on animal psychology, which formed the basis of comparative psychology An emphasis on the functions rather than the structure of functions The acceptance of methodology and data from Many fields A focus on the description and measurement of individual differences.

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) Darwin’s Cousin Hereditary Genius Eugenics: Good genes

Statistical methods Mental tests Association of Ideas Mental Imagery Arithmetic by Smell

George John Romanes (1848-1894) Anecdotal method: the use of observational reports about animal behavior. Introspection by analogy: a technique for studying animal behavior by assuming that the same mental processes that occur in the observer’s mind also occur in the animal’s mind/

Romanes believed cats were the most intelligent of all creatures

Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny

C. Lloyd Morgan (Lloyd Morgan’s Canon). The notion that animal behavior must not be attributed to a higher mental process when it can be explained by a lower mental process