4 6
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
inability would not have been hired. To be sure, taking this
point as the standard would have resulted in selecting
a few who were destined to fail and rejecting a few who
were destined to succeed. On the other hand, the large
majority would have been selected correctly, and probably
many more who had failed and left before this experiment
began would have been rejected at the outset, and would
never have been given the expensive trial which they
received.
If we look below the points of intersection of the curves,
we shall see that the time represented is 56 seconds for
test number two, 140 seconds for test number six, and
185 seconds for test number eight. These figures were
taken as the maximum below which an applicant must
come in order to be selected for the work of inspection.
It is apparent that these figures are considerably higher
than the average in the various tests, for the average is
indicated by a point near the center of the larger curve.
However, if the average times had been taken as the standard
for selecting and rejecting, a large number of successful
inspectors who fell below the average in the tests would
probably have been rejected. The standard finally selected
was such that the maximum number of applicants
who were likely to succeed would be chosen and the
maximum number of applicants who were likely to fail
would be rejected.
It must not be thought that this standard is absolutely
rigid. In fact, one of the particular merits of such a
standard and of psychological standards in general is
flexibility. If two or more applicants fall within the standard
or the maximum time set, the employer does not
necessarily accept all of them but selects those whose
time in the tests was farthest below the maximum. Thus,
