202
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
and expense which were invested on the hiring and
training of candidates who were destined from the outset
to fail.)
Much has been said in deprecation of the scope of
tests, and one of the most frequently repeated statements
is that tests do not enable the employment office to select
those who will succeed, but only make it possible to
eliminate a percentage of those who are bound to fail.
Therefore tests have only a negative value. In a sense this
is true; but it is equally true of any selective process whatsoever.
All selection proceeds by elimination. In fact,
elimination is selection and selection is elimination. The
main question about such a process is: to what extent does
it reduce the number of possible mistakes? It has been
seen that the psychological method does not make it
possible to avoid all mistakes in selection, and in this
sense it can be called negative. However, it has also
been seen that the use of tests provides a systematic and
effective way of reducing the number of mal-selections, and
in this sense, therefore, it is decidedly positive.
In attempting to make clear the exact scope and limitation
of tests when applied to the individual, this discussion
has erred, if anything, on the side of fairness. It has been
stated that psychological tests are unable to detect moral
characteristics. As a matter of fact, tests are not nearly as
helpless in the face of this problem as has been suggested.
One of the great errors which employment managers,
foremen, superintendents, and all other people, including
teachers, ministers, and religious workers fall into, is the
belief that the moral qualities are absolute qualities. They
believe that if a man is lazy he is lazy. If he is industrious
he is industrious. If he is cheerful he is cheerful. If he is
disloyal he is disloyal. If he is ambitious he is ambitious-
