Psychology and Industrial Efficiency | Page 8

particular direction; yet such an exceptional
mental disposition might be the cause of special success in certain
vocations. But we may abstract from the extremes of abnormal
deficiency and abnormal overdevelopment in particular functions.
Between them we find the broad region of the average minds with their
numberless variations, and these variations are usually quite unknown
to their possessors. It is often surprising to see how the most manifest
differences of psychical organization remain unnoticed by the
individuals themselves. Men with a pronounced visual type of memory
and men with a marked acoustical type may live together without the
slightest idea that their contents of consciousness are fundamentally
different from each other. Neither the children nor their parents nor
their teachers burden themselves with the careful analysis of such
actual mental qualities when the choice of a vocation is before them.
They know that a boy who is completely unmusical must not become a
musician, and that the child who cannot draw at all must not become a
painter, just as on physical grounds a boy with very weak muscles is
not fit to become a blacksmith. But as soon as the subtler
differentiation is needed, the judgment of all concerned seems helpless
and the physical characteristics remain disregarded.
A further reason for the lack of adaptation, and surely a most important
one, lies in the fact that the individual usually knows only the most
external conditions of the vocations from which he chooses. The most
essential requisite for a truly perfect adaptation, namely, a real analysis
of the vocational demands with reference to the desirable personal

qualities, is so far not in existence. The young people generally see
some superficial traits of the careers which seem to stand open, and,
besides, perhaps they notice the great rewards of the most successful.
The inner labor, the inner values, and the inner difficulties and frictions
are too often unknown to those who decide for a vocation, and they are
unable to correlate those essential factors of the life-calling with all that
nature by inheritance, and society by surroundings and training, have
planted and developed in their minds.
In addition to this ignorance as to one's own mental disposition and to
the lack of understanding of the true mental requirements of the various
social tasks comes finally the abundance of trivial chances which
become decisive in the choice of a vocation. Vocation and marriage are
the two most consequential decisions in life. In the selection of a
husband or a wife, too, the decision is very frequently made dependent
upon the most superficial and trivial motives. Yet the social
philosopher may content himself with the belief that even in the
fugitive love desire a deeper instinct of nature is expressed, which may
at least serve the biological tasks of married life. In the choice of a
vocation, even such a belief in a biological instinct is impossible. The
choice of a vocation, determined by fugitive whims and chance fancies,
by mere imitation, by a hope for quick earnings, by irresponsible
recommendation, or by mere laziness, has no internal reason or excuse.
Illusory ideas as to the prospects of a career, moreover, often falsify the
whole vista; and if we consider all this, we can hardly be surprised that
our total result is in many respects hardly better than if everything were
left entirely to accident. Even on the height of a mental training to the
end of adolescence, we see how the college graduates are too often led
by accidental motives to the decision whether they shall become
lawyers or physicians or business men, but this superficiality of choice
of course appears much more strongly where the lifework is to be built
upon the basis of a mere elementary or high school education.
The final result corresponds exactly to these conditions. Everywhere, in
all countries and in all vocations, but especially in the economic careers,
we hear the complaint that there is lack of really good men.
Everywhere places are waiting for the right man, while at the same time

we find everywhere an oversupply of mediocre aspirants. This,
however, does not in the least imply that there really are not enough
personalities who might be perfectly fit even for the highest demands
of the vocations; it means only that as a matter of course the result in
the filling of positions cannot be satisfactory, if the placing of the
individuals is carried on without serious regard for the personal mental
qualities. The complaint that there is lack of fit human material would
probably never entirely disappear, as with a better adjustment of the
material, the demands would steadily increase; but it could at least be
predicted with high probability that this lack of really fit material
would not be felt so keenly everywhere