A vocational guidance research in Fife / by F.M. Earle and J. Kilgour.

  • Earle, F. M. (Frank Maynard), 1888-
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A vocational guidance research in Fife / by F.M. Earle and J. Kilgour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    should be of great help to all who are attempting to use psychological methods in vocational guidance. The results are not always what we had expected them to be ; indeed, our experience has been that im¬ pressions formed during the work of examination were often the creation of prejudices having for their justification only the casual observations of the moment rather than the logic of science and mathematics. Ac¬ cordingly, an appeal to the latter, as in this Report, seems all the more necessary. At the same time, mathematical comparisons may be pushed too far. This is particularly true in the present instance of our follow-up data. If we omit those children who are still at school, those who have left the district, those who have never been employed, and those who have only found employment within the last year or so, it is apparent that the remainder do not constitute a sufficiently promising group for numerical comparisons of posts taken and relinquished, classified according to their agreement with the advice given. The effect of the disturbing influences must have been so great in relation to the number of cases under examination that it would be unwise to attach undue significance to mere numerical comparisons. In this connection it is necessary to remember the number of cases (cf. p. 21) in which the length of time spent in employment is less than two years ; so that even if work has been found which agrees with the advice given, the time required to prove its suitability is not very long. With these facts in mind we have tried to present our conclusions in a way most useful to the vocational investigator and teacher. We have not sought primarily to demonstrate once again how valuable a psychological examination is in vocational guidance, although we do consider it (p. 49). As a main aim of investigation, this has received sufficient attention in the Institute’s previous inquiries. Moreover, the general principle that a fuller examination of the individual contri¬ butes to better vocational guidance is now generally accepted.1 In the present investigation it has seemed more desirable to show how the detailed procedure of examination is related to the advising of the individual boy or girl and to his or her success at his work. We have attempted to do this by grouping together the facts regarding boys and girls recommended for similar kinds of work, and by studying the 1 Occupations, The Vocational Guidance Magazine, Symposium Number, April 1934.