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 general- 
intelligence 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. Wil 
liams, 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 ?