CONCLUSION
The leading problems of vocational psychology we have seen to be three in number: First, how may the individual achieve the most adequate knowledge of his own peculiar mental and instinctive constitution, his equipment of capacities, tendencies, interests and aptitudes, and the ways in which he compares, in these respects, with his fellows? Second, how may the individual acquire information concerning the general or special traits required for successful participation in the various vocations, in order to select a line of activity for which he is constitutionally adapted? Third, how may the employer determine the relative desirability, fitness and promise of those who may offer themselves as his associates and assistants, or for minor positions in his employ? Obviously, if vocational psychology were in its maturity, rather than in its infancy, these various questions would resolve themselves into a single problem. The traits required in the various types of work would be fully known and specified, so that both the choice of the individual and the selection by the employer would proceed directly, once the individual's characteristics were known.
From this goal we are very far, but by no means hopelessly, removed. As we have seen in the preceding chapters, the line of attack is being advanced very unevenly at its various points. It is indeed characteristic of any new branch of science that it does not advance symmetrically and at a uniform rate, but moves ahead, now in this direction, now in that, so that the line of complete development is some distance behind the outposts of exploration. So in the case of vocational psychology we may draw a rough line which shall represent the main region of advance, and may indicate the various points where the line lags behind or goes conspicuously forward.
The main line of advance has left far behind it the magical ritual of primitive thought, the medieval search for significant omens and clairvoyant signs, the pseudo-scientific faith in the structural characteristics elaborated in physiognomy and phrenology, and has taken its stand firmly at the point where emphasis is laid on the objective study of the individual's behavior. Educationally this position shows itself in the abandonment of the purely disciplinary ideal of abstract training, and the substitution of training in specific forms of conduct, exercise, and occupation, accompanied by concrete experience with industrial opportunities, rewards, and satisfactions. From the more strictly psychological point of view the position shows itself in the experimental application of mental tests. In the measurement of the more strictly intellectual capacities, the line has shown a very decided advance since the beginning of the present century. The available intelligence scales make possible the diagnosis of intellectual defect, normality or precocity in units of considerable reliability, in the case of pre-adolescents. This step in itself is sufficient to put educational, industrial and social enterprise deeply in debt to the new science of experimental psychology.
But this by no means constitutes the only point of marked advance. Thanks to the elaboration of more complex and more diversified tests, and the gradual accumulation of norms, it is now possible to make mental measurements in the case of individuals considerably beyond the age of adolescence. By means of such methods, degrees of sensitivity, dexterity, accuracy, speed, comprehension, docility, discrimination, ingenuity, information, observation, and numerous other general aspects of mental alertness may be recognized. Comparison of such measures, in the case of adult workers with actual success in the field of their activity, tends constantly to show high degrees of positive correlation. The fact that the correlations are not perfect raises numerous problems, the solution of which is now being attempted.
The evidence now at hand suggests that the incomplete correlation comes, in part at least, from the fact that some of the tests of momentary achievement do not fully represent the ultimate capacities of the individuals measured. At this point the line is relatively slow in advancing. The obstacles encountered consist partly in our incomplete information concerning which of the tests at once reveal final capacity and which do not. This information must necessarily come slowly because of the difficulties involved in securing the coöperation of subjects who will submit to the prolonged series of measurements which such investigations involve. Such data as are available, while inadequate to constitute proof, suggest very strongly that those tests which are now in most common use correlate closely with each other when the limit of practice is reached in all of them. If subsequent work confirms this suggestion, the determination of the factor of general intelligence may proceed on either of two bases. Either we may use a very few trials of tests in which such trials may be found to indicate ultimate capacity, or we may use a small number of tests, but continue the measures until the limits of practice are reached.
But there is probably another factor in part responsible for the incompleteness of the correlations between test records and direct measures of vocational success. This is the fact that characteristics other than general intelligence play a conspicuous part in daily life. The interests, the incentives, the emotions, and the equipment of instinct and habit, which show themselves in such traits as curiosity, competition, honesty, loyalty, promptness, patience, the play impulse, etc., do not count for nothing in vocational activity. Moreover, it is quite likely that, in addition to the common fund of intelligence, each individual possesses in his or her own degree, certain more specialized capacities and aptitudes, for the complete measurement of which the available tests are inadequate. The graded "product scales," however, represent a definite step toward the measurement of many of these specific capacities.
Another difficulty encountered at this point is the fact that such direct measures of vocational success as have been utilized in these comparisons are in themselves subject to very large error. Only in recent years, and as a result of the emphasis of the human factor in industry, has it come to be the common practice to secure adequate records of the work of the individual as contrasted with the work of the gang. Even today such records are available in accurate form for only the simpler operations, in which standardized conditions of work can be maintained. The relative success of salesmen, for example, is not fairly measured in terms of the amounts of their sales, the number of prospects interviewed, or the frequency with which the assigned tasks are accomplished, unless the local trade conditions of the respective territories are fully taken into account. Inasmuch as such errors of measurement tend to reduce the apparent correlation between the traits measured, it is extremely probable that the psychological tests are even more significant than their present results indicate. Refinement of the tests must be accompanied by more accurate and precise measurement of the actual working efficiency of individuals in the industrial field, if the results of the one are ever to represent the amount of the other. In this as in many other respects, the development of vocational tests depends as much upon the active and intelligent coöperation of industrial concerns as it does upon the enthusiasm and diligence of the psychological investigators.
From the point of view of the employer, the incompleteness of the correlation between tests and direct measures is of little concern. Even a very small positive correlation affords him a degree of guidance in the selection of his workers that was far from forthcoming under the haphazard methods of employment that have been traditional. But from the point of view of the individual who is seeking guidance, or who is accepted or rejected on the basis of his performance in psychological tests, any correlation which is imperfect may lead to occasional injustice and misdirection.
The diagnosis of the instinctive and attitudinal characteristics and the recognition of the more specialized aptitudes constitute two points at which the line of advance is relatively slow. It is at these points that the psychographic methods find their task. As we have already seen in detail, the methods of the individual and the vocational psychograph are still in the stage of empirical procedure. In this stage of their development nearly any effort to amplify or apply them is certain to contribute results of positive value. The recent studies that have contributed most notably toward the further development of the psychographic technique have been in the form of the specialized vocational tests and methods. Such studies, in addition to yielding results of immediate applicability in the description and analysis of the special tasks at which they are directed, also constitute positive progress towards the more elaborate psychographic pictures of individuals and of tasks.
Meanwhile groups of further problems have been definitely organized, and preliminary steps taken toward their solution. The formulation of systematic guides to self-analysis and introspection and the study of the reliability to be placed in the individual's estimates of his own characteristics are making definite and interesting progress. The examination of the time-honored "recommendation" and the estimates of associates and friends, and the investigation of the accuracy of such judgments as are based on these testimonials, on letters of application, on the school records, etc., have already thrown long-desired illumination on several aspects of vocational psychology. The effort to base the vocational endeavors of women on the data of exact inquiry, rather than on the maintenance of primitive taboos and domestic and literary traditions, has played its own valuable part in one of the most vital economic adjustments of our age.
The very fact that a systematic presentation of the problems and methods of vocational psychology is possible signifies an enormous advance beyond the very recent stage in which all vocations were mysteries, all choices a serious form of gambling, and all employment confessedly a matter of impressionistic prejudice. To those who become familiar not only with the program of this new branch of applied science, but as well with the outstanding definite and positive contributions which that program has already yielded, the words of a constructive pioneer in this branch of scientific inquiry seem to be already becoming a statement of fact, rather than the mere expression of a hope. "The nineteenth century witnessed an extraordinary increase in our knowledge of the material world, and in our power to make it subservient to our ends; the twentieth century will probably witness a corresponding increase in our knowledge of human nature, and in our power to use it for our welfare."