THE DETERMINANTS OF VOCATIONAL APTITUDE
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, weaving
doormats, 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 endowed _average_
individual typifies. Rough clerking and attending, simple personal and
domestic service, delivering goods of small value, laundry work of the
mechanical sort, supervised manual and agricultural labor, 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 and look 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 by _a_+_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 actual ability 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 the _idiot savant_. By the _idiot savant_ is 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, personal
recommendation, 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 cooperativeness 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.
Temperamental characteristics, 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
reenforcement, 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 role they play in 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 reenforced 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 of distribution. 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
one _cares_ is 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 small group 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] The series of tests proposed, and an especially clear discussion of
the problems, methods and characteristic results of these tests, is to be
found in Science, Jan. 24, 1913, pp. 133-142, in Thorndike's article on
"Educational Diagnosis."