Abstract
EXPERIMENTAL psychologists in this country have always been keenly interested in research into individual mental differences, but to America we must turn for the first attempts to apply psychological tests to vocatiopal selection and guidance. As might have been expected, an alternative method has arisen which claims to judge special abilities, aptitudes, and characters by the methods of phrenology, the colour of the hair and eyes, the texture of the skin, the slope of the handwriting, the squareness or roundness of the face, the shape of the chin, etc. As Dr. Link points out, attempts have been made to transform this method into “a reliable and cientific method of character analysis. … This so-called science has received wide publicity and has been accepted [both in America and in this country] by many prominent and hard-headed business men. It attempts to place observation on a scientific basis by assuming that certain observable physical characteristics are identified with certain definite mental qualities, and by asserting as a corollary that a visual observation and measurement of the physical characteristics enable the observer to gauge a person's mental, moral, and emotional qualities. The smattering of scientific phraseology in the presentation of this method is just sufficient to impress those who have only a superficial knowledge of the scientific facts involved. … The fundamental assumption on which the so-called science of observation rests is an assumption entirely unwarranted by the facts” (pp. 240, 241).
Employment Psychology: The Application of Scientific Methods to the Selection, Training, and Grading of Employees.
By Dr. Henry C. Link. Pp. xii + 440. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 10s. 6d. net.
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Employment Psychology: The Application of Scientific Methods to the Selection, Training, and Grading of Employees . Nature 105, 673 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105673a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105673a0