It would require several trials to guess of what particular occupation this is a psychographic picture.
It is clear at once that this method yields little information of the kind we are here considering, beyond the cataloging of the general sterling virtues of mankind. The peculiar and distinctive mental functions presumably involved in the various types of work are just the ones that no one not an expert in psychological analysis could be expected adequately to portray. The so-called special qualifications, such as honesty, patience, attention, neatness, perseverance, etc., do not represent elementary psychological categories. Moreover, they are qualifications with which no legitimate sphere of human activity can afford to dispense. In the long run they are characteristics which correlate to a high degree or, indeed, perhaps help to make up and constitute what we call general intelligence. In no case is there any specification of the precise amount of these various traits that may be needed. Since the days of the faculty psychology we have ceased to think of attention, memory, will, etc., as homogeneous powers which play in a general sort of way on all sorts of material. We usually find that when an individual is inattentive to one set of facts this is largely due to his being attentively preoccupied with some other set. Still further, no tests have been proposed which satisfactorily measure such traits as honesty, perseverance, promptness. Nor is it certainly known to what degree such traits are fixed characteristics of individuals and to what degree they represent present habits and tendencies modifiable in many ways if the circumstances call for such change.
Turning from the employer himself, and his description of the ideal worker, we may inquire what happens when the professional psychologist undertakes this analysis? The only case in which an expert psychologist has attempted this is to be found in Münsterberg's recent book on "Vocation and Learning." It is there pointed out that every act and experience has its threefold aspect, the aspect of knowing, that of feeling, and that of doing. Corresponding to these three aspects, there are to be pointed out in the case of each occupation the required information, the necessary technical skill, and the special guiding personal interests and social satisfactions. In order to clarify our knowledge of the special needs of the various vocations, and presumably to aid in the guidance of individuals in their vocational choices, eleven different representative vocations are analyzed on this threefold basis. Two or three of the analyses may be given here as an indication of the results arrived at by this method at the hands of the avowed applied psychologist. The specification of the particular technical knowledge we need not include for our purpose, since this consists of information supplied through some form of education. The outline on the following page brings together the requisite abilities and the implied motives and interests, as stated for the occupations of domestic worker, architect, physician, and journalist.