It stands in striking contrast with the
scientific seriousness with which the economic questions are taken up
in the field of vocational guidance and the physical questions in the
field of scientific management. It is, therefore, evidently the duty
of the experimental psychologists themselves to examine the ground
from the point of view of the psychological laboratory.
VII
THE METHODS OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
We now see clearly the psychotechnical problem. We have to analyze
definite economic tasks with reference to the mental qualities which
are necessary or desirable for them, and we have to find methods by
which these mental qualities can be tested. We must, indeed, insist on
it that the interests of commerce and industry can be helped only when
both sides, the vocational demands and the personal function, are
examined with equal scientific thoroughness. One aspect alone is
unsatisfactory. It would of course be possible to confine the
examination to the individual mental traits, and then theoretically to
determine for which economic tasks the presence of these qualities
would be useful and for which tasks their absence or their deficiency
would be fatal. Common sense may be sufficient to lead us a few steps
in that direction. For instance, if we find by psychological
examination that an individual is color-blind for red and green
sensations, we may at once conclude, without any real psychological
analysis of the vocations, that he would be unfit for the railroad
service or the naval service, in which red and green signals are of
importance.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56