2o6 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
place men of this kind in positions where their training 
and experience may be utilized to the utmost and given 
their fullest opportunity for expansion. In the case of 
workers without a trade and unwilling to learn a trade, 
the desirable course is to assign them to the work which 
will enable them most quickly to earn the wage which they 
require for the satisfaction of their outside interests. If 
applicants of this kind are given work which comes within 
their abilities, they are likely to exhibit industry and 
energy. If they are given work which does not, they are 
very likely to exhibit indifference, laziness, carelessness, 
and other undesirable moral traits; and, in addition, they 
are likely to leave as soon as they see an opportunity 
elsewhere for making a larger wage. At the risk of rep 
etition, this matter will be discussed from a slightly differ 
ent angle in the chapter on vestibule schools. In the 
meanwhile, it can be seen that, by making it possible to 
assign workers to the work for which, both by nature and 
by training, they are best fitted, psychological tests con 
tribute largely to the solution of the problem of selecting 
employees with the right moral traits. 
From still another point of view, the use of tests is an 
aid in developing the desired moral qualities and a means 
of preventing their exhaustion. The statement has been 
made that moral traits are relative. This is true not only 
in a qualitative sense but in a quantitative sense as well. 
For instance, an individual may begin work with a cer 
tain degree of natural enthusiasm and industriousness. 
If he succeeds at his work within a reasonable length 
of time, he is likely to maintain and even augment these 
qualities. If he fails, he may gradually lose them. His 
moral resistance and energy may be exhausted by the 
difficulty and unfitness of the work to which he was