202 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
and expense which were invested on the hiring and 
training of candidates who were destined from the outset 
to fail.) 
Much has been said in deprecation of the scope of 
tests, and one of the most frequently repeated statements 
is that tests do not enable the employment office to select 
those who will succeed, but only make it possible to 
eliminate a percentage of those who are bound to fail. 
Therefore tests have only a negative value. In a sense this 
is true; but it is equally true of any selective process what 
soever. All selection proceeds by elimination. In fact, 
elimination is selection and selection is elimination. The 
main question about such a process is: to what extent does 
it reduce the number of possible mistakes? It has been 
seen that the psychological method does not make it 
possible to avoid all mistakes in selection, and in this 
sense it can be called negative. However, it has also 
been seen that the use of tests provides a systematic and 
effective way of reducing the number of mal-selections, and 
in this sense, therefore, it is decidedly positive. 
In attempting to make clear the exact scope and limita 
tion of tests when applied to the individual, this discussion 
has erred, if anything, on the side of fairness. It has been 
stated that psychological tests are unable to detect moral 
characteristics. As a matter of fact, tests are not nearly as 
helpless in the face of this problem as has been suggested. 
One of the great errors which employment managers, 
foremen, superintendents, and all other people, including 
teachers, ministers, and religious workers fall into, is the 
belief that the moral qualities are absolute qualities. They 
believe that if a man is lazy he is lazy. If he is industrious 
he is industrious. If he is cheerful he is cheerful. If he is 
disloyal he is disloyal. If he is ambitious he is ambitious-