Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and MethodsHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Psychophysiology
Thorndike, on the other hand, in studying the relation between entrance
marks and later college standing (Columbia College classes entering in
1901, 1902 and 1903), finds results which lead him to say, "The important
facts concerning the relationship of success in entrance examinations to
success in college work... prove that we cannot estimate the latter from
the former with enough accuracy to make the entrance examinations worth
taking or to prevent gross and intolerable injustice being done to many
individuals.... The records of eleven entrance examinations give a less
accurate prophecy of what a student will do in the latter half of his
college course than does the college record of his brother! The correlation
between brothers in intellectual ability is approximately .40, but that
between standing in entrance examinations and standing in college of the
same person is only .47 for junior year (130 cases) and .25 for senior year
(56 cases).... From many facts such as these... it is certain that the
traditional entrance examinations, even when as fully safeguarded as in the
case of those given by the College Entrance Examination Board, do not
prevent incompetence from getting into college; do not prevent students of
excellent promise from being discouraged or barred out altogether; do not
measure fitness for college well enough to earn the respect of students or
teachers; and do intolerable injustice to individuals."
The apparent striking contradiction between these two reports is not,
however, so serious when it is noted that the records of Jones were taken
from freshman and sophomore years, while Thorndike's, as here quoted, were
taken from junior and senior years. Thorndike has also presented, in
another connection, comparisons of entrance examinations with the work of
freshman and sophomore years, and in these cases his correlations are
considerably higher, more nearly approximating the results of Jones. The
correlations, for the four college years, were as follows: freshman year,
.62; sophomore year, .50; junior year, .47; senior year, .25.
Apparently the only safe conclusion at present is that the entrance
examinations are fairly useful in predicting the early college work, their
prognostic value becoming less and less as the interval between the two
measures is increased. This result is of course to be expected. In another
section of this book occasion is taken to show that preliminary trials are
of little value in indicating the relative abilities of individuals when
they have reached or approximated their limit of practice.
_II. Are the school subjects in which one is most interested in any way an
indication of the interests and values of later life? What, in general, are
the facts concerning the permanence of interests and the relation between
interest and ability?_ These questions are of immediate interest to
parents, teachers and vocational counsellors.
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