Francis Galton's Eugenics

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Francis Galton a very extraordinary and intelligent man who is considered the founder of the science “Eugenics”. A few of Galton’s investigation topics were fingerprints, fashions, the geographical distribution of beauty, printer, a device for picking locks, and a periscope. He received a higher education in medicine and mathematics, then spent considerable time travelling (Kennerley, 2017). Galton was Darwin’s cousin; therefore, he was influenced by Darwin’s work and books. Charles Darwin work was the theory of evolution which states that individuals vary in characteristics, some of these characteristics are inherited, and some of these characteristics are better suited to the environment to help those individuals survive long enough have offspring. Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species left Galton fascinated by the new theory. …show more content…
115). This led Galton to write his on book, Hereditary Genius. In this book, Galton argued that individual greatness or genius occurred within families far too often the be explained solely by environmental influences (Schultz & Schultz, 2012, p. 115). His goal was to encourage the birth of the more eminent or fit individuals in a society and to discourage the birth of the unfit. This led Galton to the founding of the science of “Eugenics”, a word he coined. Eugenics is the belief that the human race would improve if society rewarded gifted individuals who bore children. Galton wanted to improve the inherited qualities of human race (Kennerley, 2017). Galton’s idea had a significant impact on the direction of the new psychology even though he was not truly a psychologist (Schultz & Schultz, 2012, p.

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