University AverageH. S. Average1st Quint.2nd Quint.3rd Quint.4th Quint.5th Quint.1st Quintile54%17%17%4%8%2nd Quintile25%29%17%13%16%3rd Quintile17%25%20%21%17%4th Quintile0%25%25%33%17%5th Quintile4%4%21%29%42%
In considering this table it is apparent that if the high school students were distributed through the various university quintiles on a purely chance basis, and without any reference to their high school records, there would tend to be twenty per cent of each high school quintile in each of the university quintiles. Any percentage higher than this twenty per cent thus indicates some significant relation between the two sets of grades. On the whole there is a close relation indicated. The tendency is clear for those in a given high school quintile to be found in or near the same quintile in their university work. The relation is particularly close in the highest and lowest quintiles. In the intermediate quintiles there is more or less shifting about.
In the same way it is possible to classify all students in quintiles during their first high school year, and then to trace their careers through the following three years of high school and fouryears of college. The following tabulation shows the results when this was done. The figures show the percentage of each quintile in first year high school who were found in the same quintile in the various later years.
High SchoolUniversityQuintiles12341234First100%70%67%67%52%36%43%25%Second100%54%33%29%35%33%22%8%Third100%41%37%21%35%20%22%21%Fourth100%29%25%21%48%28%17%25%Fifth100%50%59%50%45%32%39%38%Averages100%49%44%38%43%30%29%23%
Here again, if the subsequent distributions were on a chance basis with respect to the first year high school grades, there would tend to be but twenty per cent in each of the various quintiles. As a matter of fact, the percentages never fall so low as twenty per cent, although in the senior college year they approach very close to this figure.
It is to be noted that changes so small as fromone quintile to the immediately adjacent one are not taken into account in this table. The figures show only those who were in precisely the same quintile all the way through. The indication is then that a student's performance in the first high school year is very significant of what his performance will be through the rest of the high school course, and also of significance with respect to what he will do in his university work. The significance of the early work, as has appeared in other studies also, becomes less and less the farther through the course one goes, so that in the senior year in college there is approximately a chance distribution with reference to the work of the first year high school.
Smith also presents his results in the form of coefficients of correlation between various rankings. The following are the most interesting in the present connection:
H. S. Average and Univ. Freshman Average.48H. S. Average and Univ. Sophomore Average.39H. S. Average and Univ. Junior Average.47H. S. Average and Univ. Senior Average.281st and 2nd Year High School.771st and 3rd Year High School.671st and 4th Year High School.66University Freshman and Sophomore.73University Freshman and Junior.61University Freshman and Senior.45
These figures of course indicate the same facts as those derived from the previous methods of expressing the data. The high school (H. S.) average correlates throughout with the college ranking, the correspondence becoming less apparent in the later college years. Similarly, the good students in the first high school year are the good ones all through the high school course, and the able college freshmen are able as sophomores, juniors and seniors. But both in high school and in college the significance of early standing becomes less and less as the years progress.
A. L. Jones[13]compared college entrance examinations with work done later in the college course, in the freshman and sophomore years. Two hundred men from the entering classes of 1907, 1911 and 1912, in Columbia College, were selected for study. These men were arranged in four groups, fifty in each group, on the basis of (a) their marks in entrance examinations, (b) their college marks in the first and second college years. Group I contains the best fifty individuals, Group II the fifty next best, etc. The following compiled table shows where the members of each group in entrance examinations stood in their college work:
On Basis of Freshman RankingOn Basis of Entrance ExaminationsGroup IGroup IIGroup IIIGroup IVGroup I (50 men)301352Group II (50 men)1617125Group III (50 men)3131618Group IV (50 men)171725On Basis of Entrance ExaminationsOn Basis of Sophomore RankingGroup I (13 men)7420Group II (13 men)4522Group III (13 men)2434Group IV (14 men)0068
It appears from this table that there is a fairly well-marked tendency for the men to remain in the group in which they start. At least the larger number of men are found in college in about the same group in which they occurred on the basis of entrance examinations. Jones writes, "It is evident from an examination of these... data that entrance examinations, aside from other important uses claimed for them by their advocates, may fitly be taken as an important indication of the future career of the candidate for admission.They should of course be supplemented, and so should any other means of determining preparation for college. Those who have studied the question tell us that there is a high degree of correlation between intellectual qualities and others. A good test of intellectual fitness is, therefore, in some degree a test of other qualities also. Entrance examinations have their imperfections but there can be no doubt that they may serve as a solid foundation on which to build."
Thorndike, on the other hand, in studying the relation between entrance marks and later college standing (Columbia College classes entering in 1901, 1902 and 1903), finds results which lead him to say, "The important facts concerning the relationship of success in entrance examinations to success in college work... prove that we cannot estimate the latter from the former with enough accuracy to make the entrance examinations worth taking or to prevent gross and intolerable injustice being done to many individuals.... The records of eleven entrance examinations give a less accurate prophecy of what a student will do in the latter half of his college course than does the college record of his brother! The correlation between brothers in intellectual ability is approximately .40, but that between standing in entranceexaminations and standing in college of the same person is only .47 for junior year (130 cases) and .25 for senior year (56 cases).... From many facts such as these... it is certain that the traditional entrance examinations, even when as fully safeguarded as in the case of those given by the College Entrance Examination Board, do not prevent incompetence from getting into college; do not prevent students of excellent promise from being discouraged or barred out altogether; do not measure fitness for college well enough to earn the respect of students or teachers; and do intolerable injustice to individuals."
The apparent striking contradiction between these two reports is not, however, so serious when it is noted that the records of Jones were taken from freshman and sophomore years, while Thorndike's, as here quoted, were taken from junior and senior years. Thorndike has also presented, in another connection, comparisons of entrance examinations with the work of freshman and sophomore years, and in these cases his correlations are considerably higher, more nearly approximating the results of Jones. The correlations, for the four college years, were as follows: freshman year, .62; sophomore year, .50; junior year, .47; senior year, .25.
Apparently the only safe conclusion at present is that the entrance examinations are fairly useful in predicting the early college work, their prognostic value becoming less and less as the interval between the two measures is increased. This result is of course to be expected. In another section of this book occasion is taken to show that preliminary trials are of little value in indicating the relative abilities of individuals when they have reached or approximated their limit of practice.
II. Are the school subjects in which one is most interested in any way an indication of the interests and values of later life? What, in general, are the facts concerning the permanence of interests and the relation between interest and ability?These questions are of immediate interest to parents, teachers and vocational counsellors.
Here again we must turn to the work of Thorndike for almost the only available information, and even this is only preliminary and tentative, the results being subject to various sources of error. This investigator studied the interests and abilities in mathematics, history, literature, science, music, drawing and manual work. The original records are the judgments of one hundred individuals concerning the order of their own interests and abilities in these subjects at each of threeperiods in their school career, elementary school, high school and college. These various judgments having been made as conscientiously as possible, correlations were determined between interests at different times, interests and abilities, etc.
Individual relative interests at different times, according to these records, do not vary according to mere caprice. "A correlation of .60 or .70 seems to be approximately the true degree of resemblance between the relative degree of an interest in a child of from ten to fourteen and the same person at twenty-one." The resemblance between ability in elementary years and ability in college is found to be .65. The correlation between interest in the last three years of elementary school and capacity in the college period is computed to be about .60. This would mean that the early interest would serve as a useful indicator of adult capacity. "The correlation between an individual's order of subjects for interest and his order for ability is one of the closest of any that are known (about .90)." "A person's relative interests are an extraordinarily accurate symptom of his relative capacities."
In concluding his report Thorndike writes, "Interests are shown to be [not only permanent but also] symptomatic, to a very great extent, of presentand future capacity or ability. Either because one likes what he can do well, or because one gives zeal and effort to what he likes, or because interest and ability are both symptoms of some fundamental feature of the individual's original nature, or because of the combined action of all three of these factors, interest and ability are bound very close together. The bond is so close that either may be used as a symptom for the other almost as well as for itself. The importance of these facts for the whole field of practice with respect to early diagnosis, vocational guidance, the work of social secretaries, deans, advisers, and others who direct students' choices of schools, studies, and careers is obvious. They should be taken account of in such practice until they are verified or modified by data obtained by a better method; and such data should soon be collected. The better method is, of course, to get the measurements of relative interest and of relative ability, not from memory, but at the time, and not from individuals' reports alone, but by objective tests."
III. Is there any relation between general or particular academic aptitude or inclination and general or particular proficiency in the later domestic, industrial, commercial, professional or civic activities?This question is of importancenot only to the individual and his guide but also to employers, agencies and society at large.
An interesting and significant study bearing on this question has been reported by Nicholson, who investigated the relation between academic success and prominence in later life. The men graduating from Wesleyan University during the years 1833 to 1899, 1,667 in number, were arranged in three groups. In the first group were the 140 "honor" men, who were valedictorians or salutatorians of their classes. In the second group were placed all the men elected to Phi Beta Kappa, on the basis of high scholarship. Of these there were 461. In the third group were placed the remaining 1,206 men. It was then determined how many of these men were found in the current edition ofWho's Who, or were judged, by faculty or fellow students, as having been or about to be of sufficient distinction to be included in such a directory. The results are given in the following tabulation.
643 Students, of the years 1833-1859Per Cent Judged by Facultyto be ofWho's WhoRankHonor Men (53)50P.B.K. Men (167)32Remainder (476)6604 Students of the Years 1860-1889Per Cent Found in 1914-15 EditionofWho's WhoHonor Men (59)48P.B.K. Men (185)31Remainder (419)10420 Students of the Years 1890-1899Per Cent in Who's Who or Judgedby Classmates as about to be There.Honor Men (28)50P.B.K. Men (109)30Remainder (311)11Total of 1667 StudentsPer Cent with Distinction Entitling to InclusioninWho's Who.Honor Men (140)50P.B.K. Men (461)31Remainder (1206)9
Referring to these results, Nicholson remarks, "From this study of the careers of sixteen hundred and sixty-seven graduates, living and dead, where three different methods are employed in determining distinction in after life, it appears that the results are fairly constant, and we are justified in assuming that, for this college at least, the chances of distinction for a high honor graduate, one of the two or three leading scholars of the class, are just even; that one out of three of those elected to Phi Beta Kappa is likely to achieve pronounced success in life; and that eachof the remaining members of the class has less than one chance in ten to become famous. In other words, roughly speaking, the quarter (or the fifth) of the class elected to Phi Beta Kappa are likely to supply just as many distinguished men as are the remaining three-quarters (now four-fifths) of the class."
The study of Nicholson includes only that type of success which would be likely to lead to inclusion inWho's Who, viz., the more strictly literary, professional, political, and academic success. The commercial, industrial and business careers are not so likely to lead to inclusion in this directory, and yet success in them is no less definite than in the professional work. It is rather difficult to determine the degree to which success in these fields is determined by ability alone, and to what degree it is a function of chance, inheritance, social charm, prestige, and geographical and economic circumstance. Nevertheless it would be interesting to know whether such measure of success as can be secured correlates in any way with success in the work of school years.
In an unpublished study of the graduates of Pratt Institute, Dr. D. E. Rice has compared the grades achieved by students in the courses in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineeringwith the salaries the men were receiving several years after graduation. There were in all six classes of men, numbering about forty each—three classes from Mechanical Engineering and three from Electrical Engineering, for the years of 1907, 1908, 1909. The salary reports were asked for in 1913, four to six years after graduation.
The men were ranked according to the grades they received in the eight different subjects included in the curriculum, the grades being 10, 9, 8, and 7, corresponding to the ordinary grade system of A, B, C, D. They were then ranked according to the salary reported at the time of the investigation. Results for each class were treated separately so that the time elapsing since graduation was not a factor in the results. The following table gives the results when these two rankings were correlated by two statistical methods of computing correlation.
In every case the correlation between grades and salary is positive, although the coefficients are all small. This means that in the long run there is a general tendency for the good salaries to go to the men whose grades were high, but that there are many exceptions to the rule. Certainly in no class is the opposite tendency shown, for the good salaries to go to the poor students. It isprobable that the correlations found here are as low as they are partly because in this technical school there is no special effort made to encourage high grades for their own sake, the emphasis being rather on getting a good average rating.
Class and YearCasesCorrelation byPearson Method, and P.E.Correlation by Per Centof Unlike Signs, and P.E.Mechanical '0735.36 .08.22 .09Mechanical '0841.25 .09.34 .08Mechanical '0939.21 .09.06 .10Electrical '0726.16 .13.25 .12Electrical '0836.46 .08.51 .08Electrical '0941.16 .10.28 .09Averages.267.277
Just what these degrees of correlation mean is made somewhat more apparent if we treat the data in another way. If instead of computing coefficients of correlation we divide each class of men into four quartiles, and determine the average salaries of the men in these quartiles, we get very definite results. The upper quartile or group will now contain that fourth of the class whose gradeswere highest. The second, third and fourth quartiles will in turn represent decreasing degrees of academic proficiency. If the average salaries are the same for all quartiles, this will mean that there is no relation between salary and school grades. But if the salary varies with the grades, this will be a significant result. The actual data are as follows:
Average Salaries of theClass and YearCases1st Quartile2nd Quartile3rd Quartile4th QuartileMechanical '0735$1800$1675$1362$1387Mechanical '08411450151215121275Mechanical '09391375126213131137Electrical '07261750167516751412Electrical '08362147143712621262Electrical '09411462121213871200Averages$1664$1462$1418$1279Percentages100%87%85%76%
If the separate classes be now considered the results are seen to be more or less irregular, although the general tendency is apparent. If the average results from all six classes are considered the results are more reliable as well as moreuniform. The average salary varies in the same way as do the grades. If the average salary of the men of the first quartile ($1,664) be taken as a basis of comparison and considered one hundred per cent, then the salaries of the men in the second, third and fourth quartiles are respectively only eighty-seven, eighty-five and seventy-six per cent of this amount. In general terms, the salary of the men in the lower or poorest quarter of the class, from the point of view of school grades, will be only three-fourths the salary of the men in the upper or best quarter. The two middle quartiles will differ but little from each other, although the second has the advantage, by two per cent, or $44, over the third quarter.
If the class be divided into a better and a poorer half, then the average salary of the men in the upper half is seen to be $1,563, while that of the men in the lower half is only $1,348. The men in the upper half earn $215 more in a year than the men in the lower half. This way of expressing the results is both clearer and more concrete than the mere statement of the coefficient of correlation.
Interesting data on all three of these preceding questions are to be found in A. Lawrence Lowell's study of the academic careers of students in HarvardCollege, Law School and Medical School. This investigation included an examination into the college entrance examinations, the records attained during the college course, the subjects elected in this course, and the subsequent achievement of the men in the professional schools of law and medicine. The statistics cover the cases of all men who took the degree of A. B. at Harvard and then graduated from the two professional schools connected with Harvard. Only men who had taken at least three years of college work in residence were included. The records for the Law School cover the twenty years from 1891 to 1910. Those for the Medical School cover the sixteen years from 1895 forward.
The college gives degrees indicating four grades of distinction on the basis of scholarship. These are indicated as "plain," "cum laude," "magna cum laude" and "summa cum laude." The two professional schools grant degrees with two grades of distinction, viz., "plain" and "cum laude."
Lowell assumes that the grade attained on the college entrance examinations indicates with a certain degree of correctness the natural scholarly abilities of the student. The course of studies elected during college reflects roughly the generalinterests of the student at that time. The college records indicate his ability in the pursuit of those studies, including under ability such things as persistence, patience, fidelity, zeal, as well as native intelligence. The records in the professional schools are taken as indicating quite approximately the student's real ability to achieve success in the particular professional work of the technical sort.
All students are consequently classified according to these various factors. The entrance examinations are divided into "clear" and "conditioned." The college degrees and the professional degrees are classified on the basis of the degree of distinction awarded. All students are also classified on the basis of their election of the four possible college courses: (a) literature and languages; (b) natural sciences; (c) history and political science; (d) philosophy and mathematics. The relations between these various classifications are then presented, and analyzed in various ways.
Thus it is shown that there is very little or no relation between the college course elected and the probability of achieving a degree "cum laude" in the professional schools. The figures are summed up in the following table:
Course PursuedDegree in Law SchoolDegree in Medical SchoolPlain"Cum Laude"Plain"Cum Laude"Lit. and Lang.801180 (18.4%)145166 (53.4%)Nat. Science193 (13.6%)7581 (51.9%)Hist. and Pol. Sci.627129 (17.1%)3020 (44.4%)Phil. and Math811 (57.9%)67 (53.8%)
The figures suggest that "as a preparation for the study of law or medicine it makes comparatively little difference what subject is mainly pursued in college." That is to say, college interests in natural sciences, as indicated by the election of that course, does not indicate special aptitude for the work of medicine; nor does the election of courses in history and political science indicate a necessary superiority in the more or less related work of law. Lowell shows that only during the first year or so of the medical school do those who have already specialized in natural sciences have any advantage over those medical students who have specialized in other subjects.
What is the relation between the men's records in college and their achievement in the professionalschools? In the following table are given the number of college men of each degree of distinction who were awarded "cum laude" in the professional schools:
Record in CollegeNumber Awarded "Cum Laude" in Law609 Plain Degree40 6.6%305 Cum Laude68 22.3%200 Magna Cum Laude80 40.0%33 Summa Cum Laude20 60.0%Record in CollegeNumber Awarded "Cum Laude" in Medicine239 Plain86 36.0%85 Cum Laude65 76.5%39 Magna Cum Laude34 87.2%2 Summa Cum Laude2 100.0%
It is apparent at once that there is a close relation between the college records and the records in the professional schools. Both in law and in medicine those who are awarded honors tend largely to be those who were awarded honors in college. And the higher the college honors, the greater the percentage of men receiving honors in the professional schools.
We may now ask how far back in the academic careers of these men it is possible to predict theirprobable achievement in the professional schools. Have those who are awarded the professional honors already distinguished themselves from their fellows at the time of their entrance into college? The following summary of the results presented by Lowell in much more detail will help answer this question:
Per centEntered college "clear"26.4Entered college "conditioned"9.0Graduated from college with distinction31.2Graduated from college without distinction6.5Entrance clear and college distinction37.9Entrance conditioned and college with distinction18.1Entrance clear and college without distinction11.1Entrance conditioned and college without distinction2.9
Per centEntered college "clear"59.1Entered college "conditioned"43.0Graduated from college with distinction80.1Graduated from college without distinction36.0Entrance clear and college distinction78.1Entrance conditioned and college distinction84.6Entrance clear and college without distinction42.4Entrance conditioned and college without distinction31.4
Here the result is clearly suggested that early merit in academic work means success in the professional schools, whether one considers entrance examinations or college records. And the most probable group for professional honors is made up of those men who combined both entrance and college distinction. This is especially striking in the case of the law school. In the case of the medical school the differences are not quite so great, although the general tendency is quite the same. This is said to be due to the lower standard required for medical honors during these years. Lowell concludes: "The men who are destined to take the highest rank in the law and medical schools are markedly better scholars, both in the preparatory schools and in college, than their fellows. In intellectual power, as in other things, the boy is father to the man."
On the whole, then, all these studies point in a consistent direction; those who are destined to achieve distinction and success begin to do so at an early age. Whether measured by achievement in academic courses, honors in professional and technical courses, salary earned after graduation, or inclusion among lists and directories of eminent men, success in later life is suggested by success in the early work of the school curriculum. In spiteof frequent comments to the contrary, the school curriculum would seem to constitute a useful test in prognosticating at least the most probable quality of the individual's later work.
But our original three questions are at present answered with very unequal reliability. With respect to the relation between early success or failure in elementary school subjects and success or failure in handling more advanced subject matter, the evidence is clear and definite.
On the question as to the permanence of interests and the relation between interest and ability, the evidence is far from adequate for vocational purposes. While the conclusion suggested is positive in Thorndike's study, the investigator recognizes that the results require confirmation or refutation at the hands of more reliable and verifiable information. It has appeared fairly certain that interest, as reflected in choice of college subjects, bears no relation to ability to undertake the work of at least two definite branches of professional training.
On the third question, concerning the relation between general or particular academic aptitude or inclination and general or particular proficiency in later domestic, industrial, commercial, professional or civic activities, the data, although consistent,are far from complete. Here, then, as in so many other aspects of vocational psychology, we find an inviting field of research and an abundance of interesting problems.
FOOTNOTES:[13]Educational Review, September, 1914.
[13]Educational Review, September, 1914.
[13]Educational Review, September, 1914.
Without attempting to distinguish between the different detailed occupations, either on the basis of materials dealt with, the social or individual purposes realized, or the special qualifications demanded, we can still divide vocations broadly into five general types, depending on the degree to which they are likely to call for complete and normal psychological equipment. Such a classification is of little service in the concrete guidance of individuals, since the general types include work of the most diverse sorts; but it may be useful in suggesting the various types of qualities that are of vital importance in determining aptitude for any work at all, and may in this way aid in outlining the work of further investigation.
1. In the first place there are many useful and remunerative types of labor which can be performed by a domesticated animal or an imbecile, when working under constant or close supervision. Hauling loads, mowing grass, felling timber, sawing wood, digging holes, breaking stone, weavingdoormats, and the simple types of work commonly performed in institutions for the mentally deficient are instances. The detection of individuals thus poorly equipped, their congregation and segregation under supervision, and their useful employment, are at once psychologically easy and economically desirable, as has already been indicated in detail in Chapter III.
2. Somewhat more abundant and diversified are those forms of employment for the unspecialized mental competent. This requires only a sufficient degree of intelligence to enable the individual to escape classification as a mental incompetent. One who is capable of earning a living under favorable circumstances, in the absence of aggressive competition and without close supervision, can find his or her level in the "blind alley" occupations. These offer no prospects of promotion to positions of responsibility and skill, and by definition, this group of individuals afford suitable workers for these occupations. They fill the gap between the feeble-minded and that degree of intelligence which the most moderately endowedaverageindividual typifies. Rough clerking and attending, simple personal and domestic service, delivering goods of small value, laundry work of the mechanical sort, supervised manual and agriculturallabor, waiting on domesticated animals, standardized and mechanical factory operations, wrapping, cleaning, polishing, petty shop-keeping, running errands and freight elevators, street cleaning, janitorial assistance, etc., are forms of work about equally difficult and satisfying. They do not involve the acquisition of special skill or technical knowledge and they are capable of performance, in the main, by almost any physically able person above the status of feeble-mindedness. We may expect that in the very near future there will be provided standardized scales for the determination of general intelligence of this degree. Even now it is fairly easy to select from a group of children those who, while not positively mentally defective, are nevertheless slow of comprehension, stupid, unable to acquire new knowledge and skill with facility, and perhaps disinclined or unable to form the moral and social habits of honesty, cleanliness, promptness, truthfulness and economy. Since these can fill the "blind alley" occupations with fair satisfaction they should be "guided" into the first available positions of this kind.
Thorndike has advocated a series of tests, experience with which leads him to say:
"Suppose that the general intellectual ability of the dullest men who are able to support andlook after themselves (men who though temperate and strong earn say $400 a year in good times in New York City) be represented by a and that of Aristotle or Goethe bya+b, the difference,b, being 100. Then the amount of such ability assigned by the tests alone would not, on the average, vary from the individual's true amount by more than 5; and would not vary therefrom by more than 14 in one case out of a hundred. The 5 and 14 are very cautious estimates, 4 and 11 being probably nearer what such an experiment would in fact reveal."
He further remarks, "There is excellent reason to believe that it is literally true that the result of two hours' tests properly chosen from those already tested gives a better diagnosis of an educated adult's general intellectual ability than the result of the judgments of two teachers or friends who have observed him in the ordinary course of life each for a thousand hours."[14]Interesting applications of tests of this general character have been reported by Scott. Workers of various kinds, such as salesmen and clerks, were graded by their employers or supervisors on the basis of their actualability at their task. It was possible in some cases to get very accurate objective measures of ability to sell goods, etc., by keeping records of achievement over a considerable period of time. These objective measures have been compared with the results of psychological tests administered at the time the men were employed. Positive correlations ranging in several instances as high as .80 to .90 were secured. This means that ability in the performance of the particular mental tests used was a very reliable sign of ability in the field. Various instances similar to these have already been described in Chapter 5.
3. If, as seems quite likely, it be ultimately demonstrated that there are some characteristics, aptitudes and capacities that depend directly on congenital endowment, special nervous and sensory characteristics of a valuable kind, we may mark off another group of occupations for which particular individuals are well adapted, though not exclusively so, by original nature. Among the traits which have been said to occur in some such direct hereditary way, or as the result of unexplained mutation or deviation from type, are: mathematical aptitude, ability in drawing, musical composition, singing, poetic reaction, military strategy, chess playing. Maternity, as a vocation,is of course strictly sex limited. Pitch discrimination seems to depend on structural factors which are not susceptible of improvement by practice. The same may be said of various forms of professional athletic achievement. Color blindness seems to be an instance of the conspicuous absence of such a unit characteristic. "Poets," it is said, "are born, not made." Many of these apparent unit characteristics are so relatively independent that they often occur in quite surprising degree in individuals who are otherwise imbecilic. Mathematical, musical, graphic and decorative aptitudes, mechanical memory, and certain types of manual dexterity and mechanical cunning are frequently exhibited by theidiot savant. By theidiot savantis meant an individual who is in most respects mentally defective, who perhaps cannot dress himself, cannot adequately learn to speak or write, but who possesses some particular ability to a surprising degree. Such individuals may be able to perform on various musical instruments, to compose music, to sketch designs and objects in an imitative manner, to remember long lists of disconnected names or numbers, to weave acceptably such articles as rugs and scarfs, or to construct complicated mechanical objects such as furniture, pumps, and sailing vessels.
Cases of rare possession of unit characters constitute the "genius" of ordinary conversation. These seem to present no problem for vocational psychology. Their marked unusualness renders them sufficiently obvious, even to the individual who does not systematically analyze himself. Such a prodigy requires a generous friend and an opportunity rather than a vocational expert.
4. There remain two further types of work, in which vocational psychology really finds its true task. There are on the one hand a large number of occupations that require neither unusual intelligence, special aptitude, nor technical training, such as those of the small tradesmen, responsible clerks, collectors, watchmen, agents, solicitors, motormen, conductors, soldiers, cashiers, cooks, nursemaids, etc. Above all, these types of work require the moral and social virtues, such as honesty, courtesy, truthfulness, patience, promptness, cleanliness, etc. Their lack of need of special technical knowledge is indicated by the apprenticeship method by which most of them are commonly begun. Also, the absence of simple and direct tests of the presence of these moral and social virtues and habits requires that for a long time to come this method of trial, combined with the judgments of associates in the form of testimonial, personalrecommendation, etc., must be continued. If psychology, in the immediate or remote future, shall ever discover or invent expedient tests for the measurements of these moral characteristics, it will have done a work that is at present equaled only by the formation of the various graded scales for measuring more strictly intellectual capacities. At present no such tests are vouched for by even the most enthusiastic of prophets.
5. Finally, and closely related to these occupations calling mainly for moral habits and social reactions, come the bulk of the world's occupations, those adequately performed by and constituting the permanent task of the man or woman of average intelligence. By average intelligence we do not of course imply any uniform or standardized homogeneous equipment. We mean those varying degrees of intellectual proficiency, educative docility, social coöperativeness and instinctive adequacy which fill the major section of the curve of distribution, that between the feeble-minded and obviously stupid, on the one hand, and on the other the genius, with special and distinguished traits or capacities.
In these occupations the degree of intelligence is by no means the sole determinant of either successful or satisfactory performance. Temperamentalcharacteristics, such as those enumerated by Schneider and by Thorndike, the local and wandering inclinations, active and sedentary dispositions, tendencies to competitiveness, imitation, suggestibility, sympathy, curiosity, and the entire series of instinctive propensities, dominant original or acquired types of satisfaction and annoyance, attitudinal, volitional and emotional differences, and the moral and social traits, such as persistence, frankness, piety, loyalty, zeal, all these may be expected to combine in varying relations of compensation and reënforcement, substitution and facilitation. What one lacks in quickness it is often possible to make up in persistence; what another lacks in ambition and competitiveness he may supply in the form of loyalty and zeal; relative intellectual inferiority is often and easily balanced by the display of social charm; persistent, well-directed and enthusiastic effort or even a good vocabulary may enable one to compete successfully with the exceptional genius who does not display these incentives or advantages.
In the proposals to direct individuals into their proper life careers, the advocates have quite commonly failed to make sufficient allowance for the overwhelming importance of incentive, motive, attitude and purpose, and the large rôle they playin determining the possible achievements of a nervous system. It is well enough to test the memory span, attention type, and reaction time of an applicant for a job as motorman on a street car. It is still more important to learn the strength of his instinctive competitive reactions, to measure the degree of his belief in hell or in socialism, or the firmness of his intention to effect the higher education of his children. By "more important" I mean better calculated to reveal his fitness for the work. I would rather trust my life and limb to a motorman whose feeble memory span is reënforced by a loyal devotion to the comfort of his grandmother than to a mnemonic prodigy whose chief actuating motive in life is to be a "good fellow."
These comments should not be construed as an underestimation of the usefulness of the simple intellectual test as a preliminary precaution in engaging employees or in detecting extreme departures from the mode or average. The use of such tests in discovering such departures and variants as idiocy, imbecility and general stupidity has been amply justified by experience with them. But we are primarily concerned here with the determination of individual differences and qualifications within the large middle range of the curve ofdistribution. My conviction is that, in the case of the average individual, we must either:
1. Demonstrate that these important non-rational determinants of vocational aptitude and satisfaction correlate very, very closely with more strictly intellectual capacity;
2. Postpone the entire work of vocational guidance in these cases, on the basis of psychological examination, until that distant day when these characteristics can be approached by means of scales and norms; or
3. Otherwise guidance must rest, as it now largely does in democratic communities, on the broad knowledge of opportunity afforded by industrial and pre-vocational training, the encouragement of thorough and systematic self-scrutiny, and the method of repeated trials.
The first of these alternatives has scarcely been attempted; the second will probably not occur in our immediate generation; the third we have had always with us.
It is important to note that the employments here referred to are not "blind alley" occupations. They all offer possibilities of promotion and advancement which in the main are so open to competition that the individual inevitably tends to reach that level of responsibility, independence,opportunity and remuneration which his total equipment merits. It is also important that promotion or advancement by no means implies the continued use of the particular traits which distinguished the individual from his fellows on the lower levels of achievement. Thus the boy who enters business as a responsible clerk may often move on through the work of sales management, buying, general promotion, superintendency, and ultimate partnership. The capable artisan or mechanic may proceed from the work of general helper to that of special expert workman, foreman, superintendent, inspector, contractor, and commissioner of public works or postmaster general. Marked boyhood propensities for wood-work indicate neither that the lad is capable of moving through these very diverse steps of promotion, nor, on the other hand, that he must forever remain a journeyman or an expert workman.
Progress in these vocations does not then imply, in fact almost never does imply, merely increasing the quantity or quality of the work at which one starts. The promotion of a teacher is often from teaching and disciplining classes satisfactorily, to clerical assistance in the principal's office, the principalship, general school superintendence, administrative counselling and public lecturing,or the college or national presidency. The case of the teacher of biology who becomes the principal of a commercial high school is not at all unprecedented. For occupations of this character and for this main group of average individuals it is indeed hopeless to seek for vocational psychographs. It is here if anywhere that the general principle holds that one who does anything well could have done almost anything else well if he had cared to try. But the degree to which onecaresis not measured by reaction time or cancellation tests. The question of the degree to which ability of one sort implies ability of other sorts is one of the several matters to be considered in a later chapter.
This fivefold division of the vocations is based on the degree to which the tasks involved require complete and normal psychological equipment. The foregoing consideration of these five main occupational groups may be said to constitute a brief summary of the present outstanding results of vocational psychology. The mentally incompetent can easily be discovered at an early age by the use of the graded intelligence scales. Their subsequent direction into forms of useful work appropriate to their degree of defect is not a psychological enterprise, but, rather, a civic obligation and industrial economy. The apparently smallgroup of individuals who are by original nature fitted for the pursuit of work involving special or unit characters will, whether otherwise incompetent or generally capable, commonly demonstrate their unique abilities without the application of psychological technique. The much larger group of unspecialized workers, requiring rather higher degrees of mental competence, may be chosen without difficulty with the aid of the standard mental scales and norms, their academic records, and the judgments of their associates. These may be guided into such tasks as involve mainly a moderate degree of intellectual capacity and make no notable demand for the exercise of the social and moral virtues. The vocational psychology of the future will find its chief problems in dealing with the numerous and permanent tasks requiring workers who, in addition to their varying degrees of strictly intellectual proficiency, possess particular or complete instinctive, emotional and volitional equipment, and who are amenable to those social and educational agencies which seek to impress upon them the moral virtues of their community and age.