STENOGRAPHERS, TYPISTS, AND COMPTOMETRISTS IOI
there is Miss . I know her personally, and I know
her work, and I am sure that she is a very inferior
"Worker, and yet, according to your tests, she is above
Miss
This more or less imaginary criticism is typical of the
power which isolated and personally known cases have
over the minds of certain individuals, and which is one of
the greatest obstacles which the psychologist has to overc
°me. The difficulty will remain, not only in the psycholo
gical field but in all fields until people are educated sufficiently
so that they can weigh the value of an investigation
° r a problem, not by one or two isolated points which
happen to stick out most vividly in their minds but by
Weighing and comparing all the points present in the situatlo
n. It is not the intention here to minimize the importance
of the dramatic instance, or the particular case,
individual instances are, in the last analysis, the fundamental
facts upon which scientific laws and generalizations
lest - However, people will not be able properly to place the
v alue of individual instances until they become statistically
minded; that is, until they are able to see facts in the light
Percentages, proportions, curves of frequency and distribution,
and until they are sufficiently at home in this
md of thinking so that their entire train of thought will
n °t be thrown out of gear when an isolated instance comes
. ° n g> or an exception with which they are personally
mmili ar>
The little experiment related above was a more fair
at 1 tem pt than usual on the part of a layman to obtain a
e lable basis upon which to estimate the value of the
test s for his work. The official in question chose twelve
Cases upon which to base his opinion. However, from the
Psychologist’s point of view, even twelve cases are not
