In short, this type of analysis, which, whether accepted seriously or not, represents the latest word from a distinguished psychologist on the differences among the occupations, gives us no more assistance toward the basis of a vocational psychograph than did the catalogs of sterling virtues provided by the employers in their replies to the questionnaires.
Various other types of analysis have been proposed, as well as different criteria, on the basis of which the occupations might be thrown under some form of psychological classification. Thus it has been pointed out that the traditional distinctions on the basis of materials handled or type of product produced, give little indication of the type of activity involved or of the characteristics necessary for success. As Schneider has remarked: "If a boy were successful in wood-shop work, he was told he would make a good carpenter; however, wood-turning in a shop and outdoor carpentry are dissimilar types, while wood-turning in a shop and metal-turning in a shop are similar types."
Schneider has for many years considered the problems involved in adjusting human beings to congenial types of work, and prefers to classify both men and jobs on the basis of certain broad characteristics which refer more particularly to interests, habits, preferences and similar temperamental factors than to the technical psychological mechanisms employed in the work. He writes: "Every individual has certain broad characteristics and every type of work requires certain broad characteristics. The problem, then, is to state the broad characteristics, to devise a rational method to discover these characteristics (or talents) in individuals, to classify the types of jobs by the talents they require and to guide the youth with certain talents into the type of job which requires those talents. This is a big problem, but one possible of measurable solution, or, at worst, possible of a solution immeasurably superior to our present haphazard methods."
As an illustration of what Schneider means by "broad characteristics," take his distinction between the "settled" and the "roving" types. "There is a type of man who wants to get on the same car every morning, get off at the same corner, go to the same shop, ring up at the same clock, stow his lunch in the same locker, go to the same machine and do the same class of work, day after day. Another type of man would go crazy under this routine; he wants to move about, meet new people, see and do new things. The first is settled; the second is roving. The first might make a good man for a shop manufacturing a standard product; the second might make a good railroad man or a good outdoor carpenter."