EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
Objectivity is more readily attainable in tests for routine 
work and for ability to learn than for measures of social 
characteristics and such intangible abilities as resourceful- 
ness and originality. It is not contended that employment 
procedure can dispense with subjective estimates and im- 
pressions, particularly with reference to the typical emo- 
tional tendencies which are grouped under the broad cate- 
gories of personality and character. It is maintained, how- 
ever, that wherever objective measures can be made, they 
are more uniform and dependable. Such measures of a 
person’s likes and dislikes and of his tact, energy, seli- 
control, and honesty in selected situations, are conceivable. 
Reliability. Measures must be not only objective but 
reliable. Thus, an interviewer who has asked an applicant 
about her training and experience can make a subjective 
estimate of her probable ability to learn to operate a comp- 
tometer. If, knowing that she must have some arithmetical 
ability, he gives her some problems to do, he gets an ob- 
jective measure of that ability, but not a very reliable one 
unless the problems have been well selected, previously 
graded as to difficulty, timed, and standardized. An Edison 
questionnaire may be an objective measure of range of in- 
formation, but it is certainly a very unreliable one. What 
are the characteristics of a test which is at once objective 
and reliable? 
A reliable test when repeated on a representative group 
of people after a period in which they have had equal prac- 
tice in the ability (or no practice) should yield measures 
which preserve the same relationships between them. In 
other words, the test correlates highly with itself. More- 
over, the measurements obtained with it by different exam- 
iners are the same, provided they adhere strictly to a uni- 
form procedure. Of course, if one examiner varies from the 
standard practice by giving more specific instructions to the 
applicant or by allowing him more time to work on the test, 
the results cannot be compared with those obtained by other 
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