Employment psychology : the application of scientific methods to the selection, training and grading of employees / by Henry C. Link.

  • Henry Charles Link
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Employment psychology : the application of scientific methods to the selection, training and grading of employees / by Henry C. Link. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in their profession. No doubt they do. However, many a psychologist to-day, while standing in complacent sat- isfaction at the greatness of his medium, can not help wondering what all the fuss is about. And not a few must feel like the fisherman of the Arabian Nights tale when he uncorked the flask and let out the genii. They must be wishing the thing had not escaped them quite so fast. This illustration, however, is a misleading one. According to the story, the genii of the flask was an accommodating spirit who did anything which his master required. But psychology will not do everything which the psychologist could require of it. Far from it. Only those who know least about psychology can make it solve every problem and perplexity. As a consequence, professional psychologists are put in an embarrassing position in the eyes of the world. In the face of a pre-- vailing impression that the powers of psychology are un- limited, the psychologist knows full well that his science, like every other science, can do some things particularly well but can by no stretch of the imagination accomplish everything. How psychology came to be regarded as the panacea for all ills is difficult to explain. We may attribute it to the great American virtue of advertising, or to that other well-known trait, credulity. If Barnum were living to-day, he would undoubtedly have a side show of psychological wonders. However, it has been characteristic of people from times past to put all their eggs into one basket. Five thousand years ago, astrology was the cult which could solve all human ills. The astrologer was succeeded by the philosopher, and for many centuries more, philos- ophy was regarded as the touchstone of the sciences, and the philosopher as the wisest of the wise. To take things