The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless ManAnderson, Nels
General
The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man
Anderson, Nels
Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions; Tramps
In recent years mental tests have been given to small groups of
unemployed men, in which the types of the hobo, tramp, and bum
were well represented. Knollin found 20 per cent of the 150 hobos
he tested feeble-minded.[19] Pintner and Toops examined two groups
of applicants at Ohio free employment agencies by standardized
tests other than the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon. Of the
94 men taking the tests at Columbus, 28.7 per cent were diagnosed
as feeble-minded. Of the 40 unemployed men examined at Dayton 7.5
per cent were assigned to the feeble-minded class.[20] Glenn R.
Johnson gave the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon tests to 107
men out of work in Portland, and found 18 per cent feeble-minded,
i.e., under twelve years mental age.[21] As he had expected, he
found the proportion of inferior intelligence lower than that of
the 62 business men and high-school students upon which Terman
had standardized his tests for adults, but he also found among
hobos a higher percentage of superior adults. He found also that
the higher the intelligence of the individual the shorter the
period of holding a job among the unemployed. The testing of an
unselected group of 653 men in the army by the Stanford revision
of the Binet-Simon tests affords an interesting opportunity for a
comparison with the results of the Portland study.
This comparison would indicate that the intelligence of the
unemployed is not lower, but, if anything, higher than that of the
adult males tested in army camps. Apparently other factors than
intelligence are decisive in determining whether an individual
is employable or unemployable, or whether he makes or fails to
make an adequate adjustment in the normal routine of industrial
organization.
The defects in personality commonly found in the cases of homeless
men studied in Chicago are those noted by the students of vagabondage
and unemployment, namely, feeble-mindedness, constitutional
inferiority, emotional instability, and egocentricity. In a survey of
100 cases of unemployment which had been received as patients in the
Boston Psychopathic Hospital, Dr. Herman M. Adler found that 43 fell
into the class of _paranoid personality_ (egocentricity). The next
largest group of 35 cases was assigned to the class of _inadequate
personality_ (mentally defective or feeble-minded). The remaining
cases, 22 in number, were diagnosed as _emotionally unstable
personality_. An analysis of the months employed per case showed that
the emotionally unstable group averages 50 months to each job; the
inadequate group 24.7 months to each job; and the paranoid group 20.6
months to each job.[22]
MENTAL CAPACITY OF ARMY GROUP AND OF PORTLAND UNEMPLOYED AS
MEASURED BY STANFORD-BINET
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