TFE SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 203 
If he is good he is good. And if he is bad he is bad. In 
other words, they labor under the belief that the moral 
Qualities are constant qualities which are an inseparable 
part of a human being as scales, fur, and hide are an in 
separable feature of the fish, the dog, and the elephant; 
and further, that no matter where people are and what 
they are doing, their moral qualities are an invariable part 
°f their nature. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 
The moral qualities are not absolute. They are not 
blanket qualities which cover an individual’s entire range 
°f life no matter under what circumstances he may live. 
On the contrary, moral traits are relative, and their nature 
depends upon a very wide variety of external economic, 
social and bodily conditions. 
Nowhere is this fact more obvious than in the selection 
and retention of employees. The experiments described 
have demonstrated nothing more conclusively than the 
relativity of the moral qualities. It has been found re 
peatedly that the listlessness or laziness of an individual 
at a given job was due not to any permanent moral 
flabbiness, but to the fact that the individual did not like 
the work or had not been able to do it because he lacked 
the necessary mental qualifications. In cases of this 
kind, it frequently happens that when an individual is 
transferred to another type of work, more nearly within 
the reach of his capacities and inclinations, he develops 
a most admirable degree of industry and energy. The 
same may be said of most other moral traits. Initiative 
is a moral quality which a worker may reveal while he 
is engaged in work for which his training and preparation 
fit him, but which may be entirely absent if he is placed, 
hy mistake, at work which does not come within the scope 
of his ability. The same may be said of punctuality and