No.i.] PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINING IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY. 53 



Assurance may also be given to the War Department that the men in the psychological service, both enlisted and 

 commissioned, are of such native ability, education, and military experience thatwith few exceptions they can be used 

 effectively in other services should the need for them in the psychological service disappear. The majority of them 

 would make efficient personnel adjutants, others would render admirable service as hospital adjutants, many are 

 fitted and eager for line service. Recently one commissioned psychologist has been transferred to the Tank Corps and 

 is serving as personnel officer; a second was recently requested by his commanding officer to accept transfer to the 

 infantry and promotion to the rank of major in order that he might be placed in command of the development battalion 

 in his camp. There are several officers in the psychological service equally well fitted for such military responsibility. 



The Army need have no misgivings about the military usefulness of the 350 men who have been recruited and 

 trained for psychological service, for, in the first place, they have been carefully selected on the basis of personal 

 quality, mental ability, and professional training; in the second place, they have been given from two to four months 

 of intensive military training and training in military psychology at Fort Oglethorpe. 



10. The psychological service has now developed to an important extent in several different directions. These 

 are merely enumerated below, but the accompanying memoranda more or less adequately illustrate the significance: 



(a) Psychological examining of drafted men by groups in order that an intelligence rating or mental grade may be 

 assigned every soldier for use by personnel adjutant, company commander, or such other officer as has need of it (see 

 W. D. Scott letter attached). 



(6) Classification of soldiers on the basis of mental ability so that promising material for noncommissioned officers 

 may promptly be selected and that satisfactory candidates for officers' training camps may be chosen. The evidences 

 of the selectional value of mental grades are now convincing. 



(c) Service in development battalions in connection with the rating of men, measurement of their response to train- 

 ing, and development and control of morale. 



(d) Assistance to judge advocate in connection with court-martial cases in order that the courts may be provided 

 with adequate and reliable information concerning the mentality of a man before sentence is passed. This is particularly 

 important in connection with men of low-grade mentality and conscientious objectors. Grave injustices are frequently 

 done by sentencing men irrespective of their degree of intelligence and responsibility. In various camps the judge 

 advocates are at present availing themselves of the assistance of psychologists. 



(c) Psychologists are prepared to assist with the development and control of morale in training camps. Not all 

 are especially qualified for this kind of work, but they should on the whole be able to understand more fully than any 

 other single group of officers the mental factors underlying morale and to deal effectively with many of the serious 

 problems arising in connection with unsatisfactory camp conditions. Germany is using psychologists most effectively 

 in this field. 



(/) Assistance to neuro-psychiatric or other medical officers in the examination of cases of suspected imbecility, 

 moronity, or affective deficiency has been rendered by psychologists in many camps during the past six months. This 

 service is of such nature that the neuro-psychiatrists are eager to have it continued. It is in no sense a duplication of 

 their work. 



The methods of psychological work especially developed for the benefit of the United States Army have aroused 

 interest in France and England, and undoubtedly in Germany also. England, chiefly because of American initiative, 

 has recalled her chief psychologists from other arms of the military service and has initiated various lines of psychological 

 work. 



Up to the present moment approximately 1,100,000 men have been given mental examination in the United States 

 Army. Some 41,000 of these have been examined individually. The percentage of soldiers found to be mentally 

 unsatisfactory, aside from the cases of pathological mental condition dealt with by neuro-psychiatrists, is less than one- 

 half of 1 per cent, and under existing conditions not more than half of this number need be discharged from the Army, 

 since development battalions and labor organizations provide for the special study, assignment, and use of men who 

 would be serious nuisances if placed in organizations for regular military training. 



No single criticism or complaint concerning psychological work has been more frequent than the charge that it 

 results in the rejection or discharge of too many soldiers. This complaint is entirely without foundation. It arises from 

 the confusion of psychological work with neuro-psychiatric work. Psychologists discharge no one. They merely 

 report the mental grade of a soldier to designated officers, chief of whom are the personnel adjutant, the soldier's com- 

 manding officer, and the medical officer. As a matter of fact relatively few men, certainly well under one-quarter 

 of 1 per cent have been rejected or discharged because of, or partly on account of, report of psychological examination. 



There is persistent misunderstanding of the primary purpose of psychological examining, which is the proper 

 placement of every soldier in the service, and not his rejection from the service. The main interest of psychological 

 officers is in increasing the human efficiency of the Army and in finding the proper place for every soldier who has 

 sufficient intelligence to labor effectively. 



For the Surgeon General: 



S. J. Morris, 

 Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Corps. 



