TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, . . . ?

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 76

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, . . . ?

By

Victoria Hazlitt.

Not long ago I entered from curiosity the waiting-room of a phrenologist. A number of people, including two or three children, were present. Most of them were in a talkative mood, and it was easy for a listener to learn the aims of those present in coming to a phrenologist. To my astonishment I found that they all came quite seriously in order to gain direction with regard to their suitability for different careers. The mothers with childlen intended to take the phrenologist’s advice as to what Mary or Tommy was fitted for in life. Ihe women were obviously not wealthy faddists, but poorer middle-class people intensely anxious to do the best for their children. It struck me as pathetic that these women should be parting witli relatively large sums for guidance that could have no real justification in fact, and that might lead to the child beinv put to work for which he was totally unfitted. Some will protest that the phrenologist’s view is founded upon facts, viz., bumps..Ihe question .of bump-reading is a very vexed one into which we cannot enter lere, but we are justified in saving that modern physiological and psychological investigation all goes to show that the brain is not divided up into a number of separate httle compartments independent of little compartments independent of ore tinanother and located in different parts as the phrenologist suggests. Further, it nas been found that a person’s ability for a given task depends on a wide range of different factors, so specialised that it would be ludicrous to suppose that each one of them could be represented by a bump in St n then i , would be 60 man y bumps Imnle 7 ould k ‘-»m together. For exftvfe ™ i? has found that int ° ability for muoic there enter at least 36 different elements Some people have few 01 none of these, and could, therefore never become musicans; some have a lar<*e number and are able to become mus the I D a e . r Senl ki,,dS posset g ’’ OUP ° f factors that they to lf mK e Phrenologist is not in a position ihni parents with regard to their whom C tl S CarCerS ’ iS thCre anyone ” Ise to stndv P ,t . p . areuts m ay turn? Scientific study 1S being applied to this problem at the present time, and there are trained psychologists both in America and in Europe who undertake to test and study 1 d ru<iua children, in order to advise them with regard to a career. But this work is still m the experimental stage. None of these workers would be justified, C^ l ' 1 1 . aftc I r . a , long and careful test of the childs abilities, in making the detailed and dogmatic recommendations that phrenologists frequently make on the basis of a 10-qjinute interview. An interesting experiment that will test tne value of the psychologist’s vocational guidance is now being carried out in London by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology. Two large groups of children of approximately equal promise and opportunity are being studied. The members of one group are being left to choose their employment, in the ordinary way; the members of the other arc being tested and advised as to what they should do for their life's work. Records of the two' groups will be kept, and after a time a measure of , the success of the members of each group will be obtained. If, on the average, those who have had guidance do better than those who have not, this will demonstrate the value of vocational guidance.

The idea of vocational guidance is acceptable to most. people ; it is regarded as a step towards keeping the square pegs out of the round holes, and putting them into square ones. Psychological testing has, however, developed in another direction that is looked upon with considerable concern by a large body of workers.

I refer to the use of tests of vocational selection. The employer has a job, for the performance of which he naturally vyants the man who will do it satisfactorily in the minimum time. He asks the psychologist to study the job and to frame tests for selecting such a man. The psychologist is often quite successful in doing this. As a result of his tests, we read over and over again in the literature of the subject that fewer workers are required for a given piece of work. Often ,the .wages of these picked workers are raised,■ but not always in proportion to the saving effected by the employer. The increased wage of the few selected affords-but little comfort to those thrown out of work. Such selection is alarming to the worker, who feels that he is. being measured by standards in the construction of which he has had no part, and that he is being kept out of work by no remediable fault of his own.

The fact that vocational selection is not applied equally to all grades of work is another objection raised by the workers. A job may be badly done ati-1 result in unprofitable merchandise either because the worker is inefficient or because the work is badly organised by the employer. Why, then, should there not be tests for employers? Indeed, once the plan of selecting people for work by tests has been adopted, there is no limit to the revolutions that may be 1 expected. It may be that at the present moment in a laboratory in New York '■ a psychologist is devising a series of tests for presidents, kings, and other ruling persons. If such be the case, presidents and other in-

terested parties may turn to the psychologist, and ask: “ And who framed the tests by which you were selected as the psychologist best fitted to invent tests for ruling persons? ” One may say in parentheses that it seems somewhat strange that the psychologists who work for the different organisations of industrial psychology do not appear to be chosen by means of tests. It may be that the principle of vocational selection will be extended until it embraces all professions and all walks of life. Such an extension would mean that the application of science had brought about a greater social revolution than any political organisation has ever been able to effect.—John o’ London’s Weekly.