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EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY DEFINED 
Few words in the English language have been more 
frequently used and more often misused during the past 
few years than the word psychology. The term psychology 
is on almost every tongue and page. It is impossible to 
talk or read for more than a few minutes before running into 
a reference to the “psychology of this” or the “psychol 
ogy of that”. No problem to-day but has its psychological 
solution, at least in the minds of psychology’s ambitious 
friends. A new soprano electrifies her audience with the 
beautiful art of her song; the musical critic on the follow 
ing morning attributes her success to the psychic quality 
of her voice. The speaker of the evening wishes to ex 
plain a social phenomenon which to most people, including 
himself, is an unfathomable mystery; he succeeds very 
nicely with an allusion to the psychology of the mob. An 
enterprising newspaper wishes to solve one of the most 
vexed questions of the day, the question of prohibition; 
it calls upon psychologists to discuss what it is pleased 
to term: “Alcohol—a soul hunger”. A well-known poet 
ess writes a doggerel on “achievement” and calls it 
“The Psychology of Action”. The nature of the problem 
matters little. Be it financial, political, military, or social, 
when all other explanations have failed, the psychological 
solution is the final and hopeful appeal. 
Professional psychologists should feel complimented 
at this wholesale advertising, this widespread confidence 
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