Ability : a psychological study / by Victoria Hazlitt.

  • Hazlitt, Victoria, 1887-1932.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ability : a psychological study / by Victoria Hazlitt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    moral qualities may lead to the success of the less gifted person. The psychological investigation of special abilities is in its very beginning. Up to the present it has followed tw^o main lines : the study of school subjects in relation to special ability or defect, and the study of special industrial tasks with a view to selecting those who show marked ability for them. With regard to school subjects, Dr. Burt puts forward tentatively the view that the five most important capacities are the following : 1 1. Arithmetical Ability. 2. Linguistic ,, (a) verbal, (b) literary. 3. Manual ,, 4. Artistic ,, 5. Musical ,, The results of vocational testing have not led to the establishment of a number of special abilities such as these, but they show clearly that any given industrial task is likely to be better done by some people than by others, and that satisfactory tests for selecting those specially fitted for a given task can be framed. It has been suggested that there are in addition to general and special abilities, group factors, which influence the individual’s performance in a number of special activities. Evidence for such group factors has not been established. The subject will be discussed in a later section (see p. 44 f.). This view of ability as involving a general factor with a number of specific factors raises very many difficulties for the speculative psychologist. In face of the difficulties he is often inclined to be petulant with the experimentalists for presenting him with an array of ill co-ordinated facts, instead of being grateful to them for giving him bones to pick. The difficulties will be considered under the two main headings of “ general capacity ” (chapters II-IV), and “ special abilities ” (chapters V-VII). “ General 1 Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity. H.M. Stationery Office ; cf. also Burt, Educational Abilities, p. 59.