Harry L. Hollingworth

“ The discovery of these elementary facts of brain localization was at once hit upon with zeal by those most interested in the means of foresight into human fortunes. Ignoring the fact that the localized features were simply the control of other parts of the body, as eyes, ears, limbs, speech organs, and the like, these enthusiasts leaped to the conclusion that every trait of character and every mental aptitude, every virtue and vice, ability, interest and capacity, had each its own shelf or pew in the brain area. ”

“ If it is true that with practice all tests correlate with one another, so that an individual who is good in one type of work is also, when his practice level has been reached, good in other types of work, the task of vocational psychology is at once enormously simplified. In place of further search for special occupational tests adapted in some peculiar way to particular types of work, our task is rather that of extending the general intelligence scales until they represent higher and higher degrees of general ability. ”

“ In our commonplace judgments about ourselves and others we say: 'I have no ear for music.' 'I cannot tell a chord from a discord.' 'I cannot keep time.' 'I have no sense of rhythm.' 'I cannot tell a two-step from a waltz.' 'I cannot remember music.' 'I cannot image sounds.' 'I am not moved by music.' 'I do not enjoy music.' Or, if speaking of someone who has musical ability, we say: 'He has a deep, rich voice.' 'He never forgets an air.' 'He lives in song.' Such judgments have reference to generally admitted specific factors involved in musical capacity by virtue of a musical organization. ”

“ The vital import of heredity—practically expressed in the eugenic movement—finds recognition in the study of correlation of traits in those near of kin. Evolution leads to prediction; early taste, talent, achievement, precocity foreshadow ultimate capacity; we learn how far the child is father to the man, how far we may see the future in the early expressions and with what limitations the environment molds character. The most valued because most authentic type of biography is autobiography. Self-analysis is intimate if unreliable, but by this token worthy of study. ”

“ To those who have to make personal recommendations or to make use of those made by others, this question of judgment of character is a grave one. Is it possible for one to judge at all fairly the character of another? ”

“ 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? ”

“ In the absence of all scientific data, we should, therefore, guard against accepting as an established fact about human nature a doctrine that we might expect to find in use as a means of social control. It is also fitting to raise the question as to just what is meant by the term, "maternal instinct." Does it mean desire for offspring which are as yet non-existent? Does it mean only the tendency to care for helpless offspring after they are actually in existence? ”

“ 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. ”

“ It thus appears that there is no constant error in judging ourselves—we are about as likely to overestimate as to underestimate ourselves, and we can judge ourselves slightly more accurately than we are likely to be judged by one of our colleagues. We can only know ourselves from the reflected opinion of others, but it seems that we are able to estimate these more correctly than can those who are less interested. There are, however, wide individual differences ”

“ In countries in which hereditary aristocracy and caste systems still exist, the fortune of the individual is determined to a considerable extent by his birthright, by the occupation of his father, above all by sex—all dominated by tradition. Within this field of guidance and selection, activity has developed rather independently in two different directions. There has been on the one hand the notion that all the individual needs for a satisfactory occupational adjustment is knowledge of available opportunities, and appropriate technical training for the occupation of his choice. ”

“ Accuracy is perhaps more necessary to success in architecture than to the pursuit of journalism, while judgment, discretion and observation would seem to be of occasional value even to the housekeeper and the architect.
In short, this type of analysis, which, whether accepted seriously or not, represents the latest word from a distinguished psychologist on the differences among the occupations, gives us no more assistance toward the basis of a vocational psychograph than did the catalogs of sterling virtues provided by the employers in their replies to the questionnaires. ”

“ Instead of willing the individual's fortune to be thus and so, there is an earnest endeavor to seek for signs and clues of what that fortune is inevitably destined to be. Fortune-making becomes fortune-telling. ”

“ The integrity of various parts of the brain is essential to the proper coördination of all the sensibilities and responses of the individual. Traits of character and types of ability, however, depend on the characteristic modes of reaction of the organism as a whole to the factors of its environment. Thus generosity as a human trait does not depend on the massiveness of any set of muscles, nor on the keenness of any sense-organ, but upon the characteristic type of reaction and motivation which the individual as a whole displays. ”

“ But it is nevertheless believed that the grammatical, geographical, historical, and arithmetical elements will in the long run enable the pupil not only to enjoy life but to find it as well, or at least to be of the greatest possible service in the work into which he or she drifts. Only in the case of those who are utterly incompetent to deal with the general subject-matter, the feeble-minded, the blind, and the deaf, is this formal education willingly abandoned in favor of some definitely serviceable "industrial" training. ”

“ It is of course difficult to say, in this connection, just how accurately the figures given portray the real self-estimation of the different individuals, and to what degree they indicate merely what the individual will do with her own name in the case of such an experiment. Natural modesty might easily lead one to place her own name lower in the scale for a given trait than she really believed herself to belong. ”

“ The employment of feeble-minded women as domestics, factory operatives, laundresses, clerks, and nursemaids constitutes not only a nuisance to the general public, but a real source of inefficiency and danger to the community. Graded scales for the measurement of intelligence will have amply repaid the labor devoted to their formulation if they aid us in the proper segregation and vocational supervision of the mentally defective. ”

“ I shall never forget the practical lesson in the principles of physiognomics I learned when watching a shipload of immigrants pass the physical and mental examinations at Ellis Island. Admission to the new land, and to the theater of their vocational plans, depended on the results of these examinations. Ellis Island is perhaps the one place in the world where principles of individual psychology are most in demand, and where such principles as are relied on lead to results of the most serious human consequences. ”

“ Turning now to our experiment, it will be observed that only in the case of intelligence do we have what purport to be objective measures of a trait, viz., the results of the psychological tests and the academic records. But we have, in the [Pg 148] average of the judgments of the twenty-five individuals, in the case of this and also of the various other traits, what constitutes as valid a measurement as it is possible to secure under the circumstances. Neatness, conceit, humor, beauty, etc., are not to be conceived as substances of which the different individuals possess different amounts. ”

“ Tests such as we are now making are of value both for the advancement of science and for the [Pg 61] information of the student who is tested. It is of importance for science to learn how people differ and on what factors these differences depend. If we can disentangle the complex influences of heredity and environment we may be able to apply our knowledge to guide human development. Then it is well for each of us to know in what way he differs from others. We may thus in some cases correct defects and develop aptitudes which we might otherwise neglect. ”

“ The success of officers of administration from the President of the United States to the school superintendent of a small village depends often on their ability to choose for their subordinates persons of the proper character. In everyday life one's happy choice of friends, one's ability to sell goods, to persuade people to accept a new point of view or doctrine, to get on harmoniously with people in general in all the various occupations of life, depend upon one's ability to estimate the powers, capacities, and characteristics of people. ”

“ Extending, as it commonly does, over many years of the individual's life, conducted by a considerable number and variety of examiners, and presented in a diversity of forms and methods, school work constitutes a type of mental test which is unequaled in its completeness. It is highly important for vocational psychology to ascertain the degree of correlation between the individual's record in the curriculum test and his success or fitness in later life. ”