y EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
other qualities, is of little importance; in fact, effusiveness
is a detriment. The interview method and the rating scale
method both proved useful in determining the relative im-
portance of the abilities needed in retail salespeople.
We have emphasized the importance of making a com-
prehensive analysis of the worker and assembling a list of
items with reference not only to activities and abilities but
also to every phase of human variability which is subject to
measurement in one way or another and whose share in
vocational accomplishment may be determined. In addi-
tion to the items listed above, the investigator may at his
own discretion study such variables as the quality of the
worker’s references, judgments from photographs, self-
ratings by the worker, his motives in applying for the posi-
tion, his ambitions, and the like. Although some resistance
may be anticipated on the part of both workers and man-
agement to such minute inquiry, nevertheless if the examina-
tion is skilfully constructed and tact is employed in its
presentation the most important items in the analysis can
be covered. When this is judiciously done, items of real
significance for vocational prediction are apt to be discov-
ered.
The measurement of intelligence, under the great impetus
of the results obtained in the United States Army during
the World War, played a dominant part in vocational
measurement for a few years. But farsighted investigators
have been discovering usefulness in other methods of mea-
suring vocational determinants also, such as the statistical
evaluation of personal history and interest questionnaires.
Meanwhile, slow but steady progress is being made in the
measurement of what may prove to be the most potent of
all the vocational determinants—traits of personality. The
greatest progress in vocational measurement will beyond
doubt come from the application of the experimental method
of psychology to the material of the psychiatric diagnosis
and the physiological examination.
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