PSYCHOLOGY IN INDUSTRY 



treated in this way is large, not much reliability is lost 

 if each item which proves to be significant is given a 

 weight of +1 or of —1, as the case may be, in computing 

 the total score. 



Such a method serves to add to the value of items of 

 information obtained on the application form or in personal 

 interview, regarding age, schooling, previous experience, 

 marital status, and many similar considerations which 

 may or may not be significant indicators of probable success. 

 It lifts the evaluation of such items out of the area of guess- 

 work or subjective impression.^ The method is equally 

 applicable to items obtained in the physical examination, 

 such as height, weight, eyesight, strength, and blood 

 pressure. 



Preconceptions as to the importance of such facts about 

 an applicant have sometimes been modified or even reversed 

 when sufficient data have been gathered and the computa- 

 tions made. As an illustration may be cited a study of a 

 group of young women operators made by the writer in 

 one of the plants near New York City. They were engaged 

 in tending machines which wind paper insulation about 

 strands of copper wire for making telephone cables. These 

 machines make a deafening noise, yet the girls work here 

 month after month and do not seem to mind it. Their 

 minimum wage is thirty-eight cents an hour, but the most 

 skillful operatives among them are able to increase this 

 rate to as much as sixty or sixty-five cents. Even during 

 the period of learning the work they receive a better wage 

 than the average high-school graduate who goes into an 

 office as a typist, and after two to eight months the more 

 competent ones earn more than a college graduate usually 

 does during her first year in an office. The work is not 



1 Manson, Grace E., What Can the Application Blank Tell? Evaluation of 

 Items in Personal History Records of Four Thousand Life Insurance Salesmen, 

 Journal of Personnel Research, Vol. 4, pp. 73-99, 1925. 



[143] 



