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Personnel Selection in the British Forces

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Personnel Selection in the British Forces _ PERSONNEL SELECTION IN THE BRITISH FORCES PHILIP E. VERNON M.A., Ph.D. : and JOHN B. PARRY B.A., Ph.D. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS Lop. WARWICK SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.4. First PRINTED . :..* 1949 AGENTS OVERSEAS AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH SEA ISLANDS W. S. SMART P.O. Box 120, Sypngy, N.S.W. Showroom: 558, GeorgeStreet. CANADA CLARKE, IRWIN & Co., LTD., 103, St. Clair Avenue West, TORONTO, 5. EGYPT AND SUDAN Dino JuDAH NAHUM P.O. Box 940, Camo. Showroom: 44, Sharia Sherif Pasha. FAR EAST (including China and Japan) DONALD MOORE 22, Orchard Road, SINGAPORE. INDIA ORIENT LONGMANS LTD., BomsBay : Nicol Road, Ballard Estate. CALCUTTA: 17, Chittaranjan Ave. MADRAs: 36A, Mount Road. SOUTH AFRICA wy H. B. TrmMINs P.O. Box 94, Carpe Town. : Showroom: 58-60, Long Street. Printed & Bound in England for the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Press, LTb. by HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, LTD., Aylesbury and London PREFACE ' Durinc the second World War, scientific methods of personnel selection were applied in the Royal Navy, the Army and A.T\S., and the Royal Air Force on a scale quite unprecedented in Britain. This developmenthas naturally aroused widespread inter- est, and a desire for further information beyond that provided by articles in the popular Press or in technical psychological journals. Thepresent book attempts, therefore, to give an accountof the pro- cedures used andthe results obtained. It is addressed both to the industrialist or educationist who hopes that the methods may be of value in the peace-timeselection of employees, students or pupils, and to the student of psychology or to the personnel officer who wishes to know what psychological discoveries were made and what techniques were found most valuable. If for this reason it falls between two stools, we must apologise; it is not easy to write a simple, readable and interesting description for the former and at the same timeto give the latter all the technical details that he needs. Statistical terms, formule and calculations have been kept to the barest minimum andwill, it is hoped, be published elsewhere. Our primary aim has been to describe such novel contributions as were madein the Fighting Services. But although space has not allowed a comprehensive survey of peace-time selection and guid- ance, we havetried to view our methodsandresults in this broader setting, and to integrate them with recent developments in civilian vocational and educational psychology. After an historical introduction, Part I is concerned with the organisationof selection, the géneral procedures employed, and the work of psychologists in the Royal Navy, Army and A.T.5., and the R.A.F. Part II takes up the principles of selection and guidance which have evolved both from pre-war investigations and from war-time experience. It reviews the techniquesof interviewing and testing, together with evidence of their merits and defects, in some detail. Each’chapter is preceded by a general summary orabstract, and the main conclusions relevant to peace-time work are brought together in the final chapter. It should be made clear that two important topics are almost =§ 6 t PREFACE wholly neglected. First, we have not been able to cover the work on selection problems by psychologists outside the British Fighting Services during 1939-47. Much was done, for example, by mem- bers of the Cambridge University Psychology Department, Uni- versity College (London), and by other teams andindividuals. Again, to attempt to describe the even more extensive develop- ments of personnel selection in the American Forces would have been quite impossibleat the time of writing. Secondly, we have not tried to deal with military applications of psychology apart from selection—for example, studies of training methods, of the design and layout of equipment, of-the effects of conditions of warfare on morale, and so forth—whether conducted by psychologists inside or outside the Services. It may safely be stated that at least as valuable contributions to the efficiency of the Forces can be, and have been, made by psychologists in such fields as by those con- cerned with selection and guidance. The same,of course, is truein industry and education. The reader’s attention is drawn to two appendices whichlist, first the naval, military and air force abbreviations employed, and secondly, the numbers or abbreviated titles of the main psycho- logical tests referred to in the text. Dates are inserted in the text after the authors’ namesto serve as references to their books or articles, whicharelisted in the bibliography at the end of the book. We wish to express our thanks to Mr. Alec Rodger, Col. B. Ungerson, Dr. H. J. Eysenck and Mr. B. S. Morris for reading parts, or the whole, of the manuscript and for their suggestions and criticisms ; and to Mrs. Dorothy Vernon for help in preparing the index. Acknowledgmentsare also due to the American Psycho- logical Association, Inc., and the National Institute of Industrial Psychology for permission to reprint portions of articles (Vernon, 1947a, 1947b, Parry, 1947) which have appeared in The American Psychologist and Occupational Psychology. Finally, it should be stated that this book is published by. permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the Army Council and the Air Council, but the responsibility for any statements of fact or opinions rests solely with the authors. CONTENTS PREFACE . ° Part I. THE RISE OF VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. 11 II PERSONNEL SELECTION IN THE ROYAL NAVY 25 III OTHER RANK SELECTION IN THE ARMY ANDA.T:S. 39 IV ARMY OFFICER SELECTION .. §2 SELECTION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE . Part II VI GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF VOCATIONALCLASSIFICATION . 85 VII THE VALUE OF VOCATIONAL CLASSIFICATION PROCEDURES 103 Vill THE BIOGRAPHICAL QUESTIONNAIRE . 131 IX THE INTERVIEW AND ITS VALIDITY . : 143 PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING . .. 165 XI EFFECTS OF PRACTICE, AGE AND OTHER FACTORS ON TEST SCORES. ..... 181 XII GENERAL SURVEY OF THE VALUE OF VOCATIONAL TESTS . 204 XIII VERBAL INTELLIGENCE AND EDUCATIONAL TESTS e 220 XIV NON-VERBAL AND MECHANICAL TESTS . e \e 234 SPECIAL APTITUDE, AND TEMPERAMENT, TESTS e 247 MAIN R.A.F. SELECTION FINDINGS . e : e e 261 XVII CONCLUSIONS .. 281 Appendices ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED IN THE TEXT ORIN APPEN- DIX II. ; .. ; 293 Il THE MAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS USED IN THE FORCES 295 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. 302 INDEX .. 313 LIST OF DIAGRAMS CHART INDICATING THE MAIN ORIGINS AND THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY , 13 ° SCATTERGRAMS OF CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS WITH SELECTION RATIOS OF 50 PER CENT. AND 20 PER CENT. 129 - PERCENTAGE OF WASTAGE REMAINING WITH DIFFERENT SIZES OF CORRELATION . .. 130 -» PREDICTIVE VALUE OF A CLERICAL APTITUDE TEST ; 179 NINETIETH, FIFTIETH AND TENTH PERCENTILE T2 SCORES OF MEN EMPLOYED IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE NAVY. : .: : . 211 SPECIMEN ITEM AS IN THE PROGRESSIVE MATRICES TEST 235 “SQUARES TEST. ee . .. 237 FIGURE CONSTRUCTION TEST ;: ; . 237 PAPER FORMBOARD TEST . ‘ .... 238 MECHANICAL COMPREHENSION TEST ITEMS .. 241 - PERCENTAGE OF PILOT TRAINING WASTAGE BEFORE GRAD- ING .. : : ‘ ‘ .. 263 PILOT TRAINING WASTAGE BY CALENDAR QUARTERS. 264 FLIGHT TEST (R.A.F.) E.F.T.S.. 264 FLIGHT TEST (R.C.A.F.) SPECIAL GRADING EXPERIMENT . 265 SECOND FLIGHT TEST MARKS, APRIL, 1942. FIRST 100 CADETS GRADED AT EACH SCHOOL . .: 270 | RELATION OF GRADING PERFORMANCE TO SUBSEQUENT wm _ ACCIDENT RATE IN PILOT TRAINING . : 271 ‘RELATION OF GRADING TO AGE DIFFERENCES AND FAILURE RATE e e e e e e e e e 272 PART I Theorganisation of selection, the general procedures employed and the work of psychologists in the Royal Navy, Army and A.T:S., and the Royal Air Force. CHAPTER I THE RISE OF VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Abstract.—Psychology andthe othersocial sciences can help in the solution of many problems of the modern world, both in war and peace. The scientific approach is particularly valuable whenever prediction of human behaviourenters, as in educational and voca- tional selection. The chart on page 13 indicates the main origins and the course of development of vocational psychology, which are described in this chapter. It is a truism that the solution of the problems of individuals and of societies in the modern world depends more on progressin the social sciences, including psychology, sociology and economics, than on further advances in the physical and biological sciences, engineering and medicine. The importance of psychology becomes particularly obvious during periods of emergency such as the two World Wars, since the need for making the mosteffective possible use of human as well as of mechanical resources is then realised. It is the object of this book to describe the developments that occurred in war-time in applying psychology to the classification of British manpower, and especially of mind or brain power.* Scarcely less urgent, however, are the problems of adjusting the individual in peace-time to the educational and industrial systems of the society in which helives, and of adjusting these systems to the legitimate demandsof individuals. Hence we shall attempt to show how far experience gained in the guidance andselection of recruits may becarried overinto civilian practice. Nowthesocial sciences are at the same time the most immature and the mostintractable ofall the sciences precisely because they are concerned with man. Individuals differ too widely in their tastes, talents and temperamentsto be readily amenable toscientific analysis and control. As each oneis usually convinced that he knows * This conception of ‘ ‘human engineering” is borrowed from Yoakum and Yerkes’ book on mental tests in the American Army (1920), and Yerkes’ memo- randum to the U.S. Secretary of War (1941). ll 12 PERSONNEL SELECTION IN THE BRITISH FORCES what is best for himself and his neighbours, he resents being studied, classified and regulated by psychologists and economists. He fears that this involves forfeiting his free choice and being directed in all his doings from birth to the grave by an army of scientific experts—a prospect even more abhorrentthanhis present subjection to teachers, employers and civil servants.
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