Experimental workshops could be created which are
really adjusted to the special practical needs and to which a
sufficiently large number of persons could be drawn for the
systematic researches. The ideal solution for the United States would
be a governmental bureau for applied psychology, with special
reference to the psychology of commerce and industry, similar to the
model agricultural stations all over the land under the Department of
Agriculture.
Only when such a broad foundation has been secured will the time be
ripe to carry the method systematically into the daily work. The aim
will never be for real experimental researches to be performed by the
foreman in the workshop or by the superintendent in the factory. But
slowly a certain acknowledged system of rules and prescriptions may be
worked out which may be used as patterns, and which will not
presuppose any scientific knowledge, any more than an understanding of
the principles of electricity is necessary for one who uses the
telephone. But besides the rigid rules which any one may apply,
particular prescriptions will be needed fitting the special situation.
This leads to the demand for the large establishments to appoint
professionally trained psychologists who will devote their services to
the psychological problems of the special industrial plant. There are
many factories that have scores of scientifically trained chemists or
physicists at work, but who would consider it an unproductive luxury
to appoint a scientifically schooled experimental psychologist to
their staff.
Pages:
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261