EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
I 3 8
in a good many other cases, so now we have adapted our
tests to test only for the special abilities required. As long
as we failed to do this, we hired a good many applicants
who were high in general intelligence but not high enough
in the particular ability required of them.
Miss N: Yes, and we rejected many who were low in
general 'ntelligence who would have done very well at
certain kinds of work. You see, people have a very strong
tendency to think of general intelligence as they do of
education. They think of it as a thermometer, and they
believe that the higher the grade or degree, the higher the
intelligence. They carry the same idea into industry; for
they believe that the positions in an industry are graded
according to degrees of intelligence.
Mr. W: Well, are they not?
Miss N: Certainly not. Jobs and positions in industry
are based not on degrees of intelligence, but on kinds of
intelligence or ability. To be sure, every kind of ability
has degrees; but it takes much finer tests than generalintelligence
tests to determine what these are.
Mr. W: What do you think of that, Mr. Lambert?
Mr. L: I believe that Miss Nelson is right. As I said
before, the employment office is interested first of all in
finding out what kind of ability an applicant has, and what
he can do best. As you yourself have often said, Mr. Williams,
this is an age of specialization. We certainly find
it so when it comes to filling the demands and requisitions
for men and women to fill the many kinds of positions
which we have here. And it seems that Miss Nelson and
Miss Hurlbut have quickly reached the same opinion
which I have had for a long time without quite knowing
it, although they came by it in a quite different way-What
is your opinion, Mr. Williams ?
