no

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

which  call  for  fundamental  abilities  not  included  in  this
analysis.  The  same  criticism  applies  to  the  tests  given
here  to  detect  fundamental  faculties.  They  are  not  final
or  perfect,  and  they  must  therefore  be  applied  to  work  of
other  kinds  with  discretion.  In  each  case,  the  work  must
be  carefully  studied,  and  tests  tried  out  in  a  preliminary
fashion  to  discover  their  adequacy.  Particularly  is  this
true  of  the  standards  which  are  to  be  used  as  a  basis  of
employment.  The  work  of  one  employer  may  make  it
necessary  for  him  to  have  a  much  higher  type  of  stenographer, ­
  let  us  say,  than  the  work  of  another.  These
standards  can  be  determined  only  by  means  of  actual
experiments  conducted  on  the  field.  To  be  sure,  the  development ­
  and  standardization  of  tests  elsewhere  will
make  each  new  application  increasingly  simple,  and  the
trained  psychologist  will  have  to  expend  less  and  less
effort  in  preliminary  experiments  as  the  technique  and
material  of  his  science  grow.
In  the  second  place,  it  is  necessary  to  determine,  in
every  case,  the  relative  importance  of  the  abilities  involved. ­
  For  instance,  ability  in  spelling  may  be  very
important  for  a  stenographer  and  somewhat  less  important
for  a  typist.  Arithmetical  ability  may  be  very  important
for  a  statistical  clerk  and  also  important,  though  less  so,
for  a  record  clerk.  When  a  group  of  tests  is  given  to  an
individual,  there  must  be  some  means  by  which  the  results
are  combined  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  every  test  its  proportionate ­
  value.  How  are  these  proportions  to  be  determined ­
  for  different  kinds  of  work?  This  is  a  problem
which  can  be  settled  only  by  an  immediate  study  of  the
work  itself.  The  investigator  must  determine  in  each  case
what  is  the  relative  importance  of  various  faculties  in  the
accomplishment  of  a  particular  task,  whether,  for  in ­