Differential psychology is a part of science that deals with the identification and study of psychological differences between one person and a certain group of people. As a rule, in the course of research, special attention is paid to the psychological manifestation of people belonging to different age, ethnic and social groups.
And although differential psychology as an independent science has emerged recently, it is very important. For the first time, a similar term was used in 1900, when Stern developed a concept that defines and explains the differences between individuals and their groups.
This branch of science sets itself two main tasks. First, in the course of research, scientists are trying to identify individual differences. Secondly, psychologists have a task to explain the reason for their occurrence and origin.
Differential psychology and the work of Francis Galton . Having examined the work of this scientist, one can understand some features of differential psychology. During his experiments, most psychologists preferred to study the common features of humanity. At the same time, Galton was interested in the individual characteristics of each person and the possibility of their heredity. It was during this period that the opinion arose that mental and physical abilities, talent and some non-standard abilities of a person are transmitted genetically from relatives.
That is why he carefully studied his patients, both from a psychological and physiological point of view. For example, he assessed the level of muscle tone, determined the upper threshold of auditory sensitivity, etc. Then a special test was developed - the test subject was asked to create some image in the imagination, and then describe in detail all the features. Galton, on the other hand, studied some individual qualities of the image, and also compared the results of the experiment of close relatives, for example, determined the level of similarity of images among brothers and sisters.
It was he who first sent out lengthy questionnaires to all scientists in England in order to determine the level of their intelligence and to reveal the peculiarities of thinking.
Differential psychology and its methods . As in any other science, scientists use a wide variety of research methods. They can be divided into different groups.
If we take into account the type of experiment used in the experiments, we can distinguish:
- Introspective methods - their results are based on data from a purely subjective experience;
- Extraspecific methods - they use exclusively objective results that can be accurately measured;
The activity of influence on the studied object is also important:
- Observation is a passive research method;
- An experiment is a well thought out and active method;
The level of generalization is also taken into account. In this case, the methods are divided into:
- Idiographic - focus on a single object, its psychology and psychography;
- Nomotetic - focus on general data;
These research methods are used by science psychology in almost any study.
In addition, it is customary to conditionally divide the methods of differential psychology into:
- General scientific;
- Historical;
- Psychological;
- Psychogenetic;
Of course, differential psychology has its own problems. For example, if some human features are truly individual or very rare, the researcher from his point of view is unlikely to be able to understand them.
Today this department of psychology is at a stage of rapid development. After all, we study the characteristics of different people, representatives of different sexes, nationalities, classes, ages, etc. In addition, various types of relationships between subjects are taken into account. All this creates great opportunities for new discoveries, research and development of ways to eliminate psychological problems.