a--Physical strength; physical weakness. b--Mental; manual. c--Settled; roving. d--Indoor; outdoor. e--Directive; dependent. f--Original (creative); imitative. g--Small scope; large scope. h--Adaptable; self-centered. i--Deliberate; impulsive. j--Music sense. k--Color sense. l--Manual accuracy; manual inaccuracy. m--Mental accuracy (logic); mental inaccuracy. n--Concentration (mental focus); diffusion. o--Rapid mental coordination; slow mental coordination. p--Dynamic; static. It must be said that the characteristics of the various types of work here enumerated are pretty much the features which have in the past guided such individuals as really chose their vocation rather than found it waiting for them, made a random selection, or seized the first available opportunity. The paired adjectives probably afford truer descriptions of various types of work than they do of types of individuals. Most individuals of one's acquaintance one would have to group neither under the one nor the other extreme, but in an average group which would show each of the opposed tendencies under special circumstances or would show no particularly marked degree of either tendency. Observation of such individuals for long periods of time and under a variety of circumstances would be required before these classifications could be made out by a stranger or by a professional counsellor. Even then such a classification could hardly be said to be psychological in any technical sense of the word, and it is not very probable that psychological training or experience would facilitate or render more reliable such classification. The question of to what degree the individual's judgment of his own characteristics may be relied on in such an analysis we must defer until a later section where that is taken up as the main subject of discussion. The reliable vocational psychograph, which proceeds by means of a careful preliminary analysis of the qualities required in the given work, and uses specially adapted tests with reliable norms for their evaluation, is not yet available for any single occupation. The preliminary analyses so far made, whether by employer, psychologist, or engineer, give us little guidance, and until such guidance is forthcoming the special adaptation of tests and the accumulation of norms and standards cannot make much practical progress. The inadequacy of the analyses already offered should not discourage further effort in this direction. The alignment of the simple industrial processes along the general intelligence scale has already been begun. The description of the more complex tasks in terms of identifiable mental characteristics is a much more difficult task, but this very difficulty is at once a sign of the importance of the problem. FOOTNOTES: [6] "Conduct of Mind Series," D. Appleton & Co., New York. CHAPTER V SPECIALIZED VOCATIONAL TESTS AND METHODS