PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN VOCATIONAL 
GUIDANCE! 
THOMAS A. LEWIS 
Vocational guidance is a short name for ^The conservation of the 
energies and talents of human workers/^ The object is to secure 
for the new generation, by expert assistance, that occupational 
adjustment which reduces waste and worry to a minimum. It is 
an attempt to afford boys and girls and young people the aid so 
much needed by them in order that they may choose the vocations 
in which they will have the best chance for personal success and 
for public usefulness. Putting the matter concretely, it is an 
attempt to prevent such situations as that typified by the firm 
which utilizes the services of a thousand salesmen, but ^To keep 
the ranks of that thousand full hires from five to seven thousand 
men a year.’^ 
The main field for vocational guidance is in schools and col 
leges, because by centering the undertaking there practically 
every person who has yet to choose a vocation may be reached 
and that at an opportune time. With guidance machinery 
installed in the later elementary grades the 40 per cent that 
drops out as soon as the law allows will not fail to receive its 
benefits, and with this machinery still operating in the college 
those who make their decisions at this relatively late age will 
not be neglected. Vocational guidance in connection with 
manual vocations extends out into the occupation in the case 
of those pupils who enter the busy world early and need ^Tol- 
low-up’^ supervision to keep them from getting trapped in ‘‘blind- 
alley’^ jobs; and in the case of students in educational institutions 
where the “part-time” plan is in operation, and where the stu- 
dent divides his time between school and work. In this latter 
1 Address of the retiring President at the regular semi-monthly meeting of the 
Denison Scientific Association, October 7, 1919. 
147 
