PAPERS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 445 



read, to observe, to discuss, and to take on information 

 from many sources. The speed of acquisition and the 

 facility shown in reproduction for use become important 

 factors in determining the value of an employe in par- 

 ticular positions. 



While it is important that workers generally possess 

 capacity for taking on skills and for making motor ad- 

 justments, and while it is important that in certain po- 

 sitions they respond quickly to demands for related in- 

 formation, it is even more important in the most re- 

 sponsible positions that occupants use such skill and 

 information in new and unusual combinations. Capac- 

 ity for and habits of independent action become a funda- 

 mental consideration in the advancement of workers to 

 positions of major responsibility. Planning industrial 

 or business development, planning a sales or publicity 

 campaign, readjusting a production schedule, all of these 

 activities are in large part dependent upon power of in- 

 dependent thinking. Without such ability so-called plan- 

 ning becomes mere copy work, resultant from or de- 

 pendent upon precedent be it good or bad. Herein lies 

 the distinction between the so-called routine worker and 

 the worker who makes possible progressive and construc- 

 tive development through the creation of improved 

 devices and through the suggestion of improved prac- 

 tices. Facility shown for achievement in this field is 

 one of the requisites for success in many of our sales, 

 organization, and research fields. Coupled with other 

 abilities, this capacity is fundamental for all responsible 

 administrative positions. 



There is still another capacity or ability, which con- 

 nects itself so closely with ability to learn that it should 

 be classified with the above learning levels or capaci- 

 ties. I refer to the ability to make personal adjust- 

 ments; adjustments to one's work, to one's surround- 

 ings, and to one's associates. This has to do with the 

 worker's attitude toward the task to which he is assigned 

 and the facility shown in meeting new and disturbing 

 situations. It also involves that combination of factors 

 which enter not only into association with other individ- 

 uals but the management of individuals and groups of 



