Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ in their behavior and the processes that underlie those differences, developing taxonomies of psychological individual difference. It is distinguished from the mainstream of psychology, which more often studies groups or general processes, and the field was first named by William Stern in his 1900 book Uber Psychologie der individuellen Differenzen, On the Psychology of Individual Differences, a name Stern himself retained. Charles Darwin's 1859 work first spurred scientific interest in individual differences, a line of inquiry his half-cousin Francis Galton pursued further by attempting to quantify individual difference directly; much later psychological research, by contrast, has tended to treat differences between individuals as statistical error to be controlled for, comparing the mean performance of treatment and control groups rather than treating those individual differences themselves as the phenomenon of interest, which is the gap differential psychology exists to fill.
Facts
Central QuestionDifferential psychology asks how and why individuals differ from one another in their behavior, and what stable classifications, or taxonomies, best describe those differences, in contrast to the rest of psychology, which more often looks for general processes that apply to everyone. 1 Key DebateA long running debate over how much of a person's traits, intelligence and personality come from genetic inheritance, nature, versus environment and experience, nurture, runs through differential psychology's attempts to explain the individual differences it classifies. Most researchers today treat nature and nurture as interacting rather than opposed, but how much weight each contributes remains contested. 2 Level of Analysis Connections
Associated With
An early and influential (later discredited for data fraud) figure in differential psychology and mental testing.
Includes
Source Charles Spearman (Wikipedia)
Source Cyril Burt (Wikipedia)
Source David Wechsler (Wikipedia)
Source Flynn effect, Wikipedia
Source Francis Galton (Wikipedia)
Source J. P. Guilford (Wikipedia)
Source James McKeen Cattell (Wikipedia)
Related Branch
Source Wikipedia: Differential psychology
Source Wikipedia: Differential psychology
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Differential psychology
Wikimedia Foundationlead section
Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ in their behavior and the processes that underlie it. It is a discipline that develops classifications (taxonomies) of psychological individual differences.
Lead
was first named and still retains the name of "differential psychology" by William Stern in his 1900 book
Article text
Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ in their behavior and the processes that underlie it.
View the Source 2. Wikipedia: Nature versus nurture
Wikimedia Foundationlead sectionQuote, lead section
Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the relative influence on human behavior of their genetic inheritance or biology (nature) and the environmental conditions of their development (nurture).
Flynn effect, Wikipedia
Includes: Flynn Effect, Lead sentenceQuote, Includes: Flynn Effect, Lead sentence
The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century, named after researcher James Flynn (1934-2020).
Francis Galton (Wikipedia)
Includes: Francis Galton, LeadQuote, Includes: Francis Galton, Lead
he founded psychometrics and differential psychology
James McKeen Cattell (Wikipedia)
Includes: James McKeen Cattell, Wundt and CattellQuote, Includes: James McKeen Cattell, Wundt and Cattell
the two helped to establish the formal study of intelligence
David Wechsler (Wikipedia)
Includes: David Wechsler, LeadQuote, Includes: David Wechsler, Lead
He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
J. P. Guilford (Wikipedia)
Includes: J. P. Guilford, LeadQuote, Includes: J. P. Guilford, Lead
best known for his psychometric study of human intelligence
Cyril Burt (Wikipedia)
Includes: Cyril Burt, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Cyril Burt, Lead section
Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt, FBA (3 March 1883 - 10 October 1971) was an English educational psychologist and geneticist who also made contributions to statistics.
Charles Spearman (Wikipedia)
Includes: Charles Spearman, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Charles Spearman, Lead section
Charles Edward Spearman, FRS (10 September 1863 - 17 September 1945) was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.
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