Skeptic's Phrenology

| 9 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

"This pseudoscience is based on the false assumption that mental faculties are located in brain "organs" on the surface of the brain and can be detected by visible inspection of the skull. The Viennese physician Franz-Joseph Gall (1758-1828) claimed there are some 26 "organs" on the surface of the brain which affect the contour of the skull, including a "murder organ" present in murderers."

http://www.skepdic.com/phren.html

Q: What is phrenology and how does it relate to the history of psychology?
Q: What is pseudoscience?

 

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/2249

9 Comments

phrenology is a pseudoscience that was popular in the 1840s-1900s that used the concept that the grooves/bumps on our skulls indicated faults or good things in certain areas (such as subjects likes hope, cautiousness, and self-esteem). Phrenology accepted the idea that brain is the organ of the mind. It was accepted as a real science at one time.
It is a pseudoscience because it is considered a bizarre, dead end and was actually proven wrong. The people who endorsed phrenology only accepted data that helped support their case so they were extremely biased.

Phrenology is a pseudoscience that says that there are bumps and valleys are a person's head, and these each associate with a different part of that person's character, such as being anxious, benevolent, caring, or evil. The creator of this science, Gall, thought that one could make different bumps bigger or smaller depending on whether or not a person engaged in that character often. Therefore, criminals could be made to be good again if they were put in a good environment. The more a person used something the bigger it got, and if they did not use it, it became smaller. So essentially he would be on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate. Phrenology is important because it was based on the fact that different areas of the brain effected different parts of the body. Some people at this time believed that the brain was just one large system and there was no localization of the brain. Though phrenology is believed to be wrong today, it was right in it's idea of localization. A pseudoscience is something that does not use scientific method and therefore has nothing to back it up.

I did a topical on phrenology and found it to be interesting. It is the theory that there are different faculties within the brain that each had different personality traits and they were located on the top of the brain therefore changing the contour and shape of our skull. This became hugely popular because it was something a common person could take part in, whether or not it seemed fictitious. It's one of the most widely known examples of a pseudoscience which is a "fake" science that resembles and may even look like it could be legitimate, but is not.

Phreneology is the study of the brain. It's main principles are that the brain is an organ of the mind that is composed of a large number of abilities or attributes called facilities. Some of which are emotional and some are intellectual. Each facility is associated with a specific brain location and some people have more of some facilities than others.

Phreneology is a type of pseudoscience which is a fake science that people studied but is not actually a legitimate study. Phreneology is a pseudoscience because it has not held up over time.

Phrenology was the study of the bumps and grooves on someone's head. Phrenologists believed these bumps on the skull told a lot about someone's personality or abilities. It was performed at a time where it was impossible to look inside a brain at its functions like we can now with technology.
A pseudoscience is a false science that was believed at one time but has since been proven wrong.

Phrenology is a pseudoscience that stated that there are bumps and grooves on the person's brain and these bumps and grooves contain different personality traits. These personalities were seen to be on the outside of the brain and these changed the shape of our skull. They believed that the more personality traits that were used, the bigger those parts of the brain got. So the shape of your brain really depended on the personalities you used more.
Pseudoscience is a false science that was once believed to be true and many thought it was.

Phrenology was the belief that scientist could read an individuals character off of lumps on their head. By identifying the shapes of the skull and different lumps, one could discover the development of the particular cerebral "organs" responsible for intellectual and character traits. During the 1820's through the 1840's one instance of this in use was employers would bring in phrenologists to determine which workers were honest and hard-working. Phrenology was however a pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is a scheme of assertions, beliefs, methods that are considered as scientific but are not. Basically described as a hoax. Personally i am surprised phrenology lasted this long, but still today we believe about anything will give us cancer.

Phrenology is the belief that certain cognitive abilities could be determined by bumps on the head. For example if a person had a bigger lump on their head they would be considered to have a higher cognitive skill in the corresponding brain region. This thought seemed to be so significant at the time but as we know now it is ridiculous to believe this could actually be a reliable determinant of cognition. That is why phrenology is considered to be pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is false science. It has been proven to be wrong with other findings. Pseudoscience lacks supporting information and therefore is basically made up.

Phrenology is focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind with certain areas that have specific functions aside from the others which also have their own functions. However, this did not come with empirical evidence with these hypothesis.

pseudoscience is best described as a science that lacks evidence to prove what is stated. Can't completely be answered through scientific method as most proven discoveries can. It is a science that is unreliable and should not be believed based off of what is stated alone without the proper research following.

Leave a comment

Recent Entries

Reading Activity Week #1 (Due ASAP)
Welcome to the History & Systems hybrid class. We would like you to spend a little time orienting yourself with…
Topical Blog Week #1 (Due Wednesday)
By now you should have completed Reading Assignment #1. This would indicate that you have been able to log in…
Reading Activity Week #2 (Due Monday)
Please read chapter 1. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions: Next you will be asked what…