140 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
scale, be sure to have it answered before you make your 
ratings. 
2. Be certain that you understand what is meant by each 
listed ability. 
3. Do not begin to rate until you have observed every 
employee from the point of view of the abilities on the scale. 
4. Do not begin to rate the employees until you have 
considered all of them with regard to the abilities on the 
scale. 
5. Consider one ability at a time and rate all the persons 
on that ability before proceeding to the next ability. 
6. Try to free your rating on any one ability from the 
influence of the other abilities of the person, or of any general 
impression or attitude in regard to him. 
7. Remember that extremes of ability are rare. Measure- 
ments of abilities have generally shown that most people are 
grouped about the average and that fewer persons have the 
higher or lower degrees of ability. Do not, therefore, con- 
sider all the persons to be either very high or very low in 
the ability. 
8. When judging a person, call to mind concrete instances 
of the type of behavior in question. 
9. Behavior on the job or when making business contacts 
is more significant for present purposes than behavior in 
purely social gatherings. 
ro. Try to be uninfluenced by the time you have worked 
with the person or the closeness of your friendship with him. 
TREATMENT OF RATINGS 
If possible, ratings should be obtained a second time after 
an interval of several weeks and averaged with the original 
set of ratings. 
Some raters consistently judge higher than others, so that 
in computing averages the figures for these judges are over- 
weighted. To correct for this error, the following statistical 
treatment of ratings is recommended. All ratings should be 
first transmuted into terms of position in the group rated 
by the particular judge. In other words, a distribution table 
is made for all ratings on a certain ability by a certain judge.