1 EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
No pretense is made at a comprehensive summary of the
results of selection studies. For these, the reader must turn
to sources mentioned at the end of the vo!.me.
The technique of investigation here formulated is based
on the accumulated knowledge of many specialists who have
contributed to the literature of research in vocational selec-
tion, as well as on the authors’ experience. Although sea-
soned investigators may discover in it little that is new to
them, they will find it valuable as a check list, and as a
guide to the experimental and statistical method in voca-
tional selection to place in the hands of their less experienced
assistants. The treatment presupposes familiarity with per-
sonnel administration, psychology, mental test technique,
and statistical methods. The intention has been to include
what would be useful to industrial research workers and to
executives who want to know at first hand what is really
involved in a thoroughgoing program for developing im-
proved means of selection for a given occupation. The book
is planned also for use in connection with college courses in
vocational psychology.
While this manual deals in particular with the scientific
methods which may be employed in vocational selection, it
obviously has bearings also on vocational guidance.
Vocational selection has for its aim the selection of work-
ers with the greatest ability for a given occupation. Its
primary emphasis differs from that of vocational guidance,
which is concerned with the selection of the occupation in
which a given individual’s abilities can be put to the most
effective use. One focuses on the job, the other on the indi-
vidual. Vocational selection, then, means a choice from
among a group of individuals with reference to a restricted
set of abilities; vocational guidance requires a choice from
among an assortment of occupations and professions with
reference to the relative strength of all the individual's
abilities and opportunities. Proper vocational guidance will
greatly reduce the problem of vocational selection. The
latter, however, takes precedence in research, since scien-
ry
