Industrial Psychology
REVIEWS :Author: Morris S. Viteles. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1932.
It is a far cry from the early literature of psychology in its industrial and business applications to the masterly resume of contemporary literature in the field of psychotechnology which characterizes the volume Industrial Psychology written by Doctor Morris S. Yiteles of the University of Pennsylvania. Only twenty years have elapsed since Miinsterberg made the first systematic formulation of the problems and scope of industrial psychology. Yet the volume under examination is at once a tribute to the validity of the problems to which Miinsterberg gave so much of his time and the progress which has been made in the scientific exploration of the problems involved in relating the science of human behavior to industry and business.
A paragraph in the preface of the book describes the author’s aim very concisely. “The guiding principle in the selection of material for this volume has been the desire to present a comprehensive picture of modern industrial psychology. The objective has been that of showing the genesis, the problems, the settings, the findings, and the accomplishments of the newer application of psychology.” To realize this end the author has drawn extensively upon European literature in this field and has described the significant contributions which psychotechnologists in Germany, France, Italy, and England have made. The introduction of so much material from these sources not only gives a more comprehensive view of the situation but introduces the student to personalities and techniques about which he would most likely have no information were he dependent entirely upon earlier texts on industrial psychotechnique. The subject matter is divided into three sections.
Section I deals with the foundations of industrial psychology. The first five chapters in this section do much more than give a history of the development of this phase of the science of psychology. They reveal the economic, social, and psychological foundations upon which industrial psychotechnique rests. In the opinion of the writer of this review these discussions furnish a more adequate basis for insight and orientation than are to be found in any other volume of this character so far published. The last two chapters of the section deal with the nature and origin of individual differences which are of rather conventional character so far as information is concerned. Statistical techniques and methods are described briefly with sufficient application to industrial problems in the form of illustrations and graphs to relate them effectively to the industrial field. Doctor Yiteles assumes, and rightly so, that the serious student of industrial psychology should already have acquired statistical and experimental tools with which to work intelligently in the field. In treating the subject matter from this point of view, the writer has eliminated the necessity of introducing a text book on statistics into the volume under discussion, and at the same time has indicatedby implication, if nothing more, that industrial psychotechnology is a field which requires for its mastery the most complete training in statistical and experimental psychology that it is possible for the student to secure.
In doing this Doctor Yiteles has done the cause of industrial psychology a great service, for it is evident that one of the serious criticisms frequently made of so-called “applied psychology” is that it is superficial and unscientific in character, not worthy of the serious scientific interest of a trained psychologist. While nothing could be further from the truth, there can be no doubt that too much of the literature in the field has not been as carefully based on valid statistical and experimental work as it should have been. Section II discusses the problems involved in fitting the worker to the job. Here the techniques of job analysis are discussed and the most significant research on techniques for interviewing and selecting workers is revealed. Chapters eleven and twelve of the section on the standardization and administration of this test are especially significant. These chapters present in a very concise and objective form the accepted and valid methods for developing, testing, and using psychological tests in business and industry. The discussion of tests in the transportation industry (chapter 14) is particularly valuable to the student because it serves as a rather effective illustration of the application of techniques to concrete industrial problems, many of which the author himself studied and solved. The material given in this chapter will give the business and industrial executive who reads it a new appreciation of the necessity for employing only the most thoroughly trained psychotechnicians, if he anticipates using sound psychological procedures in increasing the effectiveness of his organization. Maintaining fitness at work is the general subject covered in Section III of this volume. The subjects discussed involve the problems of safety and accident prevention, skill and training, the nature and control of industrial fatigue, monotonous work and incentives, maladjustment of the worker and its outcomes, and a concluding chapter on supervision and management. It is neither possible nor necessary that each of these discussions be reviewed in detail. However, particular significance should be attached to the author’s treatment of industrial fatigue and its related problems. Earlier work done on the nature of fatigue has been carefully reviewed and critically evaluated. While the author does not consider that it is necessary to give up the concept of fatigue in spite of the difficulties attendant upon its adequate description and use in industrial psychology, he does point out the dangers and limitations of this concept.
The chapter on the elimination of fatigue contains an excellent analysis of methods employed in industry to control the environment as well as the physiological factors which affect work out-put and the selection of research material for purposes of illustration is particularly effective in this instance. The possibilities of a clinical approach to many of the psychotechnical problems present in the field are suggested in the chapters on “Motives in Industry” and “The Maladjusted Worker.” Here again Doctor Viteles is very conservative in his evaluation of the experimental material available for use in such discussions. In view of the tremendous literature available particularly on the use and effectiveness of financial incentives this section is perhaps less effective in its choice of material than any other in the book.
The last chapter, which deals with the problems of supervision and management, is a logical conclusion for a text of this kind. However, as it is handled by the author it seems somewhat of an anti-climax. This may be due to the paucity of carefully done work on the problem, but it does not add very much to the literature concerning the problem.
To one who is convinced beforehand, as the reviewer is, of the validity and promise of the psychotechnical field for the psychologist, Industrial Psychology by Doctor Yiteles reinforces the faith that is in him and furnishes a tangible proof of the progress already made in controlling the human factor in industry.
The book is brilliantly written and the author’s style is as pleasing as his scholarship is thorough and complete. Individuals who are interested in acquiring a more complete bibliography of the source material in the field will be gratified with the liberal use which Doctor Yiteles has made of bibliographical references and annotations both in the footnotes which occur from page to page and in his acknowledgments at the end of the volume. This is the best survey of the field of industrial psychology that has yet been written. S. N. Stevens
Northwestern University
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