PSYCHOLOGY IN INDUSTRY 



importance of such a reduction is evidenced when it is 

 recalled that a mistake at the great switchboard of a 

 substation may deprive a hospital of electricity while a 

 surgical operation is in progress, or result in interference 

 with a manufacturing process entailing a loss of many 

 thousands of dollars. Other examples of the same kind 

 could be cited from industrial research both here and 

 abroad. 



The federal postal service has been much improved since 

 1923, through simplification of the work of mail sorters 

 after psychological analysis of their job, and through 

 replacement of the traditional type of civil service exami- 

 nation by a more practical, convenient, objective type of 

 examination, by means of which the U. S. Civil Service 

 Commission has annually tested some 60,000 applicants 

 for employment as distributors, carriers, and railway 

 mail clerks, more easily, accurately, and fairly than before, 

 with much less expense to the government, and with 

 marked improvement in the average ability of the men 

 appointed. Principles and techniques which O'Rourke, 

 Thurstone, and their associates developed in connection 

 with such psychological research on employment pro- 

 cedures have since been applied not only to other civil 

 service examinations, but to similar problems in business 

 and in education also. 



In the transportation field, Vi teles and Mrs. Shellow, for 

 the Milwaukee Electric Railway Company, developed and 

 validated tests for selecting applicants to be trained as 

 street-car motormen — men who can keep their minds on the 

 job and do the right thing in spite of distractions and 

 sudden emergencies. The work of Snow for the Yellow Cab 

 Company, Segard for the Third Avenue Railway of New 

 York, and Wechsler, Moss, and others for various trans- 

 portation firms, paralleled in this country elaborate 

 developments in the technopsychological laboratories of 



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