Applied psychology

Preface

Books in the field of applied psychology have tended in the past to belong in one or several of three categories, which may be described in some such way as the following: (1) Technical monographs, such as are intelligible only to the advanced student or the professional psychologist; (2)' Volumes covering in an intensive way some particular and limited field of practice, such as education, advertising, mental examination; (3) General and more or less prophetic popular essays, pointing out suggestive fields of interest. There exists no book which well serves as a general text of applied psychology, presenting its principal aims, types, methods, its various fields of endeavor, and its outstanding results and accomplishments. Students of applied psychology must at present be referred to a very scattered series of special articles, monographs or books, of varying value, and by no means generally, easily or equally accessible. The general reader, working without expert guidance, can hardly do more than dip in a random way into magazine stories, subscription books, and an occasional serious exposition of the more restricted type. The general text books of psychology do not have the practical point of vi£W for which he is in search.

Applied psychology is clearly on the way toward a dignified and prosperous existence. The present year has seen

vu viii PREFACE

established the first professorship of applied psychology, the first American journal of applied psychology, and university courses and lectureships in applied psychology are rapidly multiplying. Psychology has been recognized as a vocation under the civil service regulations, and applied psychologists are finding themselves called to work in factories, schools, courts, hospitals, agencies, banks, employment departments, and various branches of municipal and civic enterprise. With this record of substantial achievement in applied psychology, it seems only appropriate that there should be also available a general text book devoted to the subject. The authors of the present book have both been engaged for several years in teaching, research and consultation in this field, and have long felt, in their own work, the need for an exposition of the subject, which should be comprehensive, suggestive and interesting without sacrifice of definiteness, accuracy and balance. This need has prompted them to prepare the present book, which it is hoped may be useful at the same time to the student, the teacher and the general reader.

In the earlier part of the text will be found a systematic statement of various aspects, principles and results of modern dynamic psychology which bear in a specially practical way on the personality and competence of the individual, regardless of his or her particular occupational activity. Emphasis is given to problems of original nature and instinctive equipment, the inheritance of mental traits and capacities, individual differences, the conditions and methods of effective work, learning and rest; the psychological influences of such biological factors as age, growth,

PREFACE ix

sex and race; of such physiological factors as fatigue, drugs, periodicity, posture, sleep; and of such environmental factors as illumination, ventilation, weather, humidity, temperature, time of day, distractions, solitude.

In the latter portion of the text the attitude, content and technique of psychology are considered in their particular relevance to the various types and fields of occupational activity. Attitude, content and technique, yielding three distinguishable forms of application, are illustrated by concrete achievements in those fields in which the relations between science and practice have been most explicitly formulated. These fields include the various departments and activities conveniently classified under the more general headings of Management (employment, supervision, organization, training) ; Industry (economy of effort, routing, time and motion study) ; Business (manufacturing, advertising, salesmanship) ; Law (testimony, evidence, responsibility, prevention and correction) ; Social Work (misery, delinquency, defectiveness, mental abnormality, social psychology) ; Medicine (examination and research, pharmaco-psychology, psychotherapy, the psychological clinic, the medical curriculum) ; Education (school subjects and operations, methods of teaching, individual differences, educational diagnosis, the learning process, educational measurement). A final chapter discusses the various institutional adjustments necessitated by the development of applied psychology, the current and probable future tendencies, and their relative desirability.

In so new and rapidly growing a field as that of applied psychology the teacher and professional student will for a x PREFACE

long time find it useful to supplement even the most encyclopedic text book with concrete results from current investigations and achievements. The present book will have accomplished its aim if it assists in systematizing a field hitherto vague and unorganized, and helps to demonstrate that applied psychology is a dignified, productive and vigorous activity, as well as a fervent hope and a confident prophecy.

H. L. HOLLINGWORTH.

A. T. POFFENBERGER.

Columbia University, June 1, 1917.