Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and MethodsHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Psychophysiology
The diagnosis of the instinctive and attitudinal characteristics and the
recognition of the more specialized aptitudes constitute two points at
which the line of advance is relatively slow. It is at these points that
the psychographic methods find their task. As we have already seen in
detail, the methods of the individual and the vocational psychograph are
still in the stage of empirical procedure. In this stage of their
development nearly any effort to amplify or apply them is certain to
contribute results of positive value. The recent studies that have
contributed most notably toward the further development of the
psychographic technique have been in the form of the specialized vocational
tests and methods. Such studies, in addition to yielding results of
immediate applicability in the description and analysis of the special
tasks at which they are directed, also constitute positive progress towards
the more elaborate psychographic pictures of individuals and of tasks.
Meanwhile groups of further problems have been definitely organized, and
preliminary steps taken toward their solution. The formulation of
systematic guides to self-analysis and introspection and the study of the
reliability to be placed in the individual's estimates of his own
characteristics are making definite and interesting progress. The
examination of the time-honored "recommendation" and the estimates of
associates and friends, and the investigation of the accuracy of such
judgments as are based on these testimonials, on letters of application, on
the school records, etc., have already thrown long-desired illumination on
several aspects of vocational psychology. The effort to base the vocational
endeavors of women on the data of exact inquiry, rather than on the
maintenance of primitive taboos and domestic and literary traditions, has
played its own valuable part in one of the most vital economic adjustments
of our age.
The very fact that a systematic presentation of the problems and methods of
vocational psychology is possible signifies an enormous advance beyond the
very recent stage in which all vocations were mysteries, all choices a
serious form of gambling, and all employment confessedly a matter of
impressionistic prejudice. To those who become familiar not only with the
program of this new branch of applied science, but as well with the
outstanding definite and positive contributions which that program has
already yielded, the words of a constructive pioneer in this branch of
scientific inquiry seem to be already becoming a statement of fact, rather
than the mere expression of a hope. "The nineteenth century witnessed an
extraordinary increase in our knowledge of the material world, and in our
power to make it subservient to our ends; the twentieth century will
probably witness a corresponding increase in our knowledge of human nature,
and in our power to use it for our welfare."
APPENDIX
CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
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