EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

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complex  varieties  of  work.  It  is  indispensable  to  separate
applicants  according  to  the  degree  of  ability  which  they
possess;  for  there  is  an  infinite  number  of  jobs  requiring
infinite  kinds  and  degrees  of  ability.  Therefore  it  is
entirely  inadequate  to  class  people  by  their  possession
or  lack  of  certain  qualities.  Unless  some  method  of
measurement  can  be  applied  to  the  qualities  which  are
sought  after,  some  reliable  and  standard  gauge,  then  the
detection  of  these  qualities  is  of  little  value.  They  are  too
indefinite  and  too  general  to  be  of  practical  use.
Another  phase  of  the  same  tendency  to  describe  jobs  in
terms  of  personal  qualities  is  that  represented  by  the  socalled
  experts  in  character  analysis.  Aside  from  the  absurdity ­
  of  being  able  to  make  experts  in  this  art  through
a  correspondence  course  of  a  few  months,  are  the  difficulties ­
  which  have  been  outlined.  The  character  experts ­
  describe  jobs  in  terms  of  personal  qualities,  and
the  qualities  they  enumerate  are  much  the  same  as  those
mentioned.  They  also  include  such  points  as  the  size
of  the  head,  texture  of  the  skin,  such  terms  as  mental,
motive,  and  vital,  and  a  variety  of  other  equally  general
and  personal  qualities.  Even  if  the  expert  in  character
analysis  could  surely  detect  the  qualities  he  deals  in,  he
would  still  be  far  from  being  an  expert  in  fitting  men  to
jobs.  For  the  qualities  in  which  he  deals  are  just  as
vague  and  far  removed  from  the  practical  aspects  of
employment  as  those  which  have  been  named.  They
are  abstract,  general,  and  they  can  not  be  scientifically
measured.  Consequently  they  mean  nothing  when  applied ­
  to  the  practical  task  of  hiring  specific  men  for  jobs
requiring  specific  abilities.
In  contrast  with  the  method  of  analyzing  and  describing
jobs  in  terms  of  personal  qualities,  is  the  psychological