PSY 3121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Madeleine Pelletier, Paul Broca, Phrenology
5 May 2018
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Cognitive Differences and Impairments
•Cognitive Differences and Impairments
-During the nineteenth century, women were seen as inferior both intellectually and morally.!
They were considered to be inferior to men.
-biological difference
-bible? Eve was from Adam’s rib, Eve destroyed peaceful existence and tricked him into
eating poison apple
-The importance of difference. Woman was sub-standard.
-Women’s minds were physically too weak to handle difficult decisions and emotional
problems.
-Women were not part of and could never become normative.
-The woman’s brain was regarded as smaller than the male brain.!This extended across race
and culture (all women did). White male brain was regarded as superior to any other brain.
-Paul Broca: ‘In general, the brain is larger in mature adults than in the elderly, in men than in
women, in eminent men than in men of mediocre talent, in superior races than in inferior
races.’ Quoted in Gould (1981).
-A region in the frontal lobe—linked to speech.
-Brain size was associated with intelligence, the larger the brain, the more intelligent you were
meant to be.
-Madeleine Pelletier: A contemporary of Broca was an anthropologist, studying craniology, was
a feminist and disagreed with the idea that women were intellectually inferior to men.
-She argued that women had a larger cranial capacity due in part to their stature (height and
weight) than men. Women are shorter and smaller, but their brains were the same size as
men’s who were larger.
-She also cast doubt as to the relationship between brain size and intelligence, stating that it
was something that is part of the inner mind, having to do with consciousness and general
ideas. *Never stated women were smarter than men, and avoided changing the notion that
women were inferior.
-However, she did subscribe to the racist idea at the time that the brain of a white person was
intellectually superior to those of other races.
-She also followed Broca’s teachings, but had issues when it came to women’s intelligence as
inferior (Sowerwine, 2003).
-Brain size may not be fully intelligence, may be due partly to the inner mind.
-What is similarity and what is difference? Kimball (1995):
-Similarities Tradition: “gender differences in intellectual skills and social competence are
either non-existent or far too small to explain existing gender differences…”
-liberal feminism, men and women are equal therefore should be treated equally
-Differences Tradition: “emphasize the construction of both the individual and symbolic
gender differences.“
-cultural feminism, not as acknowledged for their sense of caring and taking care
of others but masculine values are more valued in society
-these values should be treated equally
-what is valued vs. what is not valued
•Cognitive Difference
-Kimble: Hypothesis that brain size = intelligence
-larger mammals like hippopotamus and elephants should be of superior intelligence due
to their massive size
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Document Summary
Cognitive differences and impairments: cognitive differences and impairments. During the nineteenth century, women were seen as inferior both intellectually and morally. They were considered to be inferior to men. Eve was from adam"s rib, eve destroyed peaceful existence and tricked him into eating poison apple. Women"s minds were physically too weak to handle dif cult decisions and emotional problems. Women were not part of and could never become normative. The woman"s brain was regarded as smaller than the male brain. This extended across race and culture (all women did). White male brain was regarded as superior to any other brain. A region in the frontal lobe linked to speech. Brain size was associated with intelligence, the larger the brain, the more intelligent you were meant to be. Madeleine pelletier: a contemporary of broca was an anthropologist, studying craniology, was a feminist and disagreed with the idea that women were intellectually inferior to men.
