SELECTION OF EXAMINATIONS
part, or by a small reproduction, but measure what seem to
be the more elemental or fundamental psychological abili-
ties required on the job. Even though at the present state
of progress a psychologist may hesitate to state definitely
just what ability is measured by a certain test and may find
it difficult to name the abilities involved in a given voca-
tional task, it is nevertheless true that he can describe cer-
tain types of behavior which are apparent to every one and
he can construct tests which call for the same or closely
similar types of behavior. A great deal of confusion has
been thrown about this matter by assuming that the abili-
ties necessary to vocational success are subjective and that
any test which fails to reproduce the internal situation can-
not be a just measure of the ability. The investigator must
not forget that what he seeks is an objective test whose
measures bear a significant relationship to vocational suc-
cess. He cannot claim that the test which he constructs by
the analogy method actually measures the ability for which
it is intended; but he may safely assume that a test so con-
structed is more likely to correlate with the criterion of
success than tests chosen at random.
The random method does not rest upon observation or
analysis of the occupation, but uses a large variety of tests
chosen at random, in the hope that one or more of them will
correlate with vocational success. This is a wasteful and
feeble method. In the published examples of the use of
this method, most of the tests which proved significant
would have been chosen if the method of analogy had been
used; that is, they were tests which bore an apparent rela-
tionship to the job. Regarding this method, Hollingworth
says (72, p. 113):
It is not pretended that the test is a miniature of the work of
such calling, nor that it is a fair sample of such work, nor even
that it involves precisely the same mental functions that come
into play in such work. The test records and ability in the par-
ticular type of work show high positive correlation, which means
that an individual who is good or medium or poor in the one is,
Rr
