Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and MethodsHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Psychophysiology
The more general questions of the theory of tests, their selection,
evaluation, and technique of application and record, need not be considered
here. The reader unfamiliar with these matters will find them fully treated
in the various standard manuals of tests, and in numerous special articles
and monographs referred to in the bibliography.
There are, however, certain particular aspects of the theory and use of
mental tests which have special importance for vocational psychology. These
are:
1. The question of the degree to which proficiency in one respect or
ability or test implies proficiency in others.
2. The degree to which these intercorrelations are revealed by preliminary
trials and modified by continued practice.
3. The question of the significance of preliminary trials in revealing the
relative abilities of individuals as these would be shown after all the
individuals had acquired their maximum skill or practice level of
proficiency; that is, the relation between momentary capacity and ultimate
achievement.
Attempts to intercorrelate mental or motor abilities as measured by
laboratory tests have usually produced more or less irregular results. Some
of the coefficients have been positive, some negative, but in only a few
cases have many of them been large when the individuals tested have been
chosen at random or with no deliberate intention of measuring only the
extremes of the curve of distribution. Thus in a recent report of the
correlations of abilities among several hundred adult individuals it is
remarked that a certain test for logical memory is "one of the very best
tests," partly because of "its high correlation with other tests" (an
average correlation of .29).
Two reasons are largely responsible for these low coefficients. The first
is the fact that the measures correlated have usually been initial trials,
or at most averages of a very few trials. This means great individual
variability and considerable consequent unreliability of the data. A more
important factor, perhaps, is the fact that these preliminary trials do not
necessarily represent the final capacities of the individuals. They are
determined by a host of incidental or accidental influences and reveal only
momentary ability, not ultimate capacity. There is every reason for
expecting to find positive correlation of "desirable" traits, and we may
well expect to find this increasingly true the more our measures test the
final limits of capacity in the various tests. In other words, the only
real correction for unreliable measures is to be made by continuing the
test until the individual has reached the limit of practice in it.
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