IOO

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

of  the  difficulties  in  convincing  individuals  of  the  scientific
significance  of  the  psychological  method.  Most  individuals ­
  have  no  conception  whatsoever  of  the  statistical
method  and  of  the  importance  of  basing  judgments  on  a
large  number  of  cases  rather  than  a  small  number  of
isolated  instances.  In  the  experience  of  the  writer  it  has
seemed  as  if  not  one  business  man  in  a  hundred  were  able
to  free  himself  from  the  compelling  magic  of  the  isolated
dramatic  instance.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of
the  impression  made  upon  a  group  of  hard-headed  business
men  by  a  wild  guess  that  one  of  the  group  was  a  Cornell
man.  To  be  right  with  respect  to  a  single  applicant  has
sometimes  done  as  much  to  convince  a  certain  official  of
the  value  of  tests  as  an  entire  experiment,  covering  forty
or  fifty  individuals,  and  involving  the  most  accurate  and
painstaking  statistical  work.  On  the  other  hand,  one  or
two  failures  have  often  done  more  damage  than  a  similar
experiment  could  repair.
The  power  of  the  dramatic  instance—called  dramatic
because  it  happens  at  the  time  being  to  monopolize  the
entire  stage  in  the  mind  of  the  individual—is  one  of  the
chief  obstacles  to  the  pioneering  psychologist.  “That  may
all  be  true;”  one  hears  an  individual  say  after  an  experiment ­
  or  a  follow  up  covering  fifty  or  a  hundred  applicants
has  just  been  explained  to  him,  with  the  correlations  which
were  found  and  the  high  percentage  of  agreement  between
the  verdicts  of  the  tests  and  those  of  the  foremen  or  those
obtained  from  actual  production  figures;  “but  there  is
Miss  .  Now  I  know  her  and  her  work  very  well-She
  has  been  with  the  company  for  five  years  and  during
that  time  has  given  perfect  satisfaction  in  the  place  where
she  works;  and  yet,  according  to  your  tests,  she  would
not  be  considered  good  for  the  work  she  is  at.  Then,