Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods

by Harry L. Hollingworth; Leta Stetter Hollingworth

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 Poincaré. 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, Poincaré, may be given in some detail.

The investigation of Poincaré 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 Poincaré'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 Poincaré 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. Poincaré'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. Poincaré 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 Poincaré 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. Poincaré 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 Poincaré'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 Poincaré'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 Poincaré'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 Poincaré 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. Poincaré 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.

Poincaré'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 Poincaré 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 preëminently fitted for the work of mathematical deduction. His method of work was quite the opposite of that of Poincaré, 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 Poincaré, 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. Poincaré'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 Poincaré's case they seem to have constituted a definite method of research.

The chief value of this examination of Poincaré 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.