Phrenology

          To be completely honest, I had never heard of phrenology until this afternoon, however I find it quite intriguing after taking a look at the presentation.  Evidently, phrenology exemplifies a specific example of how things have evolved in psychology over the past 100 years, as Mr. Womack emphasized today.  The powerpoint suggests that this principle was defended even late into 20th century, thus emphasizing the strides that have been made recently.  We mentioned in class today the influence of machines such as the MRI and cat scan, which now allow us to view the brain electronically opposed to hypothesizing based on the shapes of heads.  Furthermore, I think the shape of a person's skull deals more with their genetics and the phenotype they obtain based on the shape of their ancestors skulls, opposed to the intelligence of their brain or the special skills one brain obtains.  Not only have the methods altered as the years passed by, but our hypothesis' have come a far way from being vague to more concrete based on previous evidence.
          Another aspect of the presentation that I found compelling was how phrenology relates to today's society.  Just like how psychologists used to associate large skulls with more intelligence or certain bumps with certain traits, we associate how people dress and appear with certain traits.  For example, the common misconception of blondes lacking intelligence often gets thrown around; yet we know that this correlation has no relevance.  Similarly, a person's skull shape has no similarity to the expertise of that particular brain, though scientists thought that.  Moreover, things are not always what they seemed and science has come a long way to prove that point.