Occupational Misfits

BY SIB ROBERT W'TT MANY thinkers who have meditated upon the problem of the existence of evil have been disposed to argue that without evil there can be no good. They have pointed out that the morally desirable condition of being patient with those who dislike us is an a priori impossibility unless the morally undesirable activity of disliking exists. At least it is certain that we cannot properly appreciate- good unless we have manifest evil with which to compare it. In the same way, we may have difficulty ins,' recognizing the full value of industrial efficiency unless we can place that efficiency side by side with inefficiency.

Fortunately this is often the case and it affords reason why the investigation on the pattern of the one which Miss Bevington has recently carried out for the National Institute of Industrial Psychology proves so penetratingly effective.

In the book under review she records the comparisons she has made between two groups of workers—one group of 200 employed youths and one group of 200 unemployed youths—in her endeavour to discover the relative importance of economic, social and psychological factors in industrial success. Tottenham was obviously set for the scene of the investigation, as the distribution of male juvenile occupations in that area corresponds closely to that of London as a whole. The boys examined were between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, and it was arranged that the groups approached should be large enough and representative enough to afford a statistically adequate (aftd - random) sample. For good reasons the questionnaire method was used in the examination of the employed youths ; the unemployed were seen personally, " not across an office table, but in a bare kitchen, sitting beside a gas-fire, usually smoking the proffered cigarette, and in such a position that they could easily see their replies being noted down."

The enquiry revealed, first of all, the astonishing extent to which headmasters—in one London area, at least—fail to supply their boys with vocational advice. In the vast majority, of the cases, w#4_Tittich she was conceriaed no guidance whatever appeared .to. .1raye, been given. Miss Bevington points out, however, very fairly, that a number of circumstances may have influenced this omission.

- Those familiar with the conditions will well understand that the headmaster already overburdened may not have sufficient time at his disposal to become individually acquainted with

his boys. •.

1 " Or again, he may be discouraged from undertaking the responsi. *14 of swing vocational advice by the increased rapidity with which industrial changes now occur. For instance, within the last decade the manufacture of wireless sets has unfavolirably affeeted the manufacture of pianofortes. ,While the -latter trade employbd many skilled men in Tottenham, the former trade largely employs semi-skilled girl workers and has few local centres. Consequently, the headmaster who, before the War, encouraged. promising lass to enter the pianoferte industry must often hive regretted' giving this

advice." ,

'The parents as a rule are equally disinclined or unable 'to advise helpfully. Indeed, the most crucial decision in life- is usually made by the boy taking ." any job that comes along," ignorant alike of the prospects of the job or the powers 'of the Occupational Misfits. By Sheila Bevington, B.Sc.(Econ.),•*,ith • ' a Foreword by Charles S. Myers, Principal, National Institute of Industrial Psychology. (Allen and Unwin. as)

Miss Bevington's principal finding is that psychological factors (and particularly temperamental, as distinct from intellectual, factors) are-usually- of far greater importance in the determination of industrial success than either social or economic advantage.

From this two holfclusions must -be dravin. If- adequate Vocational guidance is to- be Tiven to boys of school-leaving age, it is iVidenethat a considerahle part in the formulation of that guidance must be played by advisers who have a sound working'knowledge" of psychology. Equally it must be recognized that nOlnere lcnowledgetif the theorrand practice of ability-testing can provide a sufficient basis for the git Mg of advice of this kind eXperience and skill in the assessment of temperamental factors (or " character traits," as they are

frequently •-• calltd)• is indispensable. The' task difficult enough.

Many praiseworthy atteMpts have been made (mostly by American psychologists) to provide' the modern interviewer with fool-proof devices which will enable him to arrive at a quick, but accurate, estimate of his victim's temperamental. qualities. But it is evidently the-considered-opinion. of the Institute that few, if any, of these iksts are worth the-time required for them. Yet the boy's character traits cannot -be ignored simply because -psychologists have-not yet succeeded

in perfecting reliable tests for them. -

' It is not within the scope of Miss Bevington's admirable survey to give a detailed description Of the methods adopted by the Institute in its own attempt to solve this important problem. That has just -been done -by Dr. Angus Macrae, the Head of the Institute's -Vocational Guidance Section, in his Talents and Temperaments, which gives the most vivid and non-technical account' of the psychology of vocational guidance yet published. Briefly, however, these methods consist' in the study of information collected by means of carefully worded questions from those in closest touch with the boy, his parents and schoolmasters, and the study, in an unhurried interview, of the boy himself.

Aft important point in the anther's summing-up is -his insistence upon the adVerse effect on a boy's industrial career of ." an occupationally ,aimless Outlook on'leaving school." Chance so often governs choice. What is needed is to bring home the wide field- of- Opportunity from which deliberate Selection should be made. She -suggests,- for example, that simply worded talks on occupations shouldlorm a permanent feature of broadcast-programmes, and, happy-omen, on- the day following the publication of 'this book the British Broadcasting Corporation actually opened a series of addresses on these lines.- She further' advocates an increased -number Of schoolboy visit§ to factories, offices and shops and that- .

" certain Schriel 1138061111 might be made to centre Maud a piojected visit forseveraldays beforehand, Thus; for instance; the srithmetio of piecework eariungs,. the history of, the lathe, the geography of England's chief engineerinx_eeptres . . , might serve to stimulate the bey's imagination and interest on visiting the local-engineering *rats:- The 'orgsnisation of sash-visits-ard the'ultimate vocational testing of the boy himself should be placed in the hands of specialist

Careers-Masters," ,

=incidentally relievingthe Employment Exchanges of respon- sibility for 'estimating capacities and leaving theni to their proper duty of finding Work. The whole subject- is of vital interest to everYonei whether parent or child; employer or employed,