Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and MethodsHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Psychophysiology
5. A further source of these physiognomic beliefs may be discerned: namely,
the fact that the features of a stranger are very likely to call more or
less clearly to our memory some other acquaintance whose traits we know, to
our sorrow perhaps, and whose features or manner or voice or apparel chance
to be very similar to that of the stranger. At once we are inclined to
endow the stranger with the character of the individual he resembles. We
seldom accurately check up these impressions on the basis of subsequent
discovery. Indeed we are much more likely to evoke the suspected traits by
our own attitude and by our treatment of the stranger, and we are eager to
pounce upon any act that may be construed as a confirmation of our snap
judgment. It is obvious that these impressions will vary from individual to
individual and that any attempt to formulate them would expose their
fallaciousness.
6. Finally, in this analysis of the origin of our belief in the signs of
physiognomy, is the mere insistence that as a matter of fact there are
definite relationships discoverable and formulable between typical features
and typical characteristics of personality. Beliefs of this dogmatic kind
are most likely to be exploited by the professional counsellor, since they
appear to the examinee to be unknown, mysterious, esoteric facts. The
following formulations, taken from an account of the performance of one of
the most widely advertised of professional vocational counsellors, may
serve as an example of this type of dogmatic physiognomic doctrine.
"The sensitive, delicate-minded man usually has a fine-textured skin; the
coarse-minded man a coarse-textured skin. It is an embryological fact that
the skin was and is the original seat of all sensations, and that spinal
cords and nerves are but modified and specialized in-turned skin. Of
necessity a man's skin indicates the texture of his brain.
"Texture is a great classifier of humanity. The individual of fine hair,
fine-textured skin, delicately chiseled features, slender, graceful body
and limbs, as a general rule, is refined, loves beauty and grace, and likes
work either purely mental in its nature or offering an opportunity to
handle fine, delicate materials and tools. On the other hand the man with
coarse hair, coarse-textured skin, and large, strongly formed features
inclines as a general rule to occupations in which strength, vigor,
virility, and ability to live and work in the midst of harsh, rough and
unbeautiful conditions are prime requirements.
"It is no secret to observant employers of labor that blondes, as a general
rule, are changeable, variety loving, optimistic, and speculative, while
brunettes are consistent, steady, dependable, serious, and conservative."
"It turns out as one might naturally expect that the man who resembles the
greyhound in form is quicker, keener, more responsive, and less enduring
than the man who resembles the bulldog in form.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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