Vocational psychology; its problems and methods

Front matter

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Preface

This book has developed from the material presented in a course on ' ' Psychological Tests in Vocational Guidance and Selection" which the writer was invited to conduct in Teachers' College, Jolumbia University. The wide-spread interest in vocational psychology which has grown up in recent years, the eagerness with which even the most superficial and absurd systems of "character analysis ' ' are being adopted and tried out, and especially the lack of references, offering conservative evaluation, to which inquirers may be directed, have made it seem advisable to publish the material in systematic form. The book is essentially a presentation of the problems and methods of that branch of applied psychology which deals with individual differences in mental constitution. In the present instance only those differences are considered which may seem to be significant in determining the individual's choice of a vocation, or in influencing the selection of workers from among a group of applicants or candidates. It is the writer's hope that the book may be suggestive to the individual who seeks to know himself better, helpful to the student and parent who may desire to avoid the wiles of the charlatan, encouraging to the investigator or counsellor who is engaged in carrying forward the solution of vocational problems, and useful to the practical man who may be mainly interested in surrounding himself with competent associates and employees. To all those whose published works are referred to in the bibliography, as well as to

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PREFACE

many not therein mentioned, the writer is under heavy obligations. He is especially indebted to Professor F. G. Bonser, of Teachers' College, for the original invitation to formulate the material, and to Professor Joseph Jastrow, editor of the ''Conduct of Mind" series, for most patient and helpful editorial criticism and suggestion.

H. L. HoujIngworth.

Columbia University.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I, — ^Motives and Antecedents of Vocational

Psychology 1

Introduction

In the present volume Professor Hollingworth. makes a distinctive and notable contribution to applied psychology. The problem is an ancient one : that of determining the qualities of men with reference to their fitness for the work of the world. The general problem precedes the special one alike in theory and in practice. The earliest solutions were in the nature of ambitious attempts to read the ear-marks of mental ability in outward signs ; under the incentive of the growth of science these gave way to such systems as phrenology and physiognomy. Such revelations, decisive if sound, proved to be vain hopes or hopelessly irrelevant. The impressionistic verdicts gained from actual experience reflected the cumulative acumen of discernment which ever was and remains the issue of wisdom, empirical but authentic. It furnishes suggestive clues to investigation and a check upon its results. The problem came to its own when the modern science of psychology gave it its setting in the rapid accumulation of knowledge and technique for the interpretation of mental qualities. It at once established the futility of ambitious leads and the necessity of careful, patient and discerning analysis. The present volume surveys the field of attained results and the method of their attainment, in this engaging research.

Central in interest and promise stands the psychological test. In so far as psychology has laid bare the fundamental qualities upon which achievement depends,

xiii xiy INTRODUCTION

its application has developed a series of tests to determine how the individual compares with the others or with the average in respect to this, that, and the other constituent quality. Professor Hollingworth presents the results of such analysis, both in relation to the variety of human traits and in the grading of individuals by reference to the measure of the quality which each possesses. The enumeration is at best provisional, but in its totality cannot go far wrong in establishing the measure of a man. It includes the qualities which can hardly be determined otherwise than by an impressionistic judgment, as well as those appraised by actual achievement under test. There results a mental scale of general ability, adequate to gauge normality and to suggest practical standards of superiority or deficiency.

The question at once arises : how far are the qualities desirable for this or that vocation of a general order, iand how far are they specific in their demands. In this respect vocations differ widely. The musical vocation exemplifies a specialized profession depending upon a proficiency that is largely a dower of heredity; yet within this field the psychological test has proved its efficiency by determining the still more specialized facilities that jointly compose the psychology of the musician. In further pursuit of insight the psychological laboratory has undertaken to analyze the qualities needed for the several specialties of modem vocational life, by setting up "test" counterparts of practical occupations, by reducing them to their underlying facilities, by test ing the correlation of quality and achievement, and by combining the clues or verdicts of several methods. Conclusions depend for their value upon logical caution and the technical methods which have been developed to

INTRODUCTION xv

meet these applications. All this is as yet but a program or a limited beginning in its execution; but it is a program well founded in principle and already in part available in practice.

A group of collateral interests supports the enterprise and yields valuable results. The interest in unusual men has led to the psychograph or psychological analysis of the qualities of great men, as an individual study. Men fall into types, by temperament and achievement, by heredity and career. The type makes definite the larger contours of human differences and reveals their specific combination ; the charm of biography is psychological as well as historical. The vital import of heredity — practically expressed in the eugenic movement — ^finds recognition in the study of correlation of traits in those near of kin. Evolution leads to prediction ; early taste, talent, achievement, precocity foreshadow ultimate capacity ; we learn how far the child is father to the man, how far we may see the future in the early expressions and with what limitations the environment molds character. The most valued because most authentic type of biography is autobiography. Self -analysis is intimate if unreliable, but by this token worthy of study. Professor HoUingworth's contribution to the measure of reliance to be placed upon one's judgment of self in comparison with one's judgment of others and others' judgment of him forms an interesting original study — one of many — incorporated in these chapters.

Of distinctive status are the tests of ability presented by life itself and by the conventional institutions which compose the social environment. The processes of education, the rate of advance, the comparative readiness with which one or another discipline is absorbed and masxvi INTRODUCTION'

tered: these are at once preparations for life and accredited tests of ability. For these reasons such "school" qualities are subjected to a special study; and fairly conclusive results indicate to what measure they must be supplemented, if not superseded, by the designed psychological test, to meet the conditions of actual selection and employment of men. At this point the several methods converge ; for the vocations have a vital interest in the school, as has the school in vocational application of its discipline and training. The actual comparison of results, especially by the method of correlation, has already established the degree of relation — and eventually of cooperation — ^to be expected of the two. In all these ways has painstaking method supplemented and replaced impressionism, haphazard opinion been supported or overturned by accumulation of fact, and the scientific approach to the study of vocational fitness become firmly established. The road from theory to practice, if it is to be well built and enduring, must be laid on careful foundation. To such an end this volume is a worthy contribution.

No question of vocational fitness has been more eagerly discussed than the contrasted fitness of men and women, and the consequent basis of differentiation of career desirable or necessary for the two, both as wage-earners and in every other relation of life. A discussion of this problem from the point of view of this volume is wisely included, and in turn a definite negative conclusion reached. It is shown that in the main capacities tested — with several and significant exceptions — ^men and women, boys and girls, are comparable; individual differences outweigh sex differences. The interpretation of this result will not be uniform, even when due allowance is

INTRODUCTION xvii

-made for the range of tests responsible for the conclusion. The biologist will continue to insist upon the significance of fundamental differences; the experiences of life reinforce as they express the fact that men and women live with as well as upon a different perspective of psychological equipment; the psychologist may suggest that the tests and comparisons — ^based in large measure upon comparable and derivative facilities — naturally bring forth the parallel measure in which secondary qualities yield similar issues. It must be noted how largely a large share of conventional vocations call upon specialized and late varieties of intellectual traits; for these precisely, men and women may have comparable fitness, while none the less psychologically contrasted in realms closer to natural function. Women have proved that they are as fit to study — and, if you like, to vote — as are men; as fit to enter and succeed in vocations in terms of tested qualifications. How far the less measurable and collateral qualities make them fit and successful on a different basis, and still leave them contrasted in fundamental reactions, is a very different question. It is well to understand the bearing as well as the range of the ascertained facts of the case.

The modem man and the modern woman live upon the upper ranges of their qualities, and in no respect more momentously than in respect to those qualities exercised and demanded by vocational fitness. In the biological sense they are all highly specialized, refined, derivative, secondary issues of qualities that had a limited scope in the primitive form of life in which the race achieved its maturity and established its psychology. The problem of civilization is to train these original traits of man to the specific cherished purposes of the xviii INTRODUCTION

work of the world. The life of the mind is as highlyartificial as the life of the cities ; for such is the condition of the twentieth century. Yet the primitive man survives and asserts his own ; life is not all vocation. Social and industrial complexity dominates the expressions of human psychology. To unite a comprehension of their foundations with skill in applying their demands is the business of the "applied" psychologist. The present contribution, it is hoped, will prove a helpful aid to those who are striving to understand as well as to those who must apply with what wisdom they command, the available resources of human nature.

Joseph Jastrow.