Evening star., 1927-04-23
THE BUSINESS OF GETTING
AHEAD.
Debunking employment Experts. !"


Legitimate psychologists are mod
crate in their claims az to what they
have to offer business in the matter
Of dealing with personnel. but charla-
taus are already making extravagant
gestures. They are witch doctors
who are exploiting the new popular
interest in making the task Of fitting
a round peg into round hole
scientific.
John r. Watson. executive of a
large advertising agency and former
professor of psychology at Johns Hop
kins University, believes that there
is no miraculous formula by which
the experts" can unerringly pick
"the right man for the right job"
Common sense, he maintains, is the
only satisfactory method TO use in
choosing among a variety OF appli-
cants for jobs. He believes that only
practical experience will demonstrate
the usefulness nf man in a par
ticular job.
According TO DIR. Watson VINO is
at the head OF the so-called behaviorist
school OF psychology, the only class
of experts" whose services have any
value to employers are the psycholo-
gists who employ intelligence tests
and even these tests are Of littls value
except in choosing "office boys. clerks,
filers and the like" lie said that
business is wasting increasing sums
each year on other types of so-called
employment experts.
Random Sampling.
"The behavorist." DIR. Watson ex-
planned, does not admit that there is
any such thing as general intelli-
gence' He contends that what the
regular psychologists are doing when
they make mental tests is simply to
take a random sampling, largely on
the verbal organization. of the in
dividual tested However useful these
tests may be as far as they go. they
are not adequate as the complete basis
for the selection Of personnel"
Speaking from another viewpoint,
Harry d. kitson, vocation specialist
of Columbia University, discIaimed
wondrous achievements for the per-
sonnel man, saying:
I'm the mind of the average per-
son who thinks about the matter at
all, vocational guidance usually
stands for a mysterious process by
which a vocational counselor. pre-
ferably a psychologist, waves
magic wand (like divining rod with
which some persons claim to be able
to detect water) over the person
seeking guidance, and then tells him,
You should be a physician, or A life
insurance salesman, or an under
taker.'
with this idea In mind, people
have been besieging psychologists with
requests that they furnish such
guidance; and the psychologists with
admirable complaisance have re-
sponded by bending their energies to
the task. The instruments they have
been employing are known as tests,
which have already achieved con-
siderable popularity and which have
come to be regarded as the life belt
through which every member OF the
population would ultimately find his
vocational salvation. In the hope OF
achieving this end, psychologists
have earnestly applied tests by the
score, figured correlations by the
hundred and computed standard
deviations ad nauseam.
Vocational Guidance Advanced.
Notwithstanding the intensity Of
our efforts we must admit that we
have made no progress toward our
goal. We have not been able by
means of vocational tests to guide a
single l1uINlQudt anu w lSit MN "iAAI
vocation he should enter. We have a
few tests that indicate fairly accu-
rately whether or not an individual Is
likely to acquire the tricks required
in the performance of a given job.
From 100 applicants for position we
can, with a fair degree of reliability,
select 10 who will probably be able to
do satisfactory work in that position
dhough we have no means OF deter
mining whether they Will do good
work). For the 80 applicants whom
We reject, however, we have no Voca-
tional prescription. In other words,
although we have found that tests are
of some service in vocational selec-
tion. we have not found them to be
the solution of the problems of voca-
tional guidance, a distinction that is
sometimes lost sight of"
DIR. Kitson believes, however, that
the art of vocational guidance has
already advanced far enough to make
it useful within a restricted sphere.
He pointed out that 1t can be helpful
in investigating occupations, obtain
ing exact knowledge about them and
passing along the information TO
young folks in search OF jobs. DR..
Kitson believes that vocational guild
ance can and should answer the ques-
ton Of a young person planning a
L.