SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 491 



Conditioning : Henri Brulard, Linda. 



Reconditioning and social adjustment : Old Man's Birthday, Clay- 

 hanger. Visiting Moon, Kim in New Wine. 



Acute conflict in women : Mary Lavelle, The Bridge, Tops and 

 Bottoms. 



Acute conflict in men : Long Tunnel, Quatrain, The Fountain. 



Scruples are transcended by D'Eath in Processional, The Rector's Daughter. 

 Shame is got rid of by Enid in Old Man's Birthday. Props fail the inade- 

 quate Forrest in Full House, Lola in Invisible Event. The harm of 

 domineering is shown in Galaxy, and by Tillinglast, who blamed others, 

 in Never Go Back. 



That self-deception is unwise we see in The Wildings, Laughter in Heaven. 



The futile see themselves in Dusty Answer, The Hotel. 



There are many examples also of spite, envy, jealousy in all disguises. 



Hopeless misfits may take courage from The Odd Job Man, Peter 

 Homunculus, Jacob Stahl, Mary Lee. 



Amateur meddling is shown up in Chip of the Block, Progress to the Lake, 

 The Balliols, A Room with a View. 



Skilful guidance is found in Green Light, New Wine, Antony, Dr. Sam. 



A psychological pharmacopoeia on these lines proved valuable to teachers 

 and college professors in a course at Duke University. 



Mr. R. C. Oldfield. — Some verbal problems connected with the definition of 

 personal qualities (2.45). 



Miss S. M. Harvey. — Some factors affecting the reliability of the interview 

 as a method of obtaining personal information (3.30). 

 In an investigation at the Cambridge Psychological Laboratory, each of 

 8 interviewers saw in turn each of 11 candidates. The interviews were 

 directed towards the reasons why the latter had taken up the study of 

 psychology. A report was written by each interviewer upon the reasons 

 for each candidate's choice. Conversation during the interviews was 

 recorded. Quantitative treatment of the results shows : (a) variation both 

 in amount and in content of the statements obtained by different interviewers 

 from the same candidates ; (b) a closer correspondence between the state- 

 ments obtained by some interviewers than between those obtained by others ; 

 (c) variation between the length and content of reports made by different 

 interviewers. To some extent this follows the same trends as the informa- 

 tion obtained from candidates, but (d) the proportion of candidates' state- 

 ments ' accepted ' and reported varies more between interviewers than it 

 does between candidates ; (e) the interviewers' inferences and the structure 

 of the reports also tend to differ. These differences suggest the operation 

 of selective factors, different as between interviewers, (i) during the inter- 

 view, and (2) before or during the writing of the reports. Qualitative 

 analysis reveals that these were related : the first, to the ' general approach ' 

 of the interviewer, type of question and items emphasised during conver- 

 sation ; the second, to the ' attitude ' of the interviewer to the information 

 to be obtained; these two had some determinants in common. Such 

 factors depend not only upon preconceived interpretative hypotheses about 

 such interest determination, but also upon less formulated attitudes, founded 

 in the interviewers' experience, but operative at a less conscious level. 



