FOOTNOTES:
[7] In the Appendix is given a list of references to books and articles which describe numerous tests worth trying out by the empirical method. Instructions should be carefully followed so that results may be comparable with those secured by other workers.
CHAPTER VI
SELF-ANALYSIS AND THE JUDGMENT OF ASSOCIATES
THE SELF-ANALYSIS OF THE INDIVIDUAL
We have now reviewed the vocational efforts of primitive magic, medieval clairvoyance, phrenology, physiognomics, industrial education, the vocational survey, the individual psychograph of genius, the vocational psychograph, the graded scales of intelligence tests, and the four proposed types of specialized vocational tests.
We have yet to consider three further methods available for the purposes of vocational psychology, that of "self-analysis," and that of the "consensus of opinion" of one's associates, and that of inferring the characteristics of the individual from his achievement in the work of the school curriculum. In the absence of more reliable ways of determining the capacities, interests and vocational aptitudes of individuals in the past, and whenever there was any question of selection, fitness, or choice, four vague methods have often been followed. (1) Either the individual undertook the first available type of employment, tried it out, and then persevered in it or abandoned it for a trial at some other type of work until a suitable occupation was found; or (2) he continued at the original work and made the most of the results and of the ensuing satisfactions or dissatisfactions; or (3) he felt more or less clearly drawn to some particular occupation because of a keen interest in it or because he believed himself to be particularly likely to succeed in it because of his own analysis of his aptitudes and characteristics; or (4) he consulted friends and associates, asking them to advise him on the basis of their impression of his individuality and powers.
The unsatisfactoriness, waste and misery of the first two of these methods are largely responsible for the development of a conscious attempt at the vocational guidance of youth. Perhaps if more use were made of the two remaining methods we should never have been moved to initiate the laborious work called for by the psychographic and the test methods. Not enough critical attention has been given to the methods of self-analysis and to the validity of the judgments passed on us by our associates. The difficulty encountered when one seeks for information on such questions as the following indicates the desirability of further and closer study of these matters.