April 8, 1922] 



NATURE 



459 



The National Institute of Industrial Psychology 



\ LARGELY attended meeting of the National 

 -^ Institute of Industrial Psychology was held 

 t the Mansion House, London, on March 27, at which 

 !ie principal speakers were Viscount Haldane, Mr. 

 \V. L. Hichens (Chairman of Messrs. Cammell Laird 

 :k. Co., Ltd.), and Dr. C. S. Myers (Director of the 

 Institute). The chair was occupied by Mr. H. J. 

 Welch (Director of Messrs. Harrisons and Crosfield, 

 Ltd., and Chairman of the Institute). The following 

 resolution, moved by Dr. Myers and seconded by Mr. 

 Hichens, was carried unanimously: 



■' In view of the present serious economic situation 

 nd of the necessity to reduce costs of production 

 ud to increase the total national output, this meeting 

 IS of the opinion that : (a) a more complete and 

 scientific development of the nation's human resources 

 and a reduction of wasteful and misapplied energy 

 are matters of urgent national importance ; (&) the 

 methods adopted by the National Institute of Indus- 

 trial Psychology have been shown to reduce costs of 

 production, to promote the development of individual 

 ability, to eliminate unnecessary effort and fatigue, 

 and to improve the health and well-being of the 

 worker ; (c) it is imperative that a national fund 

 should be immediately established to enable the 

 institute to extend its sphere of usefulness and to 

 continue the necessary researches into the scientific 

 problems involved." 



The following letter was read from Mr. Seebohm 

 Rowntree : "I am sorry I cannot be present, for 

 I should have been glad of an opportunity to speak 

 of the services of the institute to the cocoa works at^ 

 York. We have felt for some time that benefits 

 would accrue if some of the human factors affecting 

 efficiency were studied on a more scientific basis. . . . 

 It was a great advantage to be able to turn to an 

 institute like yours and to secure from you not only 

 a trained worker to make actual observations among 

 the workmen, but the services of a skilled psychologist 

 to direct him. It has shown us how important are 

 the researches still to be made in our own factory by 

 psychological experts." 



Mr. Harry Salmon (Managing Director of Messrs. 

 J. Lyons and Co., Ltd.), in proposing a vote of thanks 

 to Viscount Haldane for his address, expressed his 

 pleasure and satisfaction at the work carried out by 

 the institute in the factories and depots of his firm. 

 The output of the packing department of the chocolate 

 factory had been increased by over 35 per cent., and 

 at the same time the amount of effort and fatigue 

 of the workers had been reduced. Similar results 

 were being obtained in other departments of the firm. 

 Dr. flyers emphasised the value to the employees 

 of the institute's work. Many workers, he said, 

 have expressed their gratitude spontaneously to the 

 investigators for the reduced fatigue felt at the end 

 of the day. The form of the daily output curves 

 before and after the investigations has actually 

 demonstrated the reduction in the workers' fatigue. 



The institute, he said, also aims at guiding the 

 young worker in the choice of his occupation, submit- 

 ting him to detailed examination by applying to 

 him a series of mental, physical, and medical tests, 

 and considering the results in conjunction with school 

 records. These tests serve also to guide the employer 

 in selecting the most capable applicant for a vacant 

 post. They are not intended to replace the ordinary 

 interview, but to supplement it by the measure they 

 afford of the candidate's general intelligence, and of 

 his endowment with the special abilities required for 

 the particular job. The institute has already, 

 thanks to the investigations of Mr. Cyril Burt, 



NO. 2736, VOL. 109] 



formulated satisfactory tests for shorthand writers 

 and typewriters. Mr. Muscio's tests for selecting 

 compositors, published by the Industrial Fatigue 

 Research Board, have proved equally valuable. 



In the United States numerous bureaux of voca- 

 tional guidance are scattered over the whole country. 

 Occupational tests are to-day being applied in 

 America for the selection of sales clerks, proof- 

 readers, clerical workers, inspectors, assemblers, and 

 other types of factory workers. Mental tests have 

 been introduced in place of, or as complementary 

 to, the ordinary entrance examinations in several 

 important universities of America. At the Carnegie 

 Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (in the Uni- 

 versity of which there are over 2000 students of 

 psychology) the Bureau of Personnel Research is 

 maintained financially by a number of industrial 

 and commercial firms, who thus obtain information 

 relating to the selection, training, organisation, and 

 supervision of their personnel. Single firms or groups 

 of firms arrange with the Carnegie Institute for 

 special research on the problems arising in their 

 factory, office, sales, or executive organisation. 

 Instruction and research on vocational psychology 

 are carried on in most of the American universities. 



In Barcelona, the Institute of Vocational Guidance 

 is supported entirely by the city and by the province 

 of Catalonia. Over a thousand applicants for advice 

 pass through its hands every year. In Brussels a 

 similar rate -supported vocational guidance bureau 

 is doing most valuable work, abolishing the huge 

 number of occupational misfits and thus reducing 

 not only the vast expense of a needlessly large labour 

 turnover but also the overstrain and unhappiness of 

 the misguided worker. In Germany laboratories 

 concerned with industrial psychology and physiology 

 have been established in Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzic, 

 Munich, and other large centres. The Allgemeine 

 elektrische Gesellschaft, the Osram Company, the 

 Berlin Tramways, Siemens and Halske may be 

 mentioned among the firms which have availed them- 

 selves of the services of such institutes, especially 

 in the selection of workers in their principal depart- 

 ments. It is stated that during twelve months the 

 Grosser Berliner Strassenbahn has saved over twelve 

 million marks as a result of the application of voca- 

 tional selection, proper training based on motion 

 study, etc. Indeed, Germany hopes to secure a lead 

 in commerce and industry by paying attention to their 

 human aspect, just as in pre-war days she advanced 

 by paying attention to their material aspect. Her 

 trade unions are likewise recognising the value of 

 vocational guidance and of systematic training in 

 approved methods of work. 



Viscount Haldane, in the course of an eloquent 

 address, stated that there was no problem more 

 menacing than that of unrest arising out of the 

 relations of Labour to Capital. We had reached a 

 stage at which the merely mechanical work was being 

 done more and more by the machine, while the 

 worker was becoming more and more engaged in 

 the directing of the machine. In other words, mind 

 was becoming of ever-increasing importance ; indeed 

 it was not capital that created wealth, nor labour, 

 but mind. One of the objects of the institute was, 

 so far as possible, to relieve labour from the feeling 

 that men and women were only machines. The aim 

 of the institute was not to secure increased output 

 at all costs to the worker, but to improve the mental, 

 physiological, and physical conditions under which 

 he worked and by this means to increase his efficiency. 

 We were beginning to realise that the workman. 



