EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
I98
The subject is then asked to arrange these cards in the
order in which he considers the actions named most reprehensible,
placing the least reprehensible first and the most
reprehensible last. The value and significance of such a
test are extremely doubtful. Without going into a detailed
criticism of the efficacy of this test, it may be said that the
core of its weakness consists in the fact that words and
actions do not necessarily coincide. Intellectual morality
and practical morality are two distinctly different things.
For a time it did seem as though the word association
tests, made famous by Hugo Muensterberg’s book “On
the Witness Stand” could bridge these two realms of
thought and action. However, it has been found since
that the connection between them is so subtle as to make
such tests entirely too ambiguous. Even if tests which
require the subject to express himself in terms of deeds
rather than opinions could be devised, the results would
be extremely doubtful. Few individuals could be made to
reveal their objectionable moral traits during the course
of an interview or a psychological examination. And on
the other hand there are few individuals who cannot,
when the occasion demands, assume a virtue which they
do not have. Whether looking for the negative qualities,
such as dishonesty and laziness, or tracing the positive
virtues, such as honesty and industry, the psychologist,
in common with all other seekers of facts, is laboring
under the great disadvantage of the ability of all individuals
to minimize or to exaggerate their good and bad
points. In none of the moral qualities are there the relatively
stable and measurable factors which are to be
found in the more elementary activities to which tests
have been so successfully applied.
Since psychological tests are unable adequately to
