AP PSYCHOLOGY

BIOLOGICAL BASES OF BEHAVIOR

BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
The nineteenth-century theory that bumps on the skull reveal a person’s abilities and traits is called
A
evolutionary psychology.
B
behavior genetics.
C
phrenology.
D
eugenics.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Phrenology was a pseudoscience that proposed that the bumps on a person’s head could be used to determine their traits and character. Briefly popular during the Victorian era, phrenology heads or busts were often used to “read” a person’s personality.

Detailed explanation-2: -Phrenology, also referred to as crainology, is a theory of human behavior based upon the belief that an individual’s character and mental faculties correlate with the shape of their head.

Detailed explanation-3: -Galen’s theory was prevalent for over 1, 000 years and continued to be popular through the Middle Ages. In 1780, Franz Gall, a German physician, proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s personality traits, character, and mental abilities (Figure).

Detailed explanation-4: -Phrenology was a pseudoscience that linked bumps on a person’s head to certain aspects of the individual’s personality and character. Phrenology heads or busts were used by phrenologists to perform “skull readings” that supposedly revealed information about a person’s character and tendencies.

Detailed explanation-5: -Phrenology looked at the development of the skull in relation to the development of certain faculties or temperaments in the person it belonged to. An example would be the faculty of Parental Love, or “Philoprogenitiveness, ” which is the faculty that people demonstrate in their love of children.

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