Psychology and Industrial Efficiency | Page 2

stand before the surprising
fact that all the manifold results of the new science have remained book
knowledge, detached from any practical interests. Only in the last ten
years do we find systematic efforts to apply the experimental results of
psychology to the needs of society.
It is clear that the reason for this late beginning is not an unwillingness
of the last century to make theoretical knowledge serviceable to the
demands of life. Every one knows, on the contrary, that the glorious
advance of the natural sciences became at the same time a triumphal
march of technique. Whatever was brought to light in the laboratories
of the physicists and chemists, of the physiologists and pathologists,
was quickly transformed into achievements of physical and chemical
industry, of medicine and hygiene, of agriculture and mining and

transportation. No realm of the external social life remained untouched.
The scientists, on the other hand, felt that the far-reaching practical
effect which came from their discoveries exerted a stimulating
influence on the theoretical researches themselves. The pure search for
truth and knowledge was not lowered when the electrical waves were
harnessed for wireless telegraphy, or the Roentgen rays were forced
into the service of surgery. The knowledge of nature and the mastery of
nature have always belonged together.
The persistent hesitation of the psychologists to make similar practical
use of their experimental results has therefore come from different
causes. The students of mental life evidently had the feeling that quiet,
undisturbed research was needed for the new science of psychology in
order that a certain maturity might be reached before a contact with the
turmoil of practical life would be advisable. The sciences themselves
cannot escape injury if their results are forced into the rush of the day
before the fundamental ideas have been cleared up, the methods of
investigation really tried, and an ample supply of facts collected. But
this very justified reluctance becomes a real danger if it grows into an
instinctive fear of coming into contact at all with practical life. To be
sure, in any single case there may be a difference of opinion as to when
the right time has come and when the inner consolidation of a new
science is sufficiently advanced for the technical service, but it ought to
be clear that it is not wise to wait until the scientists have settled all the
theoretical problems involved. True progress in every scientific field
means that the problems become multiplied and that ever new
questions keep coming to the surface. If the psychologists were to
refrain from practical application until the theoretical results of their
laboratories need no supplement, the time for applied psychology
would never come. Whoever looks without prejudice on the
development of modern psychology ought to acknowledge that the
hesitancy which was justified in the beginning would to-day be
inexcusable lack of initiative. For the sciences of the mind too, the time
has come when theory and practice must support each other. An
exceedingly large mass of facts has been gathered, the methods have
become refined and differentiated, and however much may still be
under discussion, the ground common to all is ample enough to build

upon.
Another important reason for the slowness of practical progress was
probably this. When the psychologists began to work with the new
experimental methods, their most immediate concern was to get rid of
mere speculation and to take hold of actual facts. Hence they regarded
the natural sciences as their model, and, together with the experimental
method which distinguishes scientific work, the characteristic goal of
the sciences was accepted too. This scientific goal is always the
attainment of general laws; and so it happened that in the first decades
after the foundation of psychological laboratories the general laws of
the mind absorbed the entire attention and interest of the investigators.
The result of such an attitude was, that we learned to understand the
working of the typical mind, but that all the individual variations were
almost neglected. When the various individuals differed in their mental
behavior, these differences appeared almost as disturbances which the
psychologists had to eliminate in order to find the general laws which
hold for every mind. The studies were accordingly confined to the
general averages of mental experience, while the variations from such
averages were hardly included in the scientific account. In earlier
centuries, to be sure, the interest of the psychological observers had
been given almost entirely to the rich manifoldness of human
characters and intelligences and talents. In the new period of
experimental work, this interest was taken as an indication of the
unscientific fancies of the earlier age, in which the curious and the
anecdotal attracted the view. The new science which was to seek the
laws was to overcome such popular curiosity.