EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
company’s cash? The more definite the description of the
abilities, the more likely is the analysis to be correct. Fur-
thermore, when the abilities are stated in terms of actual
behavior the investigator can see his way more clearly to
the construction of suitable tests.
The abilities should, where possible, be paired with their
respective job operations. Shell inspecting, the description
of which was quoted on page 21, requires the following
abilities (101, p. 25):
1. Good eyesight. The defects to be detected were often so
minute as to be indistinguishable to any but the best of eyes. It
took the experimenter almost a minute to see one of the most
common defects which these girls were required to notice in an
instant. Any weakness of the eyes or marked difference between
the two would be likely to show bad results in the inspection.
2. Keen visual discrimination. Good eyesight is not sufficient.
The inspector, looking at a whole handful of shells, must, with a
few glances, be able to recognize those which are defective and
remain oblivious to those which are not.
3. Quick reaction; that is, the ability to extract, as quickly
as seen, the defective shell and toss it into the appropriate box.
4. Accuracy of movement, required in picking out the right
shell from the closely held handful. This requires a very peculiar
kind of deftness, and, in order to facilitate it, many of the girls
allow their finger nails to grow to an unusually long and sharp
point.
5. Steadiness of attention. The least wavering of the eyes or
letting up of the attention is likely to allow some bad shells to
slip by or to lengthen the operation.
One way to make the essential abilities stand out is to
analyze the difficulties of the job. By finding out what
errors are most frequent, what annoyances are most discon-
certing, or what sorts of poor work are proving most ex-
pensive, the investigator quickly brings to a focus his search
for the really necessary abilities.
The difficulty analysis as used by Charters (30) has as
its main purpose the disclosure of specific needs for train-
ing but it is serviceable also in the present connection. The
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