No. 1.] 



PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINING IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY. 



25 



further emphasized at this time the disadvantages under which the work had progressed thus 



far and the opportunity for securing even greater value hy the establishment of more favorable 



conditions. 



Section 7. — Reports of company commanders. 



As a result of the special request for the opinions of company commanders relative to the 

 value of psychological ratings, 322 reports were received. They are distributed as follows: 

 Camp Devens, 102; Camp Lee, 147; Camp Dix, 63; Camp Taylor, 10. 



Analysis indicates four types of judgment concerning the value of psychological ratings: 

 (1) Favorable; (2) favorable with qualifications; (3) unfavorable with qualification; (4) unfavor- 

 able without qualifications. 



The distribution of these judgments is indicated by the accompanying table, from which 

 have been omitted three Camp Dix reports from officers who state that they feel incompetent 

 to judge of the results because of limited opportunity to observe, and the 10 reports received 

 from Camp Taylor because they are not comparable with reports received from other camps. 



Table 2. 



In all, slightly more than 250 of the reports (82 per cent) are favorable; about 60 (18 per 

 cent), unfavorable. 



A considerable number of the reports indicated more or less serious misunderstanding of 

 the nature and purposes of psychological examining, as well as of the significance of the results. 

 Except for this, however, reports of commanding officers in the several cantonments would 

 have been favorable in more than 85 per cent of the cases. This, in view of the facts that the 

 work is entirely new, that it was done under extremely unfavorable conditions, and that the 

 reports were made in many instances after the results had lost value for assignment, is a re- 

 markably favorable showing. 



Section 8. — Decision concerning extension of examining. 



The training committee of the General Staff, on the basis of the reports of commanding 

 officers described above, the materials supplied by the Section of Psychology, and the state- 

 ments of the chief of that section, voted to concur in the recommendation of the Surgeon General 

 that all company officers, candidates for officers' training camps, and all drafted and enlisted 

 men be required to take psychological tests. It was further recommended by the committee 

 that this action be taken by the War Department. 



The following paragraphs from the report of the committee have peculiar significance: 



Intelligence tests do not measure the educational status; they measure the intelligence status and the latter has 

 an important bearing in estimating military sendee ability. It is recognized that intelligence ratings alone should 

 not determine a man's selection for promotion, but must be supplemented by a knowledge of personality, appearance, 

 energy, resourcefulness, military zeal, initiative, tact, and ability to command men. The record charts herewith 

 show very clearly that the intellectual capacity as measured by the psychological examination has a large bearing on 

 the man's position in the service. 



This subj ect of psychology in its relation to military efficiency is an entirely new one, and the War College Division 

 approached it with a good deal of doubt as to its value. A very thorough study of the reports submitted, however, 

 has firmly convinced it that this examination will be of great value in assisting and determining the possibilities of 

 newly drafted men and all candidates for officers' training camps. 

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