Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods — John Shaqi
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and MethodsHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Psychophysiology
2. As to the supposed correspondence between size and functional capacity,
no evidence has been presented which demonstrates that even the strength of
a muscle or the keenness of a sense-organ depends in any way on the
absolute size of the brain-area concerned with it. Nor has evidence been
presented to prove the existence, within any given species, of correlation
between volume, shape, or weight of the brain-tissues and even the more
general traits of character or ability. In the absence of such evidence we
are led to believe that functional capacity depends on complexity of
structure, chemical, molecular, and functional, rather than on the factors
of mass or shape. But even the nature of these correlations is as yet
largely unknown. The persistence of the faith in the significance of mass
and shape probably rests in part on the apparent existence of such
correlation when different species are roughly compared with one another.
Thus, among the higher vertebrates there seems to be a relation between
what we may call the general intelligence of the species and the erect
carriage of the body. From the quadrupeds, with their horizontal position,
through the apes, with their semiperpendicular mode of life, to the human
being, with his erect carriage, there is also a progression in prominence
of the forehead, opposition of thumb and finger, relatively greater
development of the cerebral mass, and also in mental capacity. The
intelligent human being walks in a more erect posture than does the stupid
ape. But no one has ventured to assert that a relation exists between
erectness of carriage and mental ability when human beings are compared
with one another, or when apes are compared with one another. Similarly in
the case of the physical features of the brain, the crude relationships
which exist empirically, as between different species, seem to be quite
slight in significance when compared with the differences in chemical,
molecular and functional complexity which are found among members of the
same species. Attempts to discover correlations between mental and moral
characteristics and various brain constants we may expect to continue for a
long time. What discoveries may be in store for us we do not know. But the
important point in the present connection is that, for the purposes of
vocational psychology, the practices of phrenology are based on evidence no
more relevant to its pretensions than were the "proofs" pointed to by
palmistry, horoscopy, and prenatal magic. Through cranial measurements
alone it is impossible to determine with certainty the race, age, or sex
of an individual, or even, indeed, whether he was a prehistoric savage, an
idiot, or a gorilla.
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