Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods

VOCATIONAL EFFORTS OF PRIMITIVE MAGIC

Among very primitive people we find the recognition already established that the course of the individual's fortune depends on two distinct factors: external forces and personal characteristics. Individuals similar in type experience different fortunes because of the different external events that attend their respective careers. Equally, individuals of however diverse characteristics suffer the same fortunes at the hands of some common or identical external occurrence. Two combatants of equal skill and valor are rendered unequal by a defective lance; two runners equally swift are made unequal by a pebble in the path; a vigorous babe fails to mature properly because of pestilence, war, or famine. On the other hand, both old and young, weak and strong, stupid and cunning, are alike reduced to helplessness in the face of flood, earthquake, and forest fire.

Primitive thinking, in its attempts to control the course of personal fortune, thus had its attention directed to two groups of factors, each of which it sought to control by such means as it could at the moment devise. A very early stage of such thinking took the form of the belief that desire could impress itself on the course of physical events and also on the development of personal characteristics. The expression of desire, either of the individual immediately concerned or of others more remotely involved, was consequently invoked and declared in more or less emphatic and overt form as a determining factor in personal fortune. In many cases this expression was given some indirect or symbolic form, as in gesture, ritual, tableau, masquerade, and imitative portrayal.

On the side of physical factors this attempt took the form of crude magic, adjuration, sacrifice, and incantation, all of which were calculated to dispose the physical elements favorably toward the individual concerned in the ceremonials. Crude ritual observances and ceremonies, such as sacrifice, mimicry, and tableau, were believed to influence in some occult way the growth of crops, the changes in weather, the health of enemies, the movements of game, the supply of fish, etc. A typical fishing expedition among the natives of the Caroline Islands aptly illustrates this point of view. The chief official is not an expert boatman nor a fisher, but the medicine man of the tribe. He owes his authority not to his knowledge of the habits and haunts of fish, but to his store of incantations and exorcisms. Various rites are conducted before embarking. The fishermen must leave the island without speaking; and especially, the purpose of the expedition must not be mentioned aloud. A "luck" formula is pronounced over the boat. Sacrifices of special foods are offered, lest the lines be broken by sharks or tangled in the rocks. In Mexico, an elaborate pantomime, representing the harvesting of crops, was staged annually at a religious festival. This was believed sufficient to produce the good crops which were desired for the next season. Special dances were performed by persons representing the various vegetables which were particularly coveted.

Among primitive races in almost every part of the world one finds magical properties attributed to a sort of toy which anthropologists call the "bull roarer." It consists merely of a flat stick, attached to the end of a cord. When whirled around it produces a roaring or humming sound which easily reminds one of the rumble of wind, the roll of thunder, or the distant cry of an animal. In various quarters this instrument is used in a ceremonial way. Since its sound resembles thunder, it is used as a charm against that form of physical violence. Because of its resemblance to both thunder and wind, it is incorporated in elaborate rain-making mysteries. Sometimes it is used to drive or call wild or domesticated animals, and hence comes to be used as a means of bringing luck to hunters. Figures and emblems, carved on the slab of wood, are supposed to specify the particular kind of luck or fortune which the individual seeks.

On the side of personal characteristics the same endeavor took the form of blessings, incantations, dedications, curses, prayers and petitions, the wearing of symbolic charms and the submission of the infant or youth to a variety of prenatal and childhood experiences and ceremonials. Thus it is believed that by appropriating a dead man's spear and thereby expressing a desire for his skill and valor, these traits of character will pass to the new owner. Boys are tossed into the air to make them grow tall, and rubbed with crystals and snake-skins to make them clever and intrepid medicine men. By scratching lifelike sketches of bison, deer, and fish on rocks, walls, and weapons, the savage hunter sought to acquire otherwise unattainable adroitness and success. "Disease or death may be produced by operating on the cuttings of a person's hair, the parings of his nails, or the remains of his food, when the person himself is far away. By wearing tiger's teeth a man may make himself brave and fierce." By drinking the blood of bulls he may become stalwart and powerful. The Ojibway Indian, in order to hurt his enemy and thus further his own interests, makes a small image of him and pierces it with a needle in the faith that the enemy will suffer. In order to terminate the latter's career he burns or buries the effigy, uttering magic words as he does so.

Remnants of this primitive magic still persist in the "psychological underworld," and many an old-wives' practice and incantation is in various quarters still believed or professed to further the course of the individual's fortune, or to jeopardize it, by rendering natural forces more benign or malignant, or by exerting some occult molding influence on the infantile abilities and propensities. Thus it is not at all uncommon, even in these days, for children to be dedicated at birth to the ministry, the missionary field, the service of the king, or to some particular cause or propaganda. A woman of the writer's acquaintance, solicitous for the future welfare of her babe, read solid and serious books during gestation in order to balance the emotional influences due to her absorption in music teaching during that period. Many practices of the most superstitious kind are resorted to in order to predetermine the sex, and hence the vocational prospects, of children yet unborn. Reliance on prayer as an effective agent in changing the course of events or the disposition and habits of some other individual is by no means confined to savages. Petitions that a neighbor may lose his appetite for drink, recover his lost eyesight, or find his wallet are as current in modern times as are official days of prayer for rain. Seeking to influence public opinion by the passing of formal resolutions, and modifying character, curing diseases and prolonging life through "absent treatment," the laying on of hands, the contemplation of relics, visitation of shrines, and concerted supplication, are practices which find high warrant in contemporary life. The essential idea behind all these practices seems to be the simple faith that nothing will interfere with the realization of desire, if only that desire is indicated by a method which has official or traditional sanction. The true nature of cause and effect and the conception of natural law are not yet realized on this level of thought.

THE PRACTICES OF MEDIEVAL CLAIRVOYANCE

A more advanced stage in the development of such thinking is indicated by the recognition that both the series of physical events and the individual endowment follow laws which transcend the personal desires of men. Nature comes to be recognized as a system of facts and connections. Both control and foresight henceforth seek to base themselves on the utilization of these stable laws and relationships. Instead of willing the individual's fortune to be thus and so, there is an earnest endeavor to seek for signs and clues of what that fortune is inevitably destined to be. Fortune-making becomes fortune-telling. The accidents and accompaniments of birth, the momentary positions of the planets, the calendar incidents, the hour or day of birth, the local meteorological conditions, birth-marks, stigmata, physiognomic and anthropometric characteristics, the folds of the flesh, the lines of the hand, the mode of birth: every fact that can participate in a relation of coincidence with the birth of the individual is selected as a sign of some future state of affairs, desirable or untoward, in the fortune of the individual, of his personal, domestic and occupational career.

Thus, in a recently published guide to character analysis based on ancient astrological pretensions, the following characteristics are asserted to belong to those who are born in the month of February:

"Those born in this month are very intuitive and good judges of character and human nature. They are successes in mercantile interests and enterprises. It is said that the best wives are born in this month, being always faithful and devoted. Great sincerity and power are possible for those born in this month. They rise to great heights and on the other hand are inclined to sink to the lowest depths. At times they are inclined to be melancholy, a tendency which they may overcome.

"Most February persons have good taste, are quick at absorbing information, and intuitive. One of their great faults is that they are inclined to be intolerant and cannot make themselves think from another's point of view.

"Their most common diseases are of the nervous and rheumatic orders. They should guard their actions on the ninth and sixteenth day of each month. Luck day, Saturday. Favorite colors, all shades of blue, pink, and Nile green. Lucky stones, sapphire, opal, or turquoise. Lucky numbers, 5 and 7. They will excel in music and art, and should marry with those born in October, January, or June."

Hardly less common than faith in the horoscope is belief in the detailed prophecies of palmistry. The following is a direct reproduction of paragraphs from a well-known metropolitan American newspaper, of the year 1915 (A. D.), headed, "What Your Fingers Mean:"

"Shorter palm and longer fingers, these show an aptitude for doing small things well. Their owners analyze everything, are supersensitive over trifles, often feeling unintentional slights. When these fingers are slim, as well as longer than the palm, they give to one the quality of diplomacy. Card sharps and gamblers have these long, slim, smooth fingers. The average-length fingers with an ordinary-sized palm show a well-balanced mind, with a thoroughly commonplace nature. When long fingers (with shorter palm) are knotted at the joints we find an extreme love for the minor parts of construction, whether it be in the building of a bridge or the endless tasks pertaining to a kitchen."

The same thing happens in the case of the individual's own acts. Every petty move and caper is taken to be significant of his future disposition, powers, or achievements. The first word the child utters, the first object for which he reaches, the animal he first imitates, the form of his earliest play activities, nothing that can be identified and described but comes to possess, in someone's mind, some peculiar significance and prognostic value. "Homely in the cradle, lovely at the table," is an oft-quoted maxim among hopeful mothers. "Happy is the bride that the sun shines on," has doubtless served to postpone more than one nuptial ceremony, and being "born under an unlucky star" has equally often afforded a certain consolation for personal awkwardness. A father of the writer's acquaintance believed his boy destined to follow the career of a druggist or pharmacologist, because, as a child, "he was so fond of playing with bottles and of pouring water from one into the other." Any lack of submissive devotion to a rubber doll is calculated to fill the parent's heart with apprehension and dire forebodings for the domestic peace of his daughter. War-babies and infants born on the high seas are envied for their romantic prospects. Illegitimate children are expected to be idiotic or else to be especially gifted with some poetic form of talent.

Belief in vocational magic and clairvoyance is clearly not entirely confined to medieval days. Nor is it true that such instances as those just cited arise only as material for frivolous conversations or as journalistic space-fillers in a dearth of more serious copy. So firmly are these superstitions established among large classes of people that special legislation is required to prevent their exploitation at the hands of crafty fakers. The fortune-teller is far from being a romantic and vestigial institution; and the type of prophecy which medieval clairvoyance represents continues to provide many with a substitute for more rigorous and less exciting inquiry.

MODERN PERIOD OF GUIDANCE AND SELECTION

However, as knowledge develops, a third stage is reached, in which we may be said to be moving, even though somewhat slowly, in our own scientific and educational work. This stage is marked by relative inattention to the series of physical events and by special emphasis on the original nature of the individual and on changes wrought in that original nature through the experiences of school life and other forms of educational process. The conditions and environmental factors of life have become so plastic that individuals can fairly easily find congenial environment and occupational material near at home or far from it, if only they know for what environment and material their natural powers are best adapted. Modern life, whether in city or in country, has become so diversified and labor so divided, that a small community affords the vocational variety which only a few years ago was quite unfamiliar to it. Moreover, the various avenues of communication, transportation and co?peration have become so elaborate that workers in one part of a nation can with little difficulty profit by activities and opportunities existing in distant places. Each branch of industry, commerce and art, as well as each professional and occupational activity, provides not only for a larger number of workers but for a greater variety as well. There is thus a tendency for the individual at an early point in his career, not only to adapt himself to an environment already provided, but to a certain degree to select that environment for which his abilities and interests seem best to fit him.

Attempts at controlling fortune, as now exercised, are neither magical nor clairvoyant. They take the rational, selective form of fitting the individual to the place for which his natural aptitudes best adapt him, so far as these facts of adaptability are discoverable, and so far as the environment is plastic or optional. This is at least the description of the process in democratic conditions of society. In countries in which hereditary aristocracy and caste systems still exist, the fortune of the individual is determined to a considerable extent by his birthright, by the occupation of his father, above all by sex-all dominated by tradition. Within this field of guidance and selection, activity has developed rather independently in two different directions. There has been on the one hand the notion that all the individual needs for a satisfactory occupational adjustment is knowledge of available opportunities, and appropriate technical training for the occupation of his choice. This point of view is seen in our own country in the popularizing of general education.

Under this conception general education, instead of being the prerogative of the ruling or moneyed class, is urged as a common right, a social duty and an economic necessity. Learning is not limited to those who expect to enter the theological, medical, legal, or academic professions. A certain amount of elementary school-knowledge, or at least of school-attendance, comes to be required of every prospective worker. Even the feeble-minded are labored with in the attempt to bring them up to their highest possible academic level. Boys and girls alike are not only urged but compelled to equip themselves with the knowledge of the elementary formal subjects; and the community taxes itself to furnish the teachers, the books, and the necessary physical paraphernalia. In this earlier form of educational theory little effort is made to give immediate applicability to the subject-matter of the curriculum. Classical studies with very little relevance to contemporary life; dead languages, with only a feeble claim to concrete serviceability; formal exercises in designing and constructing useless bric-a-brac; trivial geographical, astronomical, anatomical, and military details: these are the subject-matter of the "general education." Back of their selection lies of course the doubtful conception that the general powers or faculties of the student are thereby cultivated, and that these may then be brought to bear effectively on any vocational activity which may be chosen.

The subject-matter is selected, not because of its interest or its utility, but mainly because of its difficulty and its formal character. Parental compulsion, vague social tendencies and impulses, petty personal rivalries, fondness for the teacher, and general cultural aspiration are relied on to facilitate the work of administration and to provide incentive. The "life-career" motive is but little utilized, and tends on the whole to be discouraged as sordid and commercial. But it is nevertheless believed that the grammatical, geographical, historical, and arithmetical elements will in the long run enable the pupil not only to enjoy life but to find it as well, or at least to be of the greatest possible service in the work into which he or she drifts. Only in the case of those who are utterly incompetent to deal with the general subject-matter, the feeble-minded, the blind, and the deaf, is this formal education willingly abandoned in favor of some definitely serviceable "industrial" training.

THE METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

Quickly following this effort of the public schools to guide every boy and a few girls into successful careers through general education, came the realization that literary, linguistic, and mathematical information alone is inadequate to this task. It was felt by many that industrial or vocational education, calculated to fit the individual directly for his or her life occupation, should be begun at a much earlier age than that at which the group choosing the professions entered upon their further studies in the higher technical schools. It became obvious that many pupils terminated their public-school education as soon as they had satisfied the minimal requirements of the compulsory education law. These engaged at the earliest possible opportunity in some immediately gainful occupation. The occupations into which they commonly drifted were such as called for only a slight amount of intelligence and promised proportionately little by way of further equipment or promotion. They have come to be called "blind alley" occupations, and refer to such work as that of errand boys, elevator and telephone operators, small clerks, domestic servants, nursemaids, messengers, delivery boys, and teamsters.

Meanwhile those who had continued in school and completed the high-school curriculum emerged without special vocational fitness, and even without any knowledge of the vocational possibilities of their age and locality. The further development of vocational and industrial education of special sorts was then supplemented by general instruction in the vocational opportunities available. Vocational surveys were initiated for the purpose of acquiring information which could be placed in the hands of pupils and of those in charge of their training. These surveys made systematic inquiry into the vocational opportunities afforded to young people by the industries and enterprises of the vicinity. The assistance of employers was sought in the effort to learn the requirements of the various types of work; the nature of the labor involved; the wages; the general conditions, such as healthfulness, danger, companionship, and instruction; the rate of promotion; the prospect of future advancement. Such information has in many cases been published in pamphlets and bulletins and thus made accessible to teachers, pupils, and parents.

Along with this tendency went the attempt to give the pupil some first-hand knowledge of and immediate experience with the materials, implements, and products of the various industries from among which he or she might be expected to choose after leaving the school. This has been a difficult step to bring about, partly because of the various technical and administrative difficulties which it involved. Occasional hasty visits to mills, factories, stores, shops, offices, laboratories, and similar busy places give the pupil but a superficial notion of the actual work of the operations there observed. More extended and intensive observation, on the other hand, with perhaps an actual trial at the work, means a corresponding limitation of the range of institutions inspected. Talks by managers and foremen are likely to give only a dramatized view of the facts. School industries, on the other hand, cannot easily be organized and conducted in a manner technically complete and industrially representative. The result has been a growing tendency to push the vocational training further and further back into the earlier years of the curriculum, thus displacing much of the purely formal subject-matter. With this change have come various experiments in study-practice methods, in which part of the day or term is spent at the general academic work, and part in actual service in a tentatively chosen form of industrial or commercial activity.

In this movement but little recognition was given to the psychological differences and peculiarities of the individuals concerned. Knowledge of personal aptitudes and capacities, interests, and satisfactions, was more or less taken for granted in each case, or at least left to develop in its own way. It was assumed either that any individual could satisfactorily pursue any vocation in which he might become interested, or else that industrial and vocational information alone was needed in order to enable the individual to make a suitable choice. Nor was there any doubt that the work which the youth found interesting and attractive at the time was the work in which he might find a maximum of ultimate success, satisfaction, and serviceableness. With the vocational surveys, the industrial schools, and the part-time practice methods of education we shall not be concerned, in what is to follow. They represent a movement of tremendous social and educational significance, but their development does not immediately concern that other field of work which we have designated "vocational psychology." They proceed mainly by giving the individual a knowledge of the external series of facts and events, thus replacing the era of fortune-telling and clairvoyance, with its search for signs and omens, just as fortune-telling had, in its own day, replaced the practices of crude objective magic. But the methods of industrial and occupational training have been found to solve only one aspect of the vocational problem; and it is more and more coming to be realized that a thorough understanding of the aptitudes which the individual brings to his work is as important as the knowledge of the opportunities which the environment affords. In the remainder of this book we shall be concerned with the various systematic efforts that have been made or are now being made to study the individual himself, and to judge from a determination of his mental characteristics the type of vocational activity which he is best fitted to undertake with success.

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THE RISE OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

The primitive magic, directed toward the formation of individual character, was displaced by the personal clairvoyance which attempted to diagnose the individual's mental and moral constitution on the basis of his own early acts, expressions, and physical characteristics. This soon gave way to a tendency to abandon, for the most part, such signs as did not relate in some actual or fancied way, to the individual's brain. This limitation of the field of significant signs may be related to the widespread interest in human physiology, historically associated with the knowledge of anatomy. The invention of the microscope, Harvey's proof of the circulation of the blood, the discussion centering about the automaton theory of Descartes, and the rapid development of surgical technique, brought about a most interesting spread of curiosity concerning the nature and mechanism of the human body. Balls and tournaments gave way to dissections and demonstrations as means of courtly entertainment. Celebrated surgeons exhibited their skill and knowledge, and lectured on the facts of physiology and anatomy in the formal presence of royalty and society. Court painters executed pictures such as "The Anatomy Lesson," some of them now cherished as famous masterpieces.

Especially keen became the interest in the skull and brain in which, as Descartes taught, might be found the seat of the soul. Among the earliest of the rough discoveries was that concerned with the localization of special sensory and motor functions of the organism in particular regions of the brain. It was observed that irritation of certain parts of the surface or "cortex" of the brain, in cases where a portion of the skull had been removed, was followed by movement of particular parts of the body, and that individuals who had suffered from injury to certain parts of the brain seemed, on recovery, to be quite their usual selves, except that certain special capacities, as for instance the function of speech, were interfered with or quite destroyed. The unitary soul, described by Descartes as probably having its seat in the pineal gland, now bade fair to disintegrate into various minor faculties, each with its separate brain mechanism and its particular abode in some region of the skull.

The discovery of these elementary facts of brain localization was at once hit upon with zeal by those most interested in the means of foresight into human fortunes. Ignoring the fact that the localized features were simply the control of other parts of the body, as eyes, ears, limbs, speech organs, and the like, these enthusiasts leaped to the conclusion that every trait of character and every mental aptitude, every virtue and vice, ability, interest and capacity, had each its own shelf or pew in the brain area. Moreover, it was taken for granted that the relative development of these various characteristics was indicated by the depressions, projections and proportions of the skull bones. Here was light indeed on the destinies of men, their fitnesses and propensities, their appropriate choice of work and play! The enthusiasm and ardor that went into the elaboration of the new clairvoyance of phrenology would have meant most valuable increase in our knowledge of brain physiology had it been directed exclusively toward further legitimate inquiry. But the urgent desire for control and foresight was too great for practice to keep the slow pace of scientific fact.

Hastily the prophets drew up complicated and minute maps of the surface of the cranium and assigned to each recognizable patch some "faculty" which stood for an important mental or moral trait. Casual examination of the skulls of friends who chanced to possess particularly marked traits to an extreme degree was in some cases relied on to give guidance in the assignment of these patches to the respective traits. In some of the schemes the human traits conceived were so numerous that the bilateral symmetry and functions of the brain were ignored, and the two sides of the skull were assigned quite different functions. Thus arose phrenology, one of the most persistent fallacies of vocational analysis. This movement was founded by Gall and Spurzheim, two physicians and anatomists, in the latter part of the eighteenth century.[1] With the customary na?veté of the medical science of their time, they overestimated the significance of casual observations and fragmentary discoveries, and thus gave impetus to the exaggerated and extravagant claims made by their enthusiastic followers. "Phrenological societies" developed so rapidly and so widely that the movement became relatively independent of the scientific investigations which should have served to qualify and criticize its doctrines. Its propaganda were so vigorous and the practical needs which it promised to satisfy were so insistent, that even today many people hold tenaciously to its dicta. Scores of professionals thrive on their lucrative practice of its dogmas, and university graduates smile in a guilty way when asked, "Do you believe in phrenology?"

The tenacious persistence of phrenology, the degree to which it is resorted to and paid for by inquiring and earnest seekers after satisfactory paths through life, make it seem worth while to present a brief statement of the numerous errors and flagrant stupidities on which the practice of phrenology is based. It may also be worth while to suggest some of the rather interesting subsidiary reasons for its persistence as a cherished popular delusion and even as a topic for current scientific discussions and papers.

THE ASSUMPTIONS AND ERRORS OF PHRENOLOGY

Underlying all of the various phrenological systems were four common assumptions which briefly stated, were:

1. That such cerebral localization as exists is of fundamental and specific traits of character or types of ability, such as secretiveness, circumspection, love of babies, generosity, veneration, constructiveness, etc.

2. That the more developed any one of these given traits is, the larger will be the supposed area of the brain which contains its supposed organ.

3. That, since the skull fits fairly closely to the brain surface, the relative development of a given portion of the brain will be indicated by the relative prominence or size of the different parts of the cranium, so that the degree of possession of the trait may be judged from an examination of the exterior of the skull.

4. That the occasional casual observation of coincidence between particularly marked mental qualities and particular cranial characteristics is a sufficient basis for inferring universal and necessary connection between these two features.

Each of these assumptions involves obvious error and misapprehension in the light of what is now known concerning the nature of the human mind and the structure and functions of the brain. In order that these fallacies may be clearly disclosed the four main assumptions will be examined independently in the order in which we have here presented them.

1. In the first place, the only sort of localization of functions that has been authentically established is the projection, upon the brain structure, of the other parts of the organism, and the localization of sensory-motor centers which function in the connection of these various organs. Thus it is known that each of the principal groups of muscles of the body has its so-called center in the brain. From this part of the brain to the muscles concerned run bundles of motor-nerve fibers, so that activity in that particular part of the brain may result in the conduction of nervous impulses to these muscles, and in their consequent contraction. Thus the hand, the foot, the eyes, the speech-organs, etc., may be said to be functionally represented, and in this sense localized, in particular regions of the brain. The same thing is true of the sense-organs, as the eye, ear, etc. Each incoming sensory nerve tract runs to or through some portion of the brain. Injury to this part of the brain results in functional incapacity of the corresponding sense-organ. The cortex, or outer surface of the brain, may thus be conceived as a sort of terminal station for nerves from other portions of the organism, a sort of projection-center which enables them all to take part in a functional unity of action. The functions which can be said in this sense to be localized in the brain are such sensory-motor capacities as the ability to raise the right arm, the ability to balance the body when standing erect with eyes closed, the ability to see, the ability to move the eyeball, the ability to feel pain in a certain area of the skin, the ability to articulate words, to understand spoken or written language, to call up a visual memory of a particular thing previously seen, etc.

The integrity of various parts of the brain is essential to the proper co?rdination of all the sensibilities and responses of the individual. Traits of character and types of ability, however, depend on the characteristic modes of reaction of the organism as a whole to the factors of its environment. Thus generosity as a human trait does not depend on the massiveness of any set of muscles, nor on the keenness of any sense-organ, but upon the characteristic type of reaction and motivation which the individual as a whole displays. Jealousy, love of children, destructiveness, etc., are characteristic modes of behavior of the whole organism, and depend upon reactions which the given situation evokes, and not upon some special organ.

2. As to the supposed correspondence between size and functional capacity, no evidence has been presented which demonstrates that even the strength of a muscle or the keenness of a sense-organ depends in any way on the absolute size of the brain-area concerned with it. Nor has evidence been presented to prove the existence, within any given species, of correlation between volume, shape, or weight of the brain-tissues and even the more general traits of character or ability. In the absence of such evidence we are led to believe that functional capacity depends on complexity of structure, chemical, molecular, and functional, rather than on the factors of mass or shape. But even the nature of these correlations is as yet largely unknown. The persistence of the faith in the significance of mass and shape probably rests in part on the apparent existence of such correlation when different species are roughly compared with one another. Thus, among the higher vertebrates there seems to be a relation between what we may call the general intelligence of the species and the erect carriage of the body. From the quadrupeds, with their horizontal position, through the apes, with their semiperpendicular mode of life, to the human being, with his erect carriage, there is also a progression in prominence of the forehead, opposition of thumb and finger, relatively greater development of the cerebral mass, and also in mental capacity. The intelligent human being walks in a more erect posture than does the stupid ape. But no one has ventured to assert that a relation exists between erectness of carriage and mental ability when human beings are compared with one another, or when apes are compared with one another. Similarly in the case of the physical features of the brain, the crude relationships which exist empirically, as between different species, seem to be quite slight in significance when compared with the differences in chemical, molecular and functional complexity which are found among members of the same species. Attempts to discover correlations between mental and moral characteristics and various brain constants we may expect to continue for a long time. What discoveries may be in store for us we do not know. But the important point in the present connection is that, for the purposes of vocational psychology, the practices of phrenology are based on evidence no more relevant to its pretensions than were the "proofs" pointed to by palmistry, horoscopy, and prenatal magic. Through cranial measurements alone it is impossible to determine with certainty the race, age, or sex of an individual, or even, indeed, whether he was a prehistoric savage, an idiot, or a gorilla.

3. As for the third assumption of phrenology, namely, that brain development is reflected in the cranial size or protuberances, it should be sufficient to point out that even if this were so it would be meaningless for our purpose, since we are compelled to abandon the belief in a relation between mass of tissue and even the simplest sensory or motor capacity. But such further disproof as may be required is readily furnished by an actual attempt to remove from their cranial boxes the brains of various animals, and by noting that the shape and thickness of the bones gives little indication as to whether brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, or supporting tissues are to be found underneath a given protuberance or depression.

4. The fourth assumption of phrenology, that sparse and casual observation of striking cases is sufficient ground for generalization, we should be able to dismiss at once as utterly inadequate and miscalculated. It is impossible to find consistent recorded instances in which groups of individuals, selected at random, with definitely determined and measured mental or moral characteristics, have been shown to confirm, by their cranial geography, even the most elementary doctrines of that phrenology which still offers to diagnose the individual's psychic constitution and to commend to his future consideration the vocation of engineering, publishing, or preaching, as the case may be. Practicing phrenologists have repeatedly been invited to submit one bit of objective evidence for their pretensions, or to submit themselves to tests under controlled conditions. The invitations are refused, and the inquirer is referred instead to the dogma of some foreign and deceased authority. Such investigations as have been recorded have resulted in negative conclusions, or in contradictory data, or in coefficients with such high probable errors as to make the figures unreliable.

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF PHYSIOGNOMY

Very often practicing phrenologists and phrenological vocational experts seek to justify their operations and pretensions by pointing out that they do not rely solely on the cranial geography, but more often on other characteristics of the individual's body, such as the concavity or convexity of his profile, the shape of his jaw, the texture of his skin, the shape of his hands, the color of his hair and eyes, the proportions of his trunk, etc. Contemporary vocational counsellors who have enjoyed considerable vogue and commercial repute are especially given to citing these criteria; several recently published tables of these clues are available. Historically, the attempts to formulate principles of physiognomy antedate phrenology by many centuries. Logically, however, physiognomy follows phrenology, as a transition from the formulation of structure to the formulation of behavior. There is a very widespread belief that many mental and moral characteristics betray themselves in special facial items. The shifting eye, lofty brow, massive jaw, thin lips, large ear, protruding or receding chin, dimple, wrinkle, tilted nose, thin skin, prominent veins, and many other characteristics have come, in fiction and in table-talk, to symbolize specific characteristics. The same thing is true of the shuffling gait, the erect body, the protruding paunch, the curved shoulders, enlarged knuckles, stubby or elongated fingers, the short neck, the long arm, and the manner and rate of stride. It is but a step from these to the signs afforded by clothing, its selection, care, and mode of wearing.

Here is indeed a most confused mass of fact and fancy which finds credence in varying degrees on diverse occasions. Seldom has it been analyzed into the definite types of material which it really contains, and its evaluation is commonly left to the haphazard opinion of each individual. There is no doubt that we all tend to form our opinion of a stranger's probable characteristics partly on the basis of these physiognomic, physical, and sartorial factors. To what degree can these items be formulated so as to afford reliable criteria in the analysis of personality, as in the case of vocational selection and employment? We may perhaps best answer this question by noting the various sources of the belief in the validity of physiognomic and similar signs.

1. It is first of all true that many of these marks are the result of habitual activity, and in so far as they originate in the expression of a trait, they may be said to be signs of it. That the studious come to be round-shouldered, the cheerful to have smooth countenances, the guilty to have furtive eye-movements, may well be expected. But it is quite another thing to reverse the proposition and to take stooped shoulders as a universal sign of academic interests, dimples as a sign of guilelessness, and nystagmus as the symptom of a criminal past. It is, however, often safe to use these traits as reliable signs of the established general habits and attitude which they express. We have all done this since earliest childhood; yet any attempt to classify formally the signs and effects of habit and constant expression would be pedantic. Unfortunately for the purposes of vocational guidance of youth, these expressions require for their formation habits of fairly long standing, and the critical period for psychological guidance is likely to be passed long before these settled habits have set the features into their identifiable molds.

Somewhat more hopeful is the reliance on expressive movements as indicative of passing and transient emotional states and attitudes. Not easily can we conceal from the astute observer the momentary passion that may be stirring us. Prolonged intimate acquaintance with an individual's emotional experiences and expressions may in time reveal to such an observer the deeper lying and more permanent affective trends, the moods and sentiments which indicate what we are accustomed to call the temperament of the individual. Insight into the nature of these expressive movements is one of the useful things to be derived from long and patient study of human nature, both at first hand and through the classical descriptions of emotional expression. The more one observes and the more individuals he observes, the more he is impressed with the final variety and informal complexity of these expressive movements, and their dependence on a vast detail of circumstance, which again forbid rule-of-thumb formulation.

2. Another apparent source of these beliefs is in analogy. The clammy hand, the fishy eye, the bull neck, the "blotting paper" voice, the asinine ear, the willowy figure, the feline tread, and scores of such phrases indicate that these characteristics remind us definitely of various species or objects other than the human being, and that we expect to find back of them the characteristic traits, habits, and instinctive tendencies of those species. We seldom proceed so far as to check up our expectations with facts, under controlled conditions.

3. The affective value of these analogies and their incorporation in poetry, song, and fiction as adequate figures of speech lead us to react to these traits in ways determined largely by the traditional usage. We are humble before the "high-brow," merry in the presence of the dimpled, cautious and prudent before him of the shifting eye. In so far as human reactions are determined by the implied expectations of associates and the demands of immediate circumstances, we should be surprised indeed if the "high-brow" did not, on the strength of his cranium, evade our office-door sentinel, the dimpled one respond to our facetious comment, and he of the shifting eye be forced to steal for a living.

4. Another source of these notions is mainly responsible for such of them as refer to definitely undesirable traits. This is the belief, so well played upon by the school of Lombroso in criminology, that many of these characteristics, along with the so-called physical stigmata, are indicative of a degenerative or atavistic trend in the constitution of the individual. Among these stigmata were enumerated every conceivable extreme variation of every identifiable part of the human anatomy. Lombroso was inclined to believe not only that the presence of such traits was a certain mark of criminal propensities, but even that various types of criminals could be recognized by the cataloging of their stigmata, as thieves, murderers, forgers, etc. The history of the criticism of this view need not be repeated here. Suffice it to say that we now understand that the underlying truth of the matter is only that these stigmata are somewhat more frequent among the vicious, degenerate, and defective groups than they are among people selected on the basis of their morality and intelligence. The criminally inclined individual may possess no stigmata, while an Abraham Lincoln may possess several of them, and in marked degree. To be sure, when an unusual number of stigmata are presented by an individual, we feel disposed to suspect that the abnormal condition is not confined to his bones and peripheral organs alone, but is probably so deep-seated as to involve his nervous system as well. But on the basis of these stigmata alone we are quite unable to decide whether he is an imbecile, a degenerate criminal, a pervert, a genius, or only an average man, with an undue burden of physical infirmity; still less can we diagnose his special mental or moral qualities.

5. A further source of these physiognomic beliefs may be discerned: namely, the fact that the features of a stranger are very likely to call more or less clearly to our memory some other acquaintance whose traits we know, to our sorrow perhaps, and whose features or manner or voice or apparel chance to be very similar to that of the stranger. At once we are inclined to endow the stranger with the character of the individual he resembles. We seldom accurately check up these impressions on the basis of subsequent discovery. Indeed we are much more likely to evoke the suspected traits by our own attitude and by our treatment of the stranger, and we are eager to pounce upon any act that may be construed as a confirmation of our snap judgment. It is obvious that these impressions will vary from individual to individual and that any attempt to formulate them would expose their fallaciousness.

6. Finally, in this analysis of the origin of our belief in the signs of physiognomy, is the mere insistence that as a matter of fact there are definite relationships discoverable and formulable between typical features and typical characteristics of personality. Beliefs of this dogmatic kind are most likely to be exploited by the professional counsellor, since they appear to the examinee to be unknown, mysterious, esoteric facts. The following formulations, taken from an account of the performance of one of the most widely advertised of professional vocational counsellors, may serve as an example of this type of dogmatic physiognomic doctrine.

"The sensitive, delicate-minded man usually has a fine-textured skin; the coarse-minded man a coarse-textured skin. It is an embryological fact that the skin was and is the original seat of all sensations, and that spinal cords and nerves are but modified and specialized in-turned skin. Of necessity a man's skin indicates the texture of his brain.

"Texture is a great classifier of humanity. The individual of fine hair, fine-textured skin, delicately chiseled features, slender, graceful body and limbs, as a general rule, is refined, loves beauty and grace, and likes work either purely mental in its nature or offering an opportunity to handle fine, delicate materials and tools. On the other hand the man with coarse hair, coarse-textured skin, and large, strongly formed features inclines as a general rule to occupations in which strength, vigor, virility, and ability to live and work in the midst of harsh, rough and unbeautiful conditions are prime requirements.

"It is no secret to observant employers of labor that blondes, as a general rule, are changeable, variety loving, optimistic, and speculative, while brunettes are consistent, steady, dependable, serious, and conservative."

"It turns out as one might naturally expect that the man who resembles the greyhound in form is quicker, keener, more responsive, and less enduring than the man who resembles the bulldog in form.

"A most cursory examination of the portraits of poets, educators, and essayists will show a marked tendency in them to resemble the triangle in structure of the head and body-both head and body wide above and narrower in the lower portions. An examination of the portraits of a hundred great generals, pioneers, builders, engineers, explorers, athletes, automobile racers, a?ronauts, and others who lead a life of great activity will show a general tendency toward structure on the lines of the square-square face, square body, square hands. Reference to the portraits of great judges, financiers, organizers, and commercial kings will show a general tendency toward structure upon the lines of the circle-round face, rounded body and a tendency to roundness in hands and limbs.

"Anything which is hard in consistency has comparatively great resistance and persistence. That which is elastic in consistency is adaptable and seems to have spring, life, and energy within it. These principles have been found to apply to human beings."

The existence of quite definite beliefs in these relations between character and physiognomy is readily shown by experiments in which groups of ten people were asked to arrange twenty photographs of women in an order of merit. On different occasions and by varying groups of mature college students, these photographs were arranged on the basis of seven different traits, viz.: intelligence, humor, perseverance, kindness, conceit, courage, and deceitfulness. Different judges show quite striking agreement in their estimates of the characteristics suggested by a given photograph. Thus, if the average position assigned to each photograph be taken as the standard and the divergences of the ten judges from this standard be averaged in the case of all the photographs, the average divergences for the different traits are as follows[2]:

Intelligence 2.86 places

Perseverance 3.32 "

Kindliness 3.55 "

Conceit 3.57 "

Courage 3.69 "

Humor 3.90 "

Deceitfulness 4.14 "

This means that in the long run a stranger will place a given individual in a group of twenty persons not over three or four positions away from the place to which other strangers would assign him. The individual's physiognomy, however little it may actually reveal of his personality, nevertheless suggests rather definite characteristics to those whom he meets, and to that degree determines their reaction toward him, expectations of him, and belief in him. The definiteness or agreement of these impressions seems also to vary with the trait in question; it is high for intelligence and perseverance, low for humor and deceitfulness, and intermediate for kindliness, conceit, and courage. Our own results, however, must be taken only as suggestive, rather than as general, since they may easily have been determined partly by the particular set of photographs we used and by our particular and diverse sets of judges.[3]

Results of this character, and many similar ones which we are accumulating, suggest, however, an interesting set of problems. It is psychologically as interesting to inquire just what impressions people actually receive from one's physiognomy and expression, as it is to ask whether these impressions are correct. One's ultimate vocational accomplishment often depends on the first impression he creates, the type of reception his appearance invites, even though there may be no necessary connection whatever between appearance and mental constitution. Vocational success depends not only on the traits one really possesses, but also somewhat on the traits one is believed to possess.

It is also interesting to observe that high correlations exist between some of the traits as judged merely on the basis of photographs. Let 1.00 be taken to indicate complete correspondence between two orders of merit, so that the highest in the one scale is also the highest in the other scale, the second in one the second in the other, and so on; then -1.00 will indicate a completely reversed order, the best in one class being the poorest in the other, etc.; a coefficient of 0 will mean only a chance relationship, i. e., none at all. Then from 1.00 through 0 to -1.00 we have represented all possible degrees of correspondence.[4] These figures are called "coefficients of correlation," and can easily be computed by proper statistical methods. In the present case the coefficients for all combinations of two traits are as follows:

Intelligence Humor Perseverance Kindliness Conceit Courage

Humor .47

Perseverance .88 .33

Kindliness .76 .65 .39

Conceit .28 -.03 .08 -.56

Courage .89 .43 .79 .72 -.25

Deceitfulness -.11 -.28 -.02 -.69 .66 -.49

It will be seen that the intelligent, humorous, persevering, kindly, and courageous countenances tend to be the same ones, and that the faces suggesting the opposites or low degrees of these traits also tend to be very much the same ones. This is indicated by the high positive coefficients between these traits. But conceit and deceitfulness show negative or very low positive correlation with all traits except each other. In this latter case the correlation is positive and high (.66). Other interesting relations between these judgments of character can be inferred from the table of coefficients. But it should be remembered that we are not here dealing with traits as demonstrably present, but only as judged on the basis of facial characteristics and expression. The actual relation between the physiognomic details and the true character of the individual displaying them is a totally different matter. The close correlations between the several desirable traits and between the several undesirable traits, as found in this table of coefficients, seem to have a further significance and suggest that the observers do not judge each trait on the basis of particular and specific physiognomic details. They seem, rather, to get a general impression of favorableness or unfavorableness, and to rank the photographs on the basis of this general impression, no matter which trait is being judged.

It is a common practice for employers, superintendents, agencies, etc., to request the applicant for a position to send his or her photograph for inspection. The urgency of some of these requests and the emphasis placed on them seem to indicate that the photograph is believed to be valuable not only for its service in revealing the general features but also for some further and more specific indications which it affords. Very few attempts seem to have been made to test actually the value of judgments of character when they are based on photographs rather than on acquaintance. Experiments recently conducted yield some interesting preliminary data on this question. The question proposed was: "What relation exists between the judgments which strangers form, on the basis of an individual's photograph, and the judgments which acquaintances make on the basis of daily familiarity and long observation?"[5]

All the members of a group of college women were judged by twenty-four of their associates, for a number of more or less definite characteristics. The twenty-five individuals constituting the group were arranged in an order of merit for each trait, by each of the twenty-four judges. Only one arrangement, for one trait, was made by any one judge within a given week. The judgments were thus distributed over a considerable interval so that judgments for one trait might influence as slightly as possible the judgments of later traits. All these twenty-four judgments were then averaged for each trait, and the final position of each person in each trait thus determined by the consensus of opinion of the judges. This measure is then a combined estimate on the basis of actual conduct and behavior.

Photographs of all the members of the group were then secured, all of them taken by the same photographer, in the same style and size. These photographs were now judged, by a group of twenty-five men and a group of twenty-five women, all of whom were totally unacquainted with the individuals who were being judged. These strangers arranged the photographs in order of merit for the various traits of character, just as the earlier group of judges had arranged the names of the members of the group, with all of whom they were acquainted. The various arrangements of the photographs were then averaged, yielding for each photograph an average position in each trait. We thus have three measures of the group of college women: (1) the judgments of their intimate associates; (2) the judgments of twenty-five men, on the basis of photographs, and (3) the judgments of twenty-five women, on the basis of photographs. All of these measures may be compared with each other, and correlated so as to show their respective amounts of correspondence. The results are as follows:

Trait Judgments by Associates Compared with the Judgments of the Photographs

By 25 Men By 25 Women Average

Neatness .03 .07 .05

Conceit .10 .27 .19

Sociability .29 .29 .29

Humor .21 .45 .33

Likeability .30 .45 .38

Intelligence .42 .61 .51

Refinement .50 .52 .51

Beauty .60 .49 .55

Snobbishness .58 .53 .56

Vulgarity .61 .69 .65

Average .36 .43 .40

The correspondence between judgments of acquaintance and judgments of photographs is seen to vary with the trait in question. Such traits as neatness, conceit, sociability, humor, and likeability, important as they are for vocational success or failure, show very low correlation. The judgments of the photographs tell almost nothing at all of the nature of the impression which the individual makes on her acquaintances, her true character. With the remaining traits-beauty, intelligence, refinement, snobbishness, and vulgarity-the coefficients are considerably larger, and suggest that the photographs tend to be judged by the strangers in somewhat the same way as the individuals are judged by their acquaintances.

Two points of special importance should be noted in this connection. The first is that these correlations are not between the judgments of single individuals. It is the combined or group judgment of twenty-five judges which is required to yield these coefficients which even then average only about .40 correlation with the estimates of associates. The following table shows the ability of ten judges, chosen at random, to estimate these characteristics through the examination of the photographs. In securing this table the arrangement made by each individual judge was correlated with the established order as determined by the estimates of associates, in the case of the three traits-intelligence, neatness and sociability.

Judge Individual Correctness of Judges in Estimating

Intelligence Neatness Sociability

I .51 .11 .39

II .11 .10 .08

III .15 .29 .05

IV -.27 .06 .49

V .08 .24 .08

VI .43 .41 .28

VII .04 .11 .02

VIII .39 -.09 .32

IX .22 -.08 .00

X .30 .02 .55

Average .19 .11 .22

These random samples of individual judicial capacity show at once how unreliable individual judgment is in these matters. The individual judges vary widely among themselves and they also depart widely from the established order. Moreover, a judge who may happen to show a reasonable degree of correctness in judging sociability may be very far away from correctness in judging the other traits, or may, indeed, judge in quite the reverse of the correct order. To have accepted the verdicts of a single judge would not only have been manifestly unfair to the individual but also hazardous to the employer. The combined impressions of twenty-five judges is here required for the correlations for even half of the traits to reach over .38.

The second point to be noted is that even under these circumstances the coefficients are far from perfect, even for those traits in which they are the highest. Only if beauty, snobbishness, or vulgarity are the traits which are crucial, are judgments of the photographs reliable enough to be worth considering. It would appear that the vocations which depend markedly on these characteristics are exceedingly few. And even here, although the reliance on coefficients of .55 might in all probability aid the employer in decreasing the percentage of the snobbish or the vulgar among his employees, grave injustice would most certainly be done to those many individuals who constitute exceptions and keep the correlations from being perfect. Only when correlation coefficients are very high can their indications be applied in the guidance of individuals (as distinguished from the selection of groups) with safety and justice.

Dean Schneider reports an attempt to verify the principles of a certain system of physiognomics by putting them to an actual test. He writes:

"A group in the scientific management field affirmed that an examination of physical characteristics such as the shape of the fingers and shape of the head, disclosed aptitudes and abilities. For example, a directive, money-making executive will have a certain shaped head and hand. A number of money-making executives were picked at random and their physical characteristics charted. We do not find that they conform at all to any law. Also we found men who had the physical characteristics that ought to make them executives, but they were anything but executives. A number of tests of this kind gave negative results. We were forced to the conclusion that this system was not reliable."

We must content ourselves on this point by insisting that the formulated facts of physiognomy are so unsupported, contradictory, and extravagant that the vocational psychologist cannot afford to trifle with them. General impressions on the basis of the totality of an individual's appearance, bearing, and behavior we shall always tend to receive. Whether one judges more accurately by an analytic recording of each detail or by ignoring these in favor of his own more or less unanalyzed total impression has never been demonstrated. Under any circumstances one is likely to look about for such details as may lend support to the total impression. But it is quite unjustifiable-though perhaps commercially expedient-to pretend that the judgment is really based on the details selected.

The life of him who bases his expectations of human conduct on the physiognomy of his neighbors is bound to be full of delightful as well as fearful surprises. I shall never forget the practical lesson in the principles of physiognomics I learned when watching a shipload of immigrants pass the physical and mental examinations at Ellis Island. Admission to the new land, and to the theater of their vocational plans, depended on the results of these examinations. Ellis Island is perhaps the one place in the world where principles of individual psychology are most in demand, and where such principles as are relied on lead to results of the most serious human consequences. I watched the line file past the preliminary gate, by the inspectors who scrutinized them still more carefully, and on into the inner room where the suspected ones were submitted to more searching examination. One young woman stood out among her companions as easily the most comely and attractive of the women. She was the only one of that shipload who was finally certified as an imbecile, and refused admission to the mainland.

The physiognomic analyses, then, do not merit serious consideration as instruments of vocational guidance and selection. The mere facts of physical structure, contour, shape, texture, proportion, color, etc., yield no more information concerning capacities and interests than did the incantations of the primitive medicine-man or the absurd charts of the phrenologists. In so far as character and ability may be determined by facts of structure, it is by the minute structure of the microscopic elements of the brain and other vital tissues, about which we now know exceedingly little. We shall therefore dismiss from further consideration the futile attempts to diagnose mental constitution on the basis of bodily structure, and turn to the more reliable and scientifically conceived methods of inferring the individual's mental traits from his behavior or his actual performance when tests are made under controlled conditions.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] An interesting review of the origin and development of phrenology and other systems of character analysis is given by Joseph Jastrow, in an article in Popular Science Monthly, June, 1915.

[2] To make clear the way in which these figures are secured, and to show concretely what they mean, suppose that the twenty photographs are lettered A, B, C, D, etc. They are to be arranged in an order by each judge according to his judgment of the intelligence of the individuals, the individuals being unknown to the judges. Suppose that the ten judges place photograph A respectively in the following positions: 9, 11, 5, 8, 9, 12, 7, 8, 7, 14. The average of these ten positions is 9, which we then take as the standard or most probable position of photograph A. Only two of the judges actually place A in the ninth position. The other eight judges all vary more or less from this position. We then find how much each judge varies from the average of the group, and the ten variations are respectively 0, 2, 4, 1, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 5 positions. The average of these individual variations is 2.0 positions. This figure indicates how closely the ten judges agree in their estimates of photograph A, a small average deviation indicating close agreement. In this way we find for each of the twenty photographs its average deviation; and if the twenty figures thus secured are in their turn averaged we secure an approximate measure of the disagreement of the judges when estimating the intelligence suggested by the photographs. Similarly we may compute average deviations for any other trait which is judged. These final figures are the ones which are given in the table, each of them being the average of twenty photographs as judged by ten persons.

[3] In such experiments the actual magnitude of the measure of variation becomes larger as the number of judges is reduced, the number of photographs increased, or the photographs so selected as to resemble one another more closely.

[4] Since such coefficients of correlation will be frequently used throughout the book as measures of the amount of correspondence or relationship between two things, it may be well at this point to indicate briefly how they are computed. Suppose that, as arranged in order on the basis of their final averages, the photographs stand in the following positions for the two traits-courage and kindliness.

Photo Courage Kindliness d d2

A 2 5 3 9 When the several values

under d2 are added their

sum is 376. This,

multiplied by 6, according

to the formula, gives 2256.

The denominator of the

fraction is, since there

are 20 cases, 7980. Dividing

2256 by 7980 gives us

.28; for 7980 is

20 times 399, which

in turn is 202-1.

When this is subtracted from

1.00 it gives us .72,

which is the measure

of correlation between the

two orders. Since it

is very high it suggests that

the two traits are judged

in much the same way.

B 5 1 4 16

C 10 13 3 9

D 1 4 3 9

E 7 6 1 1

F 11 8 3 9

G 14 10 4 16

H 20 15 5 25

I 16 12 4 16

J 4 2 2 4

K 8 14 6 36

L 3 3 0 0

M 12 20 8 64

N 15 11 4 16

O 17 18 1 1

P 9 7 2 4

Q 6 17 9 81

R 13 9 4 16

S 18 16 2 4

T 19 19 0 0

A formula is provided by mathematicians which enables us to compute the degree of resemblance between these two orders. There are, in fact, several formulae for such purposes, all of which yield substantially the same results. The one used in this case was r = 1.00-(6Σd2)/(n(n2-1)). In this formula r stands for the coefficient of correlation for which we are working; d is the difference between the positions which each of the photographs receives in the two traits; Σ means the sum of these differences when each has been squared or multiplied by itself; n means the number of cases, which is in this case 20, since there are that number of photographs. When these substitutions are made and the equation solved, the result will be the measure of resemblance, which will lie somewhere between +1.00 and -1.00, as explained in the text. This calculation is carried out here for the two sample traits, for the convenience of readers who may not be familiar with statistical methods.

[5] These experiments were conducted by Lucy G. Cogan, M. A., to whom I am indebted for permission to use the results in advance of their more detailed publication in her forthcoming paper on "Judgments of Character on the Basis of Photographs."

* * *

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF TESTS

Barren as phrenology and physiognomics were of formulable and useful results, they nevertheless served the purpose of directing attention toward the study of individual differences in mental characteristics as a distinct branch of inquiry. The next step consisted in the semi-experimental plan of observing the individual's behavior under a variety of uncontrolled circumstances or on more carefully planned occasions, in the endeavor to secure more or less exact quantitative expressions of the degree to which he displayed certain types of ability. Underlying the various abilities and involved in them there were assumed to lie a limited number of faculties or powers of the mind. Each individual was conceived to possess much the same faculties, but in varying degrees or amounts or forms. Attention, memory, apperception, reasoning, will, feeling, etc., were the fundamental "faculties"; and differences in character were thought of as depending upon the varying amounts and interrelations of these fundamental faculties. In the endeavor to discover types of experiment which would measure these "faculties" it was found, in time, that a given "faculty" did not appear, on close examination, to be as unitary as it was formerly supposed to be. It was seen that to have a good memory for one kind of material did not at once signify a good memory for every sort of thing. Determination in one direction did not imply the general quality of resoluteness. It began to be realized that attention, memory, discrimination, and the other "faculties" are very much more highly specialized than these general names indicate. The unitary soul had early been split up into the list of "faculties" or categories, and now these in turn came each to be split up into finer and finer aptitudes and tendencies, until, in the radical reaction of recent years, we find the human mind described as made up of an infinite number of independent connections or bonds between more or less specific stimulus and more or less definite response. The old "faculties" came now to be looked on as descriptive terms for certain rather general and abstracted characteristics of these multitudinous and detailed reaction tendencies, rather than as in themselves agents or powers or forces, as they were formerly conceived.

During this change in theoretical description and continuing into our present era of compromise and revision, methods were developed of measuring the amount and quality, or, more simply conceived, the speed, strength and regularity of mental and motor ability. Beginning in the form of experiments on sensory discrimination, reaction time and imagery type, and combined with physiological measurements of motor strength, rapidity and fatigue, these experiments developed, in certain hands, into what are now known as "mental tests." Since the principle and method of mental and physical tests is the chief characteristic of the present status of vocational psychology, and since the work of the immediate future seems destined to develop mainly in this same direction, we may profitably consider at this point the history and development of the mental test. We may later take up the general principle and theory of the test as an instrument of psychological analysis and diagnosis, with special reference to the requirements and implications of such tests as may be of service in vocational psychology. We shall then be in position to review the special vocational tests that have as yet been proposed, to evaluate their outstanding results, and to point to some of the more immediate prospects and problems under consideration by those interested in the application of psychological tests in vocational analysis and guidance.

We may begin with an account of the first definite attempt to explore systematically the personality of individuals by the method of tests. The "Columbia Freshman Tests" are of especial interest in the history of vocational psychology, since in their formulation and plan explicit thought was given to the practical use to which the results of tests might be put by the individuals examined, and by the statistical study of the results by students of the subject. In 1894, under the guidance of Professor Cattell, there was instituted the plan of testing the students of Columbia College during their first and fourth academic years. A description of the tests employed was published by Cattell and Farrand in 1896, and a statistical study of results was published by Wissler in 1901.

The motive back of these tests is well expressed in the following paragraph which was also used as material for a test of logical memory:

"Tests such as we are now making are of value both for the advancement of science and for the information of the student who is tested. It is of importance for science to learn how people differ and on what factors these differences depend. If we can disentangle the complex influences of heredity and environment we may be able to apply our knowledge to guide human development. Then it is well for each of us to know in what way he differs from others. We may thus in some cases correct defects and develop aptitudes which we might otherwise neglect."

The nature of these Columbia tests and the method of recording and reporting them are indicated in the forms which were printed and used for this special purpose. (Samples of these are given in the Appendix.) They are given here not so much for the sake of the enumeration of the tests, since many of these are no longer in common use, but because of their historic interests for vocational psychology and because of the general plan outlined in them. In general this plan is that of accumulating measurements of a large number of individuals and thus showing each one how he compares with the normal or average, or where he stands in the general curve of distribution of the members of the group. These tests were applied to the same individuals on their entrance to and their graduation from college, in order to indicate changes that might have been made during the intervening period.

Especially interesting also are other blanks containing additional data, such as age, health, physical characteristics, physiognomic features, enumeration of stigmata, etc. In addition to the tests and measurements, the examiner, both before and after the interview, recorded his general impression of the individual, in the terms indicated on the blank form. We shall have occasion to refer to these judgments of general impression in more detail when we come to consider the use of the interview and the testimonial in vocational psychology. Account was also taken of the gymnasium records of the student, as to nationality, birth, parentage, habits, health, etc.

The Columbia tests may be thought of as representative of several similar projects developed in this country and in Germany, France and England by many workers. The names of Galton, Cattell, Kraepelin, Binet, Henri, and Jastrow stand out conspicuously in the early history of mental tests. The first step was thus the invention, description and trial of a great number of miscellaneous tests, with little analysis of the tests themselves, the nature of the functions tested by them, or their relation to each other. Aside from the strictly motor and physical tests those devised were mainly of so-called intellectual character: measurements of speed and accuracy with which certain definite tasks could be accomplished. They were, moreover, very simple in character, not necessarily related to the work of daily life, with only a single or but a few trials made on each individual. Tests of affective and volitional factors were slower in developing. Little account was taken of interests, instinctive and emotional characteristics, attitudes, adaptation, methods of attack, limits of ability after practice, or many other aspects of individuality which later work has shown to be important.

The next step in the development of tests consisted in the co?perative effort to standardize the nature and methods, the conditions and mode of record. Many hands had part in this process, until in recent years, through publication, comparison and discussion of the subject, fairly uniform principles of technique, record, and treatment of measures have been agreed upon. This made possible the comparison of results secured by different investigators, and facilitated the statistical treatment of the data, so that later work might profit by what had already been tried or accomplished by earlier workers. After many years of this sort of co?perative work, another series of studies was inaugurated to attempt what has come to be known as "testing the tests." These studies proceeded by examining into the degree to which the various tests correlate with each other, with other indications of the individual's ability, with age, sex, health, education, school standing, special training, etc. Such questions as the following will suggest the problems involved in "testing the tests."

1. Which of the various tests correlate with each other?

2. What correlation exists between mental and motor abilities?

3. Do the tests measure fundamental qualities or general powers of the individual, or specialized capacities, or perhaps mainly the effect of general or special training?

4. If they measure general qualities, which of the existing tests are the best for this purpose?

5. How many trials are needed to afford a reliable index of the individual's ability?

6. What are the principal incidental factors that influence the result of tests?

7. Which tests are most easily influenced or disturbed by extraneous factors?

8. Can tests of the simpler laboratory type be used to indicate the individual's ability as shown in his daily work and play?

9. How simple or complex should the various tests be in order to give the best results?

10. How many tests, and which, are required to give a fairly correct picture of the individual's psychological make-up?

11. To what degree do preliminary trials indicate the final capacity of an individual?

12. Does the intercorrelation of tests change in any way with practice, repetition, and familiarity with the material?

13. Just what mental functions may the particular tests be said to measure?

14. How important are these functions in practical, educational and vocational life?

15. By what amounts and in what various ways do individuals differ among themselves in such abilities as the tests measure?

16. Are there other important aspects of psychological constitution and equipment for which there now exist no adequate tests?

The investigation of these numerous problems has resulted in the accumulation of a considerable literature of mental tests. Many of the earlier forms of tests were abandoned because of their unsatisfactory or meaningless character. Others have been retained and improved in form, and many new ones are constantly being devised and elaborated, described and standardized. The precautions to be observed, the instructions to be given, and the methods of record and interpretation have been presented in various books and manuals. The tests have been developed for more and more complex functions, and now relate not only to relatively simple capacities but to highly elaborate and subtle forms of achievement. As rapidly as is consistent with accuracy, norms and standards of performance for different ages, school grades, vocational requirements, etc., are being accumulated and reported. Typical charts of age norms in selected tests are given in the Appendix.

As the tests have thus developed they have been organized for a variety of special purposes, such as for school measurement, educational diagnosis, clinical examination, laboratory experiment, and more recently for the purposes of vocational guidance and selection. Among the first of these to develop systematically, and also the ones with the most immediate vocational application, are the graded intelligence scales, which shall be our next concern.

GRADED INTELLIGENCE SCALES AND NORMS

An important step in the history of general tests is represented by the accumulation of norms and standards of performance for the different selected tests, and the arrangement of scales of tests with increasing difficulty, as further aids in fixing the individual's status.

After a standardized and tested form of test has been selected, norms of performance are accumulated by applying the test to large numbers of persons of the same general type. The classification may be on the basis of age, school grade, occupation, nationality, etc. In this way it becomes possible to determine for a given individual how he compares with other members of his group; whether he is above or below the average, and how far; whether he would belong among the best ten, or the poorest ten, or the third ten, etc., of one hundred selected at random. Such norms also reveal to what degree the tested ability varies with the other factors, on the basis of which the group was selected, as age, sex, education, size, health, race, etc.

As rapidly as reliable norms are established, it becomes possible to select for each age, school grade, occupation, etc., a set of tests which the average person of that age, schooling or calling should be able to perform to a certain known degree of proficiency. Failure to accomplish this indicates performance lower than that expected and in so far as success is dependent solely on mental ability, indicates inferior capacity. Similarly, ability to do more than the average or normal record requires indicates a capacity that is precocious, rare, and superior.

In this way are derived standard graded scales which represent a decided advance in the science of psychological diagnosis. There are three rather different forms in which attempts have been made to secure such scales. In one form the scale consists of a series of steps, each step consisting of different sorts of performance; that is, different tests or tasks are used. These tasks are arranged in groups, each group representing tests which should be passed acceptably by individuals of the given age, school grade, etc. In another form of scale the type of task is the same throughout, but the different points on the scale are represented by increasingly difficult specimens of material. The scale thus presents graded steps of difficulty in doing the same general sort of thing. In the third form the task remains precisely the same throughout, and performance is measured in terms of the time in which the task can be completed and the accuracy which is displayed. Sometimes, in scales of this type, although the instructions are always the same, the test is performed with varying degrees of approximation to a qualitative standard, and the steps may then consist of these graded qualitative achievements.

As representative of the first form of scale we may refer to the widely used Binet-Simon scale for the determination of mental age. Whatever we mean by intelligence, it is a characteristic which is essential to vocational activity. It is furthermore a characteristic which normally tends to increase in its degree or manifestation from infancy up to at least ten or twelve years of age. Beyond that point there are, to be sure, striking individual differences in that characteristic which we call intelligence, but beyond this point it does not seem so dependent on the physical age of the organism. Five-year-old children tend to be pretty much alike in intelligence. At least, the change from five years to seven years is commonly attended by very apparent growth in this respect, and a five-year-old is more like other five-year-olds in the things he can do than he is like seven-year-olds.

Experiment and observation show that the ages up to ten or twelve tend to indicate rather definite mental status, in the long run, although, to be sure, children of a given age vary considerably from one another. But beyond this point the age of an individual is not by any means an indication of the sort or degree of ability to be expected of him. The further we go beyond this point, the less significant becomes the mere statement of the individual's age. We may thus indicate the mental attainment of a child of less than twelve years by stating the average age of children who can do the things, know the facts, display the abilities that he can. This figure we will use to indicate his mental age as distinguished from his chronological or physical or actual age. A record-blank which enumerates the tests comprising the Binet-Simon scale is given in the Appendix. Those who may be interested in using this or similar scales should familiarize themselves with some of the many books and manuals that have been written concerning them, the methods of using them, their characteristic results and their evaluation. These scales will be again considered in a later section, when we discuss the measures of general intelligence as they relate to vocational guidance and selection.

Other scales than the Binet-Simon series have been proposed, and this series has itself undergone modifications at the hands of later investigators-changes calculated to render it more reliable and adaptable. Much work is now being done in the attempt to develop scales or sets of tests which will reveal characteristic differences among people whose mentality has gone beyond the point which the juvenile scales reach.

The work of Trabue in standardizing the "completion test" so that individuals may be quantitatively compared on the basis of it may serve as an example of the second form of scale. This particular test consists in requiring the individual to supply meaningful words or phrases in the blank spaces formed by mutilating logical text. It is similar to the simple exercise sometimes found in elementary text books of grammar and spelling. It seems that the ability to supply the missing words or phrases quickly in such mutilated material calls for the exercise of a type of ability which correlates to a high degree with most other measures of intelligence. Individual differences as shown by school grades, age, opinion of teachers, estimates of associates, results of other mental tests, etc., are readily and with considerable reliability revealed in the individual's ability to perform this type of test. This investigator has, after much preliminary labor, constructed a form of this test in which the material gradually increases in difficulty from beginning to end. Efficiency in the test may be measured by the point one can reach in the text in a given time. This test has been standardized, not on the basis of physical age, as in the case of the Binet-Simon scale, but on the basis of school grade, from the second grade through the high school, some four or six years beyond the point where the Binet-Simon scale ceases to be useful. A copy of this test is also given in the Appendix. Those who wish to use it should consult the original description of it, for technique, precautions, norms, and interpretation.

A good example of the third form of scale is to be found in Sylvester's standardization of the "form-board" test. The "form-board" is one of the most useful tests in detecting intellectual defect that is so pronounced as to constitute the individual a "mental defective." Out of a solid base board are cut various geometrical forms, such as diamonds, stars, squares, triangular blocks, etc. These blocks are placed alongside the base from which they have been cut. The task is that of replacing all the blocks in their appropriate places, with the greatest possible speed. The test tends to reveal characteristic defects in understanding instructions, perceiving the general and specific situations, profiting by experience, recognizing form and size and other space relations, etc. The individual may work blind-folded or may use his eyes.

In the standardized form the sizes, shapes and positions are uniformly adopted and the technique of instruction and procedure is specified. Under these conditions the time required to complete the task by normal children of the ages five to fourteen years has been recorded. Sylvester presents a curve based on the examination of 1,537 normal children. The curve shows the average time of performance for each age and also indicates the range of performance for each age. In the case of a given individual it is thus easy, by referring to the standard table of norms, to determine whether he is up to the normal record for his age, whether he is within the normal range of variation for this age, and how deficient or precocious he may be in this respect. Tables of this type are now being accumulated for a great variety of single standard tests.

In addition to scales of this type, which proceed by setting for the individual a graded series of tasks and determining his success in their accomplishment, there is a further type of graded scale which is now represented by several standard specimens. This is the type of scale which is designed to afford an instrument for the measurement of such products as the actual work of the individual incidentally yields. Thorndike's "Scale for the Measurement of Handwriting" is the model on which many of the later scales of this type have been based. In this scale actual specimens of handwriting are arranged in a graduated series in such a way that the steps from specimen to specimen are equally appreciable or noticeable, and in this sense uniform. When such a scale extends from an actual zero point, it is possible to "measure" the quality of handwriting in quite the same way as that in which one measures the height of an individual or the length of a table. The quantitative measure consists in the statement of the number of stages which intervene between that quality of product represented by the specimen and the zero point of the scale. The position assigned to the specimen being measured is determined by moving the specimen along the graded series of standards until a point is reached where the specimen seems, on the basis of direct inspection, to belong. Such scales have been formulated for various special forms of school work, such as handwriting, drawing, arithmetic, literary composition, mechanical construction, etc. By such means it is possible not only to measure the "general intelligence" of the worker, but also his actual ability in creating a definite type of product. There seems to be no limit to the possibilities of scales of this form, and their value in determining the more definite and particular capacities, whether from the point of view of original endowment or from the point of view of the effects of training, is obvious.

These various scales for measuring general intelligence have been used chiefly for the purposes of educational diagnosis, in determining the degree of backwardness of children in the grades, their need for special educational attention, or the hopelessness of further pedagogical effort with them. But it is obvious at once that tests of this type are of great use to an employer in eliminating, from among the candidates for work, those who are hopelessly mentally defective, feeble-minded, and irresponsible. There are many sorts of work in which the employment of feeble-minded persons, unrecognizable as such by their physical traits or by a casual inspection, not only entails loss and annoyance but may constitute a positive danger and constant menace to those who rely on the defective individual. Such work as that of delivery boys, messengers, domestic servants, nurses, elevator operators, drivers, motormen, etc., may be cited as instances of work into which the feeble-minded easily slip, unless there is some standardized means of recognizing them.

The importance of detecting these incompetents and keeping them from work in which their irresponsibility means economic waste and personal and social danger is of distinct vocational interest. Studies of cases brought to the Clearing House for Mental Defectives in New York City show that of the first two hundred and eighty-one feeble-minded women of child-bearing age, about two-thirds had been engaged in some form of economic labor in which their incompetence was distinctly dangerous to those associated with them. The following table shows how these two hundred and eighty-one feeble-minded women had been employed:

Living at home and assisting at simple tasks 94

Domestic service (families, bars, hotels, etc.) 67

Engaged in factory operations 21

Living in institutions, reformatories, asylums 20

Prostitutes 30

Laundresses 5

Working in stores, clerking, errands, etc. 5

Nursemaids 9

Odd jobs 6

Married and keeping house 11

Housework, with relatives 13

The investigators originally reporting these data write as follows: "These defective women had borne eighty-nine illegitimate children, which were acknowledged and could be somewhat definitely located, and sixteen women were illegitimately pregnant at the time of their examination at the Clearing House. Twenty-four of the two hundred and eighty-one had married and these had borne forty-six legitimate children. The average mental age of the illegitimate mothers was nine years."

The employment of feeble-minded women as domestics, factory operatives, laundresses, clerks, and nursemaids constitutes not only a nuisance to the general public, but a real source of inefficiency and danger to the community. Graded scales for the measurement of intelligence will have amply repaid the labor devoted to their formulation if they aid us in the proper segregation and vocational supervision of the mentally defective. The feeble-minded boy is more likely to be observed in the natural course of things, because of the more strictly competitive types of work into which boys customarily go, but it is far from realized how much loss of property, life, and general happiness is entailed upon the community by the indiscriminate employment of untested boys and men as floating employees.

But the vocational value of the graded intelligence scales and norms is not limited to the work of detecting and eliminating the feeble-minded. Many of the tests as now standardized yield measures of intelligence, capacity and comprehension ranging far above the level which constitutes the borderline of mental defect. Some of them reach somewhat higher than the average intelligence and capacity of the college freshman. It is thus possible, through the use of the graded scales, to measure in quantitative terms the general intelligence as well as various more special capacities of applicants and candidates for positions for which general intelligence is the chief requisite. Such tests are now used in many places in the selection of clerical workers, telephone operators, stenographers, waitresses, motormen, salesmen, office help, inspectors, watchmen, soldiers, and special types of factory workers. Thus Trabue reports a study in which Professor Scott tested thirty efficiency experts employed by a large industrial concern in New England. Ten psychological tests were used, including a completion test. The men were also judged on the basis of their relative abilities by the members of the firm. The combined tests correlated with the combined judgments, giving the very high coefficient of .87. The completion test alone yielded a coefficient of .64. From the point of view of vocational selection we may expect the principle of the graded intelligence scale to become increasingly valuable as more and more norms are established. The first definite contribution of vocational psychology is thus not so much toward the guidance of the individual worker as for the guidance of the employer who may be required to select from a number of applicants those whose general intellectual equipment is most adequate. But we shall later have occasion to point out a further contribution which this makes possible, in so far as it may enable us to classify the operations involved in various types of work and to align these operations and tasks along the general intelligence scale. Such alignment will enable us to specify the approximate degree of general intelligence which a given position demands, and thus, in the case of the simpler tasks, afford a means of vocational guidance as well as vocational selection.

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