Psychology and Industrial Efficiency

and Industrial Efficiency, by
Hugo Münsterberg

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Title: Psychology and Industrial Efficiency
Author: Hugo Münsterberg
Release Date: February 23, 2005 [EBook #15154]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PSYCHOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY
BY

HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge 1913

TO HAROLD F. McCORMICK

PREFATORY NOTE
This book corresponds to a German book, which I published a few
months ago, under the title Psychologie und Wirlschaftsleben: Ein
Beitrag zur angewandten Experimental-Psychologie (Leipzig: J.A.
Barth). It is not a translation, as some parts of the German volume have
been abbreviated or entirely omitted and other parts have been enlarged
and supplemented. Yet the essential substance of the two books is
identical.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
II. THE DEMANDS OF PRACTICAL LIFE
III. MEANS AND ENDS
I. THE BEST POSSIBLE MAN
IV. VOCATION AND FITNESS
V. SCIENTIFIC VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
VI. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

VII. THE METHODS OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
VIII. EXPERIMENTS IN THE INTEREST OF ELECTRIC
RAILWAY SERVICE
IX. EXPERIMENTS IN THE INTEREST OF SHIP SERVICE
X. EXPERIMENTS IN THE INTEREST OF TELEPHONE SERVICE
XI. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MEN OF AFFAIRS
XII. INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS
II. THE BEST POSSIBLE WORK
XIII. LEARNING AND TRAINING
XIV. THE ADJUSTMENT OF TECHNICAL TO PSYCHICAL
CONDITIONS
XV. THE ECONOMY OF MOVEMENT
XVI. EXPERIMENTS ON THE PROBLEM OF MONOTONY
XVII. ATTENTION AND FATIGUE
XVIII. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON THE
WORKING POWER
III. THE BEST POSSIBLE EFFECT
XIX. THE SATISFACTION OF ECONOMIC DEMANDS
XX. EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS
XXI. THE EFFECT OF DISPLAY
XXII. EXPERIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO ILLEGAL
IMITATION

XXIII. BUYING AND SELLING
XXIV. THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC
PSYCHOLOGY
NOTES
INDEX

PSYCHOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY

INTRODUCTION

I
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Our aim is to sketch the outlines of a new science which is to
intermediate between the modern laboratory psychology and the
problems of economics: the psychological experiment is systematically
to be placed at the service of commerce and industry. So far we have
only scattered beginnings of the new doctrine, only tentative efforts and
disconnected attempts which have started, sometimes in economic, and
sometimes in psychological, quarters. The time when an exact
psychology of business life will be presented as a closed and perfected
system lies very far distant. But the earlier the attention of wider circles
is directed to its beginnings and to the importance and bearings of its
tasks, the quicker and the more sound will be the development of this
young science. What is most needed to-day at the beginning of the new
movement are clear, concrete illustrations which demonstrate the
possibilities of the new method. In the following pages, accordingly, it
will be my aim to analyze the results of experiments which have
actually been carried out, experiments belonging to many different
spheres of economic life. But these detached experiments ought always

at least to point to a connected whole; the single experiments will,
therefore, always need a general discussion of the principles as a
background. In the interest of such a wider perspective we may at first
enter into some preparatory questions of theory. They may serve as an
introduction which is to lead us to the actual economic life and the
present achievements of experimental psychology.
It is well known that the modern psychologists only slowly and very
reluctantly approached the apparently natural task of rendering useful
service to practical life. As long as the study of the mind was entirely
dependent upon philosophical or theological speculation, no help could
be expected from such endeavors to assist in the daily walks of life. But
half a century has passed since the study of consciousness was switched
into the tracks of exact scientific investigation. Five decades ago the
psychologists began to devote themselves to the most minute
description of the mental experiences and to explain the mental life in a
way which was modeled after the pattern of exact natural sciences.
Their aim was no longer to speculate about the soul, but to find the
psychical elements and the constant laws which control their
connections. Psychology became experimental and physiological. For
more than thirty years the psychologists have also had their workshops.
Laboratories for experimental psychology have grown up in all
civilized countries, and the new method has been applied to one group
of mental traits after another. And yet we