THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS
THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOGRAPH
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
Poincare. 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, Poincare, may be given in some
detail.
The investigation of Poincare 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 Poincare'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 Poincare 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. Poincare'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. Poincare had head
measurements somewhat larger than the average. He was troubled with
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 Poincare 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. Poincare had no visual images or memories, except in the
transition state between waking and sleeping, when he had frequent visual
hallucinations of remarkable distinctness. 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 Poincare'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. In tests 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 Poincare'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
Poincare'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 and predominance of purely verbal association tendencies.
Binet's "cigarette description" test was used, and Poincare 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.
Poincare 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.
Poincare'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 Poincare showed him to present a striking contrast to Zola,
the novelist. Zola's type was 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 preeminently fitted for the work of mathematical
deduction. His method of work was quite the opposite of that of Poincare,
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 Poincare, 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. Poincare'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 Poincare's case they seem to have
constituted a definite method of research.
The chief value of this examination of Poincare 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 way the 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, with varying 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.
THE VOCATIONAL PSYCHOGRAPH
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 a Singer." 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 judgments of 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 and accumulation 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 for some 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 particular individual'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 recorded
enterprise 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, is
very 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 must be 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,
perhaps help 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 Muensterberg'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 of
doing. 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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Occupation| Domestic Worker| Architect | Physician | Journalist
----------+----------------+--------------+--------------+------------
Abilities |Joyful work |Esthetic sense|Social dealing|Sociability
Required |Energy |Imagination |Energy |Energy
|Patience |Industry |Discretion |Memory
|Teaching |Drawing |Tact |Accuracy
|Economy |Modeling |Judgment |Judgment
|Physique |Specification | |Observation
| |Employment | |
| | of men | |
|Housekeeping |Architecture |Dissection |Typewriting
|Sewing |Engineering |Microscopical |Quick
|Cooking |Heating | Observation | Expression
|Nursing |Ventilating |Psychotherapy |Forceful
|House furnishing|Construction |Clinical | style
| | | Activity |
| | |Surgical |
| | | Technique |
----------+----------------+--------------+--------------+------------
Implied |Morality |Honor |Honor |Honor
Personal |Beauty |Beauty |Truth |Truth
Motives |Position |Position |Position |Influence
and Social|Support |Fees |Fees |Salary
Interests |Home Life |Comfort |Influence |Progress
|Family Welfare |Progress | |
| | | |
|Comfort of |Housing |Welfare of |Politics
|Community | | Community |Education
|Family Comfort | |Health |Information
| | |Prevention of |Entertain-
| | | Disease | ment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 domestic alone 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-turning in 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 coordination; slow mental coordination.
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 of either 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.