Living at home and assisting at simple tasks94Domestic service (families, bars, hotels, etc.)67Engaged in factory operations21Living in institutions, reformatories, asylums20Prostitutes30Laundresses5Working in stores, clerking, errands, etc.5Nursemaids9Odd jobs6Married and keeping house11Housework, with relatives13
The investigators originally reporting these data write as follows: "These defective women had borne eighty-nine illegitimate children, which were acknowledged and could be somewhat definitely located, and sixteen women were illegitimately pregnant at the time of their examination at the Clearing House. Twenty-four of the two hundred and eighty-one had married and these had borne forty-six legitimate children. The average mental age of the illegitimate mothers was nine years."
The employment of feeble-minded women as domestics, factory operatives, laundresses, clerks, and nursemaids constitutes not only a nuisance to the general public, but a real source of inefficiency and danger to the community. Graded scales for the measurement of intelligence will have amply repaid the labor devoted to their formulation if they aid us in the proper segregation and vocational supervision of the mentally defective. The feeble-minded boy is more likely to be observed in the natural course of things, because of the more strictly competitive types of work into which boys customarily go, but it is far from realizedhow much loss of property, life, and general happiness is entailed upon the community by the indiscriminate employment of untested boys and men as floating employees.
But the vocational value of the graded intelligence scales and norms is not limited to the work of detecting and eliminating the feeble-minded. Many of the tests as now standardized yield measures of intelligence, capacity and comprehension ranging far above the level which constitutes the borderline of mental defect. Some of them reach somewhat higher than the average intelligence and capacity of the college freshman. It is thus possible, through the use of the graded scales, to measure in quantitative terms the general intelligence as well as various more special capacities of applicants and candidates for positions for which general intelligence is the chief requisite. Such tests are now used in many places in the selection of clerical workers, telephone operators, stenographers, waitresses, motormen, salesmen, office help, inspectors, watchmen, soldiers, and special types of factory workers. Thus Trabue reports a study in which Professor Scott tested thirty efficiency experts employed by a large industrial concern in New England. Ten psychological tests were used, including a completiontest. The men were also judged on the basis of their relative abilities by the members of the firm. The combined tests correlated with the combined judgments, giving the very high coefficient of .87. The completion test alone yielded a coefficient of .64. From the point of view of vocational selection we may expect the principle of the graded intelligence scale to become increasingly valuable as more and more norms are established. The first definite contribution of vocational psychology is thus not so much toward the guidance of the individual worker as for the guidance of the employer who may be required to select from a number of applicants those whose general intellectual equipment is most adequate. But we shall later have occasion to point out a further contribution which this makes possible, in so far as it may enable us to classify the operations involved in various types of work and to align these operations and tasks along the general intelligence scale. Such alignment will enable us to specify the approximate degree of general intelligence which a given position demands, and thus, in the case of the simpler tasks, afford a means of vocational guidance as well as vocational selection.
Another application of mental tests has a very direct interest for vocational psychology. This is the method of the "psychograph," as it is commonly called. The French and German psychologists especially have been active in advocating the practice of submitting to careful and detailed experimental examination the physical and mental characteristics of men who have achieved marked success in their chosen vocations. By the application of this clinical method to men of superior attainment it is hoped that light may be thrown on the psychological foundations of their genius and, in general, on the relation between mental traits, as shown in the results of psychological tests, and actual success in life's work. This psychographic method represents the earliest methodical attempt to differentiate the various vocations from one another on the basis of special aptitudes and characteristics, as distinguished from the factor of general intelligence. Dr. E.Toulouse has already published reports of such examinations or psychographs in the cases of Zola, Dalou, and Henri Poincaré. It is the intention of this investigator to continue this line of work, utilizing from time to time such refinements of technique as may be available. As an illustration of the psychographic method, an account of the study of the eminent mathematician, Poincaré, may be given in some detail.
The investigation of Poincaré took account of such special topics as heredity, development, physical condition, sensory acuity, various kinds of memory, attention, imagery, reaction time, association of ideas, language and handwriting, character, habits and opinions. Although the tests followed a technique which the investigator recognized to have been quite imperfect and fragmentary, they are said to have yielded results quite sufficient to characterize the intellectual type of the man. The account of the tests is followed by a synthesis in which is attempted a general picture of Poincaré's type and an interpretation of the conditions of invention and speculative genius.
From the point of view of heredity, development and general vital characteristics Poincaré was found to resemble most his mother and grandmother,who, with collateral relatives, are said to have shown special aptitude in mathematical calculation. Several male members of the family have had successful careers in neurology, law, meteorology, politics and mathematics. Poincaré's development was not precocious, although he was bright and showed, when quite young, mathematical ability of an unusual order. His history, up the age of thirty years, at which time he was elected to the Academy of Sciences, was not unlike that of many other mathematicians whose freedom from the necessity of experiment allows them to make rapid progress. He was at one time troubled with rheumatism, and in his childhood suffered from an attack of diphtheria, followed by paralysis. This attack is said to have profoundly modified his nervous system, perhaps providing the neuropathic basis for traits shown later in life, such as awkwardness, restlessness, flighty attention, distractibility and general sensori-motor deficiency.
A physical examination which dealt mainly with anthropometric measurements, strength tests, and with an inquiry into habits of eating, sleeping, and the use of narcotics, revealed nothing very unusual. Poincaré had head measurements somewhat larger than the average. He was troubledwith indigestion, also with insomnia. He did not use tobacco, and indulged only sparingly in wine and coffee. He was able to work for but four hours a day, in two-hour periods, and the tendency to automatisms and the perseverance of psychic activity compelled him to cease work for some time before retiring. He disliked muscular exercise except for the automatic processes involved in walking. His absent-mindedness was a matter of common comment among his associates. The examination of his sensory and motor capacity showed Poincaré to have been rather feeble from a sensory point of view. Hearing was defective for low tones, but auditory orientation and localization were fair. He was shortsighted, but had no astigmatism; tests of the field of vision showed no abnormality. Muscular weakness of the eyes was present, which led to accommodation spasms. His general bodily movements were characterized by uncertainty, irregularity, awkwardness and hesitancy, and his muscular reflexes were prominent.
The greater number of the tests had to do with more strictly mental characteristics. Poincaré had no visual images or memories, except in the transition state between waking and sleeping, when he had frequent visual hallucinations of remarkabledistinctness. In his waking life he relied chiefly on motor images and tendencies, thinking of geometrical forms in terms of optical or manual movements. He had no visual "schemes," but represented time, in his thinking, by a rotation of the eyes on their axes. In his youth he had pronounced colored hearing, which was evoked not by the form but by the sound of letters and words. He had no other synesthesias. Tests of recognition memory for length of lines, reproduction of drawings seen once, etc., are said to have shown exceptional memory capacity. The memories were held with the aid of motor imagery, and the reproduction was often not from the image but on the basis of an analysis of the material which had been presented to him. He had a memory span for digits of about eleven, as compared with the ordinary record of about eight. In the case of letters he had an auditory memory span of nine, and a visual span of seven. Mechanical memory did not seem to be particularly good, and much emphasis is laid on Poincaré's tendency to use memory devices when remembering this non-logical material; he employed analysis and incidental schemes whenever possible. He had a "remarkable facility in mental calculation," which is said not to be the rule with mathematicians. Intests of logical memory he was superior to both Zola and Dalou, and here again his memory was found to be analytical and artificial rather than mechanical. All material was arranged in a coherent scheme or system, and it was this system, rather than the material, that was remembered.
A series of cancellation and reaction-time tests showed that the simple sensory reactions were slower and more regular than those of the average person, but the motor reactions were much quicker. This accords with previous indications as to Poincaré's general motor type. The most significant thing about the reactions is said to be the wandering and unstable attention which they disclosed. It was difficult to keep Poincaré's mind on the tests, because his attention constantly wandered to the apparatus. In receiving instructions for such experiments he did not seem to comprehend what was being said, but appeared distracted and uninterested. This is the same impression he is said to have given to those whom he met in his daily relations. He was restless, could not remain in one position or stay by one task, had no patience and abandoned his work whenever it seemed to require any voluntary effort. Tests of reverie associations and of free paired associates showed absence of voluntary attention andpredominance of purely verbal association tendencies. Binet's "cigarette description" test was used, and Poincaré was found to belong to Binet's first type of observer (simple description, with no evidence of reflection or judgment, no display of erudition, no expression of fancy or sentiment). His description was remarkably lucid and clear. Poincaré spoke correctly, never learned his addresses by heart, and made few corrections either in writing or in speaking. Indications of his temperament and type are said to be suggested by his handwriting.
Poincaré's opinions on various topics are given, and several peculiar habits of daily life are recorded, chiefly for the sake of emphasizing his constant air of distraction, his impatience and restlessness. He loved music; sketched a little; did not sleep soundly; and often began to work on a problem only to abandon it in the faith that it would in some way solve itself unconsciously or that the right idea would come spontaneously on some later occasion. He often began a memoir without having any conclusion in mind. He often wrote formulae automatically for the sake of the chance associations which they might bring.
These tests of Poincaré showed him to present a striking contrast to Zola, the novelist. Zola's typewas found to be characterized by prominent voluntary intellectual activity, clearly conscious and intense, concentrated effort, with no tendency to perseveration of ideas after cessation of work. His thought, as disclosed by the tests, was logical, methodical, and seemed preëminently fitted for the work of mathematical deduction. His method of work was quite the opposite of that of Poincaré, who, when he met with a difficulty or with a point requiring voluntary effort, abandoned his work or proceeded to another part of it which would develop more spontaneously. The surprising thing was that a methodical, logical and persistent worker, such as Zola, should have become the prince of romance that he was. One might have expected that the mental processes of Poincaré, which were shown to be flighty, uncontrolled, spontaneous, unstable and spasmodic, would have particularly fitted him for the activity of the romancer. Instead, they found their outlet in severe mathematical and philosophical creation. Poincaré's genius is thus said to be incapable of explanation on the basis of his sensori-motor equipment, his imagination and memory, and the speed or control of his psychic activity. If his case is taken as typical, it suggests the quite unexpected result that tendency to distraction,automatisms, oscillating attention, restlessness, uncontrolled association and reliance on chance syntheses and spontaneous ideas are significant for the type of genius required in mathematics and philosophical speculation. Certainly in Poincaré's case they seem to have constituted a definite method of research.
The chief value of this examination of Poincaré does not lie in the particular results which it yielded, but in its initiation of such attempts to study in a more or less intimate and intensive way the psychological processes and type of individuals of marked achievement in special lines of work. For the purposes of vocational psychology it would be valuable to know the ways in which such admittedly superior individuals as those now being studied by Dr. Toulouse, differing as they do in their types of achievement, would react to the simple and complex tests now employed by those interested in the measurement of intelligence and special aptitudes. It is true that these psychographic methods do not yet yield results which are sufficient to inform us why the particular individuals examined were so much more successful in their work than were others who seem to have been equally favored and equally diligent. Nor have they yet revealed in any adequate waythe nature or degree of the qualifications requisite for success in the vocations from which the representative men have been selected. Nevertheless the individual psychograph constitutes a suggestive method of research for the vocational psychology of the future. It represents the intensive development of the older type of "biography," based on direct observational data rather than on hearsay, conjecture and anecdote.
It is on some variation of this method that we must largely rely in our efforts to learn to what degree vocational success depends on the presence of demonstrable personal characteristics, rather than on the accidents of time, place and circumstance. It was inevitable that the first attempts to give psychographic accounts of the personality of individuals of genius should be more or less fragmentary, incomplete and experimental. This has been due partly to the rapidity with which our knowledge of mental tests has developed, and partly to the very complex and subtle types of achievement toward which these early psychographic methods have been directed. Various investigations are now under way in which these same methods are being used in the intensive examination of individuals who have engaged in simpler and more common forms of activity, withvarying degrees of success. In some of these researches, for example, men who have made their life work the marketing of a specific type of commodity through direct and personal salesmanship are being submitted to intensive psychological examinations. The problem is to discover whether there is a more or less specific and recognizable type of personality which characterizes the successful salesman and differentiates him from the mediocre salesman and the utter failure. Directed toward these more familiar and more easily accessible occupations, the individual psychograph constitutes one of the most interesting forms of vocational psychology. Closely related to it, though sufficiently distinct in aim and method to merit separate presentation, is the method of the vocational psychograph, in which the work, rather than the worker, is made the object of analysis.
Closely related to the method of intensive examination described in the preceding section, and profitable in a somewhat different direction, is the type of psychograph represented in Professor Seashore's reports on "The Measurement of aSinger." This may be called the "vocational psychograph" as contrasted with the psychograph of the individual of genius. It proceeds by discovering first the necessary abilities and capacities which a given sort of performance demands. In the case of singing, rather more than in almost any other vocation, certain definite and fairly identifiable abilities are quite obviously required, and the degree to which they must be present for definite attainments is rather more easily discoverable.
Thus, Seashore writes: "Musical power is generally admitted to embrace certain well-recognized and fairly concrete capacities. In our commonplace judgments about ourselves and others we say: 'I have no ear for music.' 'I cannot tell a chord from a discord.' 'I cannot keep time.' 'I have no sense of rhythm.' 'I cannot tell a two-step from a waltz.' 'I cannot remember music.' 'I cannot image sounds.' 'I am not moved by music.' 'I do not enjoy music.' Or, if speaking of someone who has musical ability, we say: 'He has a deep, rich voice.' 'He never forgets an air.' 'He lives in song.' Such judgments have reference to generally admitted specific factors involved in musical capacity by virtue of a musical organization. Corresponding to these judgmentsof native capacity we have judgments about musical education, about musical environment, about special influences and stimuli for the development of musical talent, and about technique and success in the rendition of music. When judgments of this kind are based upon measurements, classified and adequately interpreted, they may constitute a measure of the individual as a singer.
"The measure of a singer should consist of a relatively small number of representative measurements upon specific capacities and achievements. These measurements must be set in a full survey by systematic observation and other verified information bearing upon the variation of the individual as a singer. The classification of the measurements must be based upon (1) the attributes of sound which constitute the objective aspect of music, and (2) upon fundamental and essential processes in the singer's appreciation and expression of music. From the point of view of the objective sound, we must take into account pitch (with its complexes of timbre and harmony), intensity, and duration. From the point of view of mental processes we may group the tests under the heads, sensory, motor, associational, and affective, each of these furnishing natural subdivisions."
The writer then presents an arrangement of these proposed measurements in a program, which is also recommended as the outline for a systematic description of the individual in his capacity as a singer. The sensory group of tests includes five tests under pitch, two under intensity, and one under time discrimination. The motor group includes seven tests under pitch, two under intensity, and four under time. The associational group includes two tests under imagery, three under memory, and four under ideation. The affective group contains three tests under musical appeal, and one each under reaction to musical effect and power of interpretation in singing. A copy of this program of tests is given in the Appendix.
In a chapter of his "Psychology in Daily Life,"[6]Seashore describes these special tests. He indicates their significance and suggests approximate norms for those cases for which they are at present available. For the accumulation of many of these norms, and for the conduct of the tests, special and elaborate apparatus and methods are required. For several years the workers in Seashore's laboratory have busied themselves with the problems concerned in the measurement andaccumulation of norms for pitch discrimination, vividness of tone imagery, span of tone memory, consonance and dissonance, rhythmic action, intensity discrimination, voluntary control of the pitch of the voice, and the singing of intervals.
Reference to norms thus acquired shows, for example, that in the case of discrimination in voluntary control of the pitch of the voice "a record of .9 vd. means that this ability is within three per cent of the best record for individuals under similar conditions, and that those who have such control are thoroughly qualified to render a high class of music in this respect; while a record of 9 vd. falls within eight per cent of the poorest ability measured, and is characteristic of an individual who cannot sing; whereas 3 vd. represents the average ability of an untrained individual."
Again, in another connection, and with reference this time to the discrimination of tones when heard, the same investigator has suggested that one who can discriminate a difference, from a given standard pitch, of 3 vd. or less may become a musician; one whose threshold falls between 3 and 8 vd. "should have a plain musical education"; one whose discrimination is so poor that 9 to 17 vd. is the measure "should have a plain musical education only if special inclination forsome kind of music is shown"; while a measure of 18 vd. or above indicates that the individual "should have nothing to do with music." These suggestions were proposed for individuals of equal age, advancement and general ability.
That is to say, there are but three persons in a hundred who, having just sung the tone which is produced by a tuning fork vibrating two hundred and fifty-six times per second, can then voluntarily and accurately change the pitch of the voice to represent the tone of a fork vibrating 256.9 times per second, a change of .9 of a vibration. But fifty persons of the hundred can produce voluntarily a change of three vibrations, and ninety-two of the hundred can produce the very large change of nine vibrations. Seashore, of course, points out that in addition to these various measurements, "there must be other measurements, statistical data, biographical information, and free observations concerning musical training, traits of temperament and attitude, spontaneous tendencies in the pursuit of music, general education and non-musical accomplishments, social circumstances and physique," and that all these in their unity must be considered in the light of expert knowledge and expert technical insight before they can be said to give an adequate estimate of the particularindividual's various capacities and qualifications as a singer. Those interested in the use of psychological tests in connection with musical ability should familiarize themselves with the many original reports from Seashore's laboratory. The methods there being followed may well serve as models for future analyses of vocational demands and individual tests.
If the highly specialized work of singing calls for such complex analysis and for such varied measurements, technical skill, and arduous collection of norms and standards, one realizes the utter folly of such vocational counsel as that which vaguely recommends the candidate to "be a musician," "be a writer," etc. Indeed, we may now begin to see that it is only when each particular aspect of each particular calling is thoroughly analyzed into its elementary requirements, when reliable tests for the detection and measurement of these abilities are available, and adequate norms and standards accumulated in each case, only then can the method of the vocational psychograph come to have practical application in vocational analysis and guidance.
How far, we may now ask, has such analysis been able, as a matter of fact, to proceed with the representative types of work? So far as recordedenterprise is concerned there have been three different ways of attempting such analyses. One of these methods is that used by the various vocational bureaus in endeavoring to learn what type of individual is most in demand in the different occupations. Futile as these endeavors have been, it is nevertheless well to have them before us for our future reference and guidance. In the main the questionnaire method has been used in this connection; employers have been asked to state, in much their own way, the necessary or desirable mental and moral qualifications of those who might expect to succeed in the various kinds of work.
These replies have been collated and attempts made to secure "clinical pictures" of the type of individuals. These methods result in such characterizations as the following. The words specifying the vocation itself are omitted, and the reader is invited to guess which of the large number of possible callings is being described.
"The girl who enters —— should be able to use good language, and should dress neatly and appropriately in order to impress people agreeably. She should be able to write a legible hand, make clear figures, and spell correctly; a practical knowledge of arithmetic, especially fractions, isvery important. Prime requisites for success are interest and enthusiasm and a knowledge of human nature. The born —— takes a vital interest in her ——, in her ——, and in her ——. She studies her ——, learns something of their ——, knows what their good points are, and is able to —— about them intelligently and truthfully. She is a good judge of people, and she has the sincerity and the tact which enable her to help a —— so to —— as to go away satisfied and come to her again. Such a —— is alert, energetic, and gives strongly the impression that she is in her place to —— and therefore never displays an indifferent manner toward anyone who may ask her service. Loyal to her work, she is always courteous, for loss of temper means loss of —— ——."
Now, if one but insert suitable words where the omissions occur, the paragraph remains equally applicable and illuminating when applied to any of the following occupations, diverse as they seem to be: housekeeper, waitress, stenographer, milliner, teacher, mother, doctor, nurse, cashier, sales-woman, insurance agent, bookkeeper, clinical psychologist, private secretary. The following paragraph is equally illuminating:
"If a girl wishes to succeed in —— she mustbe possessed with intelligence [How much?], good judgment and common sense. She must have good eyesight, good hearing and a good memory. She must have good perception and be able to concentrate her attention completely on any matter in hand. In addition to these she must be neat in executing —— work and accurate to the last degree. It is absolutely necessary that she have a good education."
It would require several trials to guess of what particular occupation this is a psychographic picture.
It is clear at once that this method yields little information of the kind we are here considering, beyond the cataloging of the general sterling virtues of mankind. The peculiar and distinctive mental functions presumably involved in the various types of work are just the ones that no one not an expert in psychological analysis could be expected adequately to portray. The so-called special qualifications, such as honesty, patience, attention, neatness, perseverance, etc., do not represent elementary psychological categories. Moreover, they are qualifications with which no legitimate sphere of human activity can afford to dispense. In the long run they are characteristics which correlate to a high degree or, indeed, perhapshelp to make up and constitute what we call general intelligence. In no case is there any specification of the precise amount of these various traits that may be needed. Since the days of the faculty psychology we have ceased to think of attention, memory, will, etc., as homogeneous powers which play in a general sort of way on all sorts of material. We usually find that when an individual is inattentive to one set of facts this is largely due to his being attentively preoccupied with some other set. Still further, no tests have been proposed which satisfactorily measure such traits as honesty, perseverance, promptness. Nor is it certainly known to what degree such traits are fixed characteristics of individuals and to what degree they represent present habits and tendencies modifiable in many ways if the circumstances call for such change.
Turning from the employer himself, and his description of the ideal worker, we may inquire what happens when the professional psychologist undertakes this analysis? The only case in which an expert psychologist has attempted this is to be found in Münsterberg's recent book on "Vocation and Learning." It is there pointed out that every act and experience has its threefold aspect, the aspect of knowing, that of feeling, and that ofdoing. Corresponding to these three aspects, there are to be pointed out in the case of each occupation the required information, the necessary technical skill, and the special guiding personal interests and social satisfactions. In order to clarify our knowledge of the special needs of the various vocations, and presumably to aid in the guidance of individuals in their vocational choices, eleven different representative vocations are analyzed on this threefold basis. Two or three of the analyses may be given here as an indication of the results arrived at by this method at the hands of the avowed applied psychologist. The specification of the particular technical knowledge we need not include for our purpose, since this consists of information supplied through some form of education. The outline on the following page brings together the requisite abilities and the implied motives and interests, as stated for the occupations of domestic worker, architect, physician, and journalist.
OccupationDomestic WorkerArchitectPhysicianJournalistAbilities RequiredJoyful workEsthetic senseSocial dealingSociabilityEnergyImaginationEnergyEnergyPatienceIndustryDiscretionMemoryTeachingDrawingTactAccuracyEconomyModelingJudgmentJudgmentPhysiqueSpecificationObservationEmployment of menHousekeepingArchitectureDissectionTypewritingSewingEngineeringMicroscopical ObservationQuick ExpressionCookingHeatingPsychotherapyNursingVentilatingClinical ActivityForceful styleHouse furnishingConstructionSurgical TechniqueImplied Personal Motives and Social InterestsMoralityHonorHonorHonorBeautyBeautyTruthTruthPositionPositionPositionInfluenceSupportFeesFeesSalaryHome LifeComfortInfluenceProgressFamily WelfareProgressComfort of CommunityHousingWelfare of CommunityPoliticsFamily ComfortHealthEducationPrevention of DiseaseInformationEntertainment
It is obvious that such analysis is inadequate for our purpose. For the most part the various vocations are said to be actuated by much the same motives, the leading satisfactions being honor, truth, position, beauty, progress, fees or salary, and welfare. These enumerations, of course, help us in no way to distinguish between the particular satisfactions or interests involved in the different types of work. Quite the same thing is true of the abilities required. Most of them call for energy, industry, judgment and ability to deal with people. The same might be said of prize-fighting, plumbing and peddling. And do not the journalist and the housekeeper require tact as well as the physician? Is it true that the architect alone, of the four examples here given, has use for imagination and an esthetic sense, that the domesticalone needs physical development and joyfulness? Accuracy is perhaps more necessary to success in architecture than to the pursuit of journalism, while judgment, discretion and observation would seem to be of occasional value even to the housekeeper and the architect.
In short, this type of analysis, which, whether accepted seriously or not, represents the latest word from a distinguished psychologist on the differences among the occupations, gives us no more assistance toward the basis of a vocational psychograph than did the catalogs of sterling virtues provided by the employers in their replies to the questionnaires.
Various other types of analysis have been proposed, as well as different criteria, on the basis of which the occupations might be thrown under some form of psychological classification. Thus it has been pointed out that the traditional distinctions on the basis of materials handled or type of product produced, give little indication of the type of activity involved or of the characteristics necessary for success. As Schneider has remarked: "If a boy were successful in wood-shop work, he was told he would make a good carpenter; however, wood-turning in a shop and outdoor carpentry are dissimilar types, while wood-turningin a shop and metal-turning in a shop are similar types."
Schneider has for many years considered the problems involved in adjusting human beings to congenial types of work, and prefers to classify both men and jobs on the basis of certain broad characteristics which refer more particularly to interests, habits, preferences and similar temperamental factors than to the technical psychological mechanisms employed in the work. He writes: "Every individual has certain broad characteristics and every type of work requires certain broad characteristics. The problem, then, is to state the broad characteristics, to devise a rational method to discover these characteristics (or talents) in individuals, to classify the types of jobs by the talents they require and to guide the youth with certain talents into the type of job which requires those talents. This is a big problem, but one possible of measurable solution, or, at worst, possible of a solution immeasurably superior to our present haphazard methods."
As an illustration of what Schneider means by "broad characteristics," take his distinction between the "settled" and the "roving" types. "There is a type of man who wants to get on the same car every morning, get off at the same corner,go to the same shop, ring up at the same clock, stow his lunch in the same locker, go to the same machine and do the same class of work, day after day. Another type of man would go crazy under this routine; he wants to move about, meet new people, see and do new things. The first is settled; the second is roving. The first might make a good man for a shop manufacturing a standard product; the second might make a good railroad man or a good outdoor carpenter."
Or, again, consider his distinction on the basis of "scope." "Then there are two types—one of which likes to fuss with an intricate bit of mechanism, while the other wants the task of big dimensions—the watchmaker, the engraver, the inlayer, the painter of miniatures, on the one hand; the bridge builder, the steel-mill worker, the train dispatcher, the circus man on the other. One has small scope, the other large scope."
Basing his analyses mainly on the enterprises of manufacture, construction and transportation, and recognizing that other broad characteristics would probably be listed if different types of occupation were also considered, Schneider gives a list of sixteen classifications which may be applied either to the individual or to the type of work. These are as follows:
a—Physical strength; physical weakness.b—Mental; manual.c—Settled; roving.d—Indoor; outdoor.e—Directive; dependent.f—Original (creative); imitative.g—Small scope; large scope.h—Adaptable; self-centered.i—Deliberate; impulsive.j—Music sense.k—Color sense.l—Manual accuracy; manual inaccuracy.m—Mental accuracy (logic); mental inaccuracy.n—Concentration (mental focus); diffusion.o—Rapid mental coördination; slow mental coördination.p—Dynamic; static.
a—Physical strength; physical weakness.b—Mental; manual.c—Settled; roving.d—Indoor; outdoor.e—Directive; dependent.f—Original (creative); imitative.g—Small scope; large scope.h—Adaptable; self-centered.i—Deliberate; impulsive.j—Music sense.k—Color sense.l—Manual accuracy; manual inaccuracy.m—Mental accuracy (logic); mental inaccuracy.n—Concentration (mental focus); diffusion.o—Rapid mental coördination; slow mental coördination.p—Dynamic; static.
It must be said that the characteristics of the various types of work here enumerated are pretty much the features which have in the past guided such individuals as really chose their vocation rather than found it waiting for them, made a random selection, or seized the first available opportunity. The paired adjectives probably afford truer descriptions of various types of work than they do of types of individuals. Most individuals of one's acquaintance one would have to group neither under the one nor the other extreme, but in an average group which would show each of the opposed tendencies under special circumstances or would show no particularly marked degree ofeither tendency. Observation of such individuals for long periods of time and under a variety of circumstances would be required before these classifications could be made out by a stranger or by a professional counsellor. Even then such a classification could hardly be said to be psychological in any technical sense of the word, and it is not very probable that psychological training or experience would facilitate or render more reliable such classification. The question of to what degree the individual's judgment of his own characteristics may be relied on in such an analysis we must defer until a later section where that is taken up as the main subject of discussion.
The reliable vocational psychograph, which proceeds by means of a careful preliminary analysis of the qualities required in the given work, and uses specially adapted tests with reliable norms for their evaluation, is not yet available for any single occupation. The preliminary analyses so far made, whether by employer, psychologist, or engineer, give us little guidance, and until such guidance is forthcoming the special adaptation of tests and the accumulation of norms and standards cannot make much practical progress. The inadequacy of the analyses already offered should not discourage further effort in this direction.The alignment of the simple industrial processes along the general intelligence scale has already been begun. The description of the more complex tasks in terms of identifiable mental characteristics is a much more difficult task, but this very difficulty is at once a sign of the importance of the problem.
FOOTNOTES:[6]"Conduct of Mind Series," D. Appleton & Co., New York.
[6]"Conduct of Mind Series," D. Appleton & Co., New York.
[6]"Conduct of Mind Series," D. Appleton & Co., New York.
The absence of complete vocational psychographs has not retarded the search for tests which, though more or less fragmentary, may have vocational significance. In fact, there are some twenty types of work for which tests have already been proposed, recommended, and more or less tentatively tried out. A brief account of these, with references to the more complete literature, will be given here, and some attempt made to evaluate the tests themselves.
Substitutes for the vocational psychograph, in the way of partial and suggestive tests, have been proposed in four different forms. Since the work of the immediate future will probably develop along these same lines, these four forms will be indicated here, and typical illustrations cited in each case.
A. There is first what may be called the method of the vocational miniature. Here the entire work, or some selected and important part of it, is reproduced on a small scale by using toy apparatusor in some such way duplicating the actual situation which the worker faces when engaged at his task. Thus McComas, in testing telephone operators, constructed a miniature switchboard and put the operators through actual calls and responses, meanwhile measuring their speed and accuracy by means of chronometric attachments. Stern and others recommend tests of the fidelity of report of a witness in court by letting him observe some rehearsed scene, some motion picture representation of a series of events, or some pictorial portrayal of a scene or episode, and examining into the faithfulness with which he can describe what he there saw.
B. Closely related to this method of miniature performance is that of taking an actual piece of the work to be performed and sampling the candidate's ability by his success in this trial. Thus, in connection with the recommendation of clerks and assistants from among the boys in commercial high schools it is common to test their ability from time to time throughout their course by assigning them small pieces of work similar to that which they might later be required to perform in business offices and shops. Finding addresses and numbers in a telephone directory, carrying out involved verbal instructions and directions frommemory, computing calculations, recommending action on the basis of their figures, making out a trial balance, a trial chemical analysis, etc., are common forms of this type of test. In certain cases such specimens of work have been devised in or taken into the psychological laboratory and the worker watched more closely and measured more exactly. This has been done, for instance, by Thorndike in the case of clerical workers and salesmen, by Paynter in the case of judges of trade-mark infringements, by Scott in the case of salesmen, and by others in the case of tests for handwriting experts.
C. A third method has been that of analogy. Some test is devised which bears real or supposed resemblance to the sort of situation met by the worker in the given occupational activity. The material is new, but the attitude and endeavor of the worker seem to be much the same. There is indeed usually a tacit or expressed belief that the same simple or complex mental processes or psychological functions are involved in the two cases, although the precise nature of this function has seldom been clearly stated. Thus girls employed in sorting steel ball-bearings, and also typesetters, have been selected on the basis of their speed of reaction to a sound stimulus. Münsterberg hassuggested that marine officers who can quickly perceive a situation and choose an appropriate mode of reaction to it may be selected by letting candidates sort into their appropriate piles a deck of cards bearing different combinations of letters. The same investigator has described a test for motormen which, while being neither a miniature of their required work nor yet a sample of it, is said to produce in them much the same mental attitude. In another case telephone operators were tested for speed in canceling certain letters from a newspaper page, in the belief that this work involved an ability that was also required at the switchboard, although there directed to different material. McComas has described a dot-striking test for measuring accuracy of aim or motor coördination, which forms an essential factor in manipulating a switchboard.
D. Finally there are cases in which tests having vocational significance have been sought by purely haphazard and empirical ways. Thus Lough, having devised a form of substitution test in which certain characters had always to be replaced by certain others, according to a prescribed key, then proceeded to apply it to groups of commercial students. Speed of improvement was chosen as the thing of interest in respect to thetest. Measures of this capacity, as shown by repeated trials with the same test day after day, were then compared with measures of ability in different types of work in which the students were engaged. It was found that the test records agreed very closely with the abilities in typewriting, fairly closely with abilities in business correspondence and stenography, whereas there was not such definite relation found between the test records and ability in learning the German language or in mathematics. The test is consequently recommended as a useful means of detecting typewriting and stenographic ability. It is not pretended that the test is a miniature of the work of such calling, nor that it is a fair sample of such work, nor even that it involves precisely the same mental functions that come into play in such work. The test records and ability in the particular type of work show high positive correlation, which means that an individual who is good or medium or poor in the one is, as a mere matter of fact, also found to be good, medium or poor in the other. Hence, without further analysis, the one may be used as the sign of the other.
Another good illustration of the use of this method is the study of Lahy, who put good, average and poor typewriters through a great numberof tests of different sorts. He found that the only tests correlating closely with ability in the practical work were those for memory span, tactile and muscular sensibility, sustained attention, and equality of strength in the two hands.
Perhaps the most perfect example of this purely empirical procedure is the investigation which has now been conducted for several years by Mrs. Woolley and her co-workers in Cincinnati. Children who leave the grades to enter directly into some sort of industrial occupation are examined by a miscellaneous assortment of simple mental tests. These records are preserved, and the subsequent successes or failures of the pupils in the various sorts of work undertaken by them in later life are as carefully recorded as is possible. It is hoped that when a sufficient amount of material of this nature has been accumulated the two sets of data may be compared and information thereby secured concerning the relation between ability in the tests and the types and degrees of industrial fitness. At present only the test records have been published.
In a recent investigation an attempt was made to discover, by this empirical method, a set of mental tests which would aid in the selection of efficient workers in a specific field. Thirty workerswho were already employed under fairly comparable conditions of work were taken as subjects in a preliminary search for tests of value. These thirty people were each put through a series of "association tests," of the familiar laboratory form, naming opposites, naming colors and forms, completing mutilated passages, following hard directions, giving responses bearing specified relations to stimulus words, cancellation and number checking, etc. While these tests were in progress, during a period of several days, the thirty workers were rated by three supervisors who were familiar with their work at the actual task, and who had for some time been observing their performance with a view to making subsequent judgments. Each supervisor arranged the thirty workers in an order of merit, according to his or her impression of their relative efficiency. The judgments of these three supervisors were then averaged and each worker assigned a final position on the basis of these averages. This was believed to be as accurate a measure of actual ability as could be secured under the complex conditions of work.
The results of these ratings were then compared with the results of the mental tests. Some of the tests were found not to correlate with theratings for actual working efficiency. Three tests showed definite and positive correlations, as follows:Color-Naming(thirty-seven per cent),Hard Directions(forty per cent),Completion(thirty-three per cent). When results from these three tests were combined, the records correlated with the ratings by a coefficient of fifty-five per cent. These three tests were then accepted as having value in the selection of good operators, and search was continued for further tests which might also yield positive correlations. This investigation is again an illustration of the purely empirical method.
These four procedures in the search for useful vocational tests, in the absence of complete vocational psychographs, are quite generally recognized to be but tentative expedients of an explorative character. Individual workers have not always clearly recognized the principles involved in their work, but have proceeded as best they could under the special circumstances. Each method has its own defects and advantages. The miniature model has the advantage of concreteness and apparent relevance, but, as Münsterberg points out, "a reduced copy of an external apparatus may arouse ideas, feelings and volitions which have little in common with the processes of actuallife." This writer is inclined to believe, on the basis of his experiments so far, that "experiments with small models of the actual industrial mechanism are hardly appropriate for investigations in the field of economic psychology. The essential point for the psychological experiment is not the external similarity of the apparatus, but exclusively the inner similarity of the mental attitude. The more the external mechanism with which or on which the action is carried out becomes schematized, the more the action itself will appear in its true character."
The second method we have described, viz., that of using as the test a real sample of the work done, has certain very obvious advantages. On the other hand, for the vocational test of this type to be at all significant, either the sort of work involved in the occupation must be fairly uniform and homogeneous in all its different circumstances (as in the case of typewriting at dictation, or in the work of filing clerks, accountants, etc.), or else there must be included a large number of samples representing all the various unrelated sorts of work. Moreover, in neither case is the test in any peculiar sense psychological. Such tests could perhaps be best conducted by the employer himself. In fact, employment on trial, which is a commonmethod of selecting operatives and assistants, is a time-honored form of this test, which is not necessarily improved either by calling it psychological or by putting it in charge of a general expert or by removing it to the laboratory.
The third form of procedure is full of all sorts of difficulties and sources of error, many of which are, at the present stage of our knowledge, irremediable. In selecting a new test which will involve the same mental attitude and call for the exercise of the same psychological functions as are needed in the work itself, we are handicapped by the unreliability of the introspection of the examinee and also by our inadequate ability to recognize, identify and classify psychological functions even when we are confident that these are present. The statement of motormen that the manipulation of a crank in connection with a strip of checkered paper makes them feel quite as they do when guiding their cars through a crowded thoroughfare is far from a guaranty "that the mental function which they were going through had the greatest possible similarity with their experience on the front platform of the electric car." It is much more conceivable that the "mental attitude" referred to was merely the vaguefeeling that "Something is happening now," "This keeps me busy," or "What a nuisance this thing is." And even if we knew the mental functions involved, as would be demanded by the vocational psychograph method, we are still a long way from the time when we can exhibit even a single psychological test and state just what function or functions its performance does or does not, may or may not, involve. Indeed we do not even know what the various distinct mental functions are, or whether, as a matter of fact, there are such distinct functions.
After all, the miscellaneous, random, and purely empirical method of Lough, Lahy and Woolley seems to be the most promising experimental procedure for the immediate present, and perhaps for some time to come. This method is, to be sure, but a rough, provisional and unanalyzed expedient. It calls for long and patient coöperative labor. It does not at once afford us the systematic scientific insight which we may wish we possessed. But it will at least save us from the delusion that we already possess such insight, and it should serve to check the fervent and semi-religious zeal that leads us to mistake prophecy for service. Analysis and classification of the results which this method yields are possible when theresults are accumulated in adequate measure.
It is essential that interest in this eminently practical use of the psychological laboratory be sustained among those who are responsible for the further promotion of its methods and problems. But it is undesirable that public expectation should be strenuously directed toward the laboratory until it has done more than the outlining of a series of problems and the initiation of preliminary efforts toward their solution. These specialized vocational methods, the miniature, the sampling, the analogy, and the empirical procedure, constitute four definite and promising instruments of research. They have yielded results of such demonstrable practical value, in the selection of special types of workers and in the detection of particular aptitudes and abilities, that the application of selected mental tests has already come to play an important rôle in the placement and training departments of a considerable number of industrial and commercial concerns. While the more slowly developing individual and vocational psychographs are being perfected, these specialized vocational tests will not only serve the purposes of temporary assistance and expedience, but the results derived from their intelligent use and their further patient elaboration will contributematerially toward the establishment of more complete and systematic technique.[7]