270 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLA^II. No. 1211 



throughout the land not because of the belief 

 that boiled water prevented disease and tea 

 leaves modified the insipid taste of the boiled 

 water, but because the infusion of the tea 

 leaves per se was looked upon as a medicine 

 specific for the prevention of the prevalent 

 diseases. 



Eoss Aiken Gtortner 

 tTNivERSirr op Minnesota 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Applied Psychology. By H. L. Holling- 

 WOETH and A. T. Poffenberger. D. Apple- 

 ton and Co., New York, 1917. Pp. xiii + 

 337. 



This book will properly attract many readers 

 who wish to know the significance of the 

 practical movement in psychology. As the 

 first test-book in applied psychology it gives 

 a well-balanced presentation of the aims, 

 methods and scope of this new " type of in- 

 terest and pursuit." !N"owhere else have the 

 results and methods of approach for practical 

 problems been so completely assembled and so 

 well guarded from misuse. Although it does 

 not reach the dignity of a treatise on applied 

 psychology, this admirable book by two mem- 

 bers of the department of psychology at Co- 

 lumbia University will be appreciated both by 

 general readers and by those psychologists 

 who wish to vitalize their introductory courses 

 by associating them with student interests. 

 Only a few colleges as yet have offered a course 

 which attempts to cover the broad field of 

 applied psychology, but within a year a pro- 

 fessorship in applied psychology has been es- 

 tablished, the Journal of Applied Psychology 

 started, and a Division of Applied Psychology 

 imder that title organized in an institute of 

 technology. Whether a unit of instruction 

 entitled applied psychology touches too varied 

 interests and affords too meager content will 

 doubtless continue for some time to be a ques- 

 tion for each college to decide. It is certainly 

 too early to expect a text to take the place of 

 a teacher. 



Besides bringing the results of many scat- 

 tered researches together, the authors have 

 helped to organize this branch of psychology 



by carefully distinguishing and illustrating 

 three main forms of application to practical 

 problems. These three forms include psycho- 

 logical analysis of a situation, carrying over 

 of principles worked out in allied researches, 

 and the adaptation and improvement of tech- 

 nique. With this scientific procedure in the 

 foreground, they have avoided the impleasant 

 effect on the student of either a very limited 

 technical monograph or of the magazine liter- 

 ature of the prophetic promoter. The first 

 portion of the book summarizes in compact 

 and usable form the psychological work which 

 helps to understand general human efficiency 

 and how to increase it. It includes the in- 

 fluences of heredity, sex and maturity, environ- 

 mental factors like illumination and ventila- 

 tion, the principles derived from the studies 

 of the learning process, the effects of work 

 and rest, stimulants, etc. The second half of 

 the book sets forth the psychological procedure 

 in those fields of occupational activity in which 

 the applications have been most explicit. These 

 include employment management, the indus- 

 trial workshop, advertising and salesmanship, 

 law, social work, medicine and education. 



The task of guarding the foundations of the 

 new division of their science has not been as- 

 sumed lightly by the authors. Instead of the 

 usual illustrations from individual cases, 

 which may or may not be exceptions, we find 

 the constant citation of experiments bearing 

 upon a problem with a careful discussion of the 

 sources of error and the dangers of generali- 

 zation from the particular investigation. In- 

 stead of mere psychologizing about work meth- 

 ods we now have much emphasis on the tech- 

 nique under which the conclusions were 

 reached. The teacher of the consulting psy- 

 chologist must evidently train him in technical 

 methods of research and the interpretation of 

 results. The authors look forward to that day 

 when the engineering type of psychotechnical 

 expert will meet with other specialists to co- 

 operatively attack their joint problems, in- 

 stead of the make-shift procedure under which 

 the specialist in business, medicine, education, 

 etc., attempts to dabble in psychology or the 

 psychologist to dabble in other specialties. 



