UNITED STATES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20180, 7 March 1931, Page 7

UNITED STATES.

STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY SDR. C. E. BEEBY'S IMPRESSIONS. "The chief thing that (America seems to have to offer the world at present is the study of the differences between individuals and the 1 different ways of making them happy, and one of the most strikingly obvious points one notices at present is that most of America's virtues and defects arise from the same causes," Dr. C. E. Beeby, lecturer in psychology at Canterbury College, who has recently returned from a visit to the United States, told a representative of The Pkess last evening. "The essence of the life in the United States at present is a definite attempt to get back to the individualism that the nation has lost through its industrialisation," he said. "One's chief impression is of people, people, people, and of-numbers instead of individuals. "Americans are : proud of their, central heating systems, proud of their refrigerating systems and proud of their medical and surgical clinics, but these things are only the products of the cold in winter, the heat in summer and the incidence of disease. In the same way they have found that through natural causes or through their own mistakes they have lost their individuality and are now using all their skill and the most ingenious systems'to get it back. It is all very good, for us in other countries because it helps us to avoid the mistakes that they're now engaged in repairing, and, if we do make them, gives us a tested cure for them." The intelligence Teat. t Dr. Beeby had much to say regarding titie use of the intelligence tests in America. They were used throughout the school system, and the Americans specialised in treating the individual pupil instead of the group of pupils as .was usually done in New Zealand. As a result of their efforts to care for the sub-normal children, such children were often far better looked after and given a far better chance iri life than the normal children, and they were getting remarkable results with their training of the feeble-minded. He himself knew of one man, who, as a child, had been classed as feeble-minded, but Who, although he had no special ability, was now earning £25 a week. "Of cftrarse many maufacturers offer to hundreds of men work perfectly suitable for sub-normal minds," Dr. Beeby continued. "Men who have nothing to do but tighten* nuts, in the big motor-car factories get seven dollars a day, and these jobs are so dull that usually they can only be done by men a little feeble-minded—normally intelligent men tannot tolerate them, so that there is actually a demand growing up for sub-normals. industrial Psychology. "On the other hand, many firms em-ploy-staffs to look after the workers. One firm makes a point of giving every member o* its staff a personal inter-view-with jne of the management every year, when he can say what'he feels about his work and about his workmates without any prejudice. Many firms use intelligence tests and ' special inentgl tests by which to choose their employees, fend one huge electrical firm has *a permanent staff of four psychologists who do nothing .but research, work. in. in- . dustrial psychology ior the,benefit of the staff." , , , 1 Drl Beeby" thought" tfc&t' when 1 ' they I -were used wisely/ intelligence testa were, . I of the greatest value. In. a State School of 1000 boys, in Detroit, they used 1 general and particular tests to choose boys for special trades. A- few -years' ago thejj took two groups ofr boys;, one group being chosen for specific jobfc on the basis of tests, and .the other chosen by the ordinary, haphazard means. At the end of three' years, 3.7 per cent. 1 of- the tested boys had turned out failures, and roughly 68 per cent, of the untested boys had failed. "The test of a test is, obviously, that I ft should work;" Dr. Beeby remarked. i The Kindergartens. . ~\ Very interesting work was being done in America in connexion with the kindergartens, said Dr. Beeby, ana the study of the ehildren of pre-school ages was ' particularly interesting. . They • took the chOd almost from the day of birth and studied the environment tff tfs birth,,-its mental development, its i diet,, its health and every detail of its life. The parents themselves co-Opera-ted by supplying details of everything the child did at home. A famous kindergarten in Dietroit, having sixty pupils, employed* three psychologists, one doctor and three teachers. "But the most curious thing of all, Dr. Beeby added, "is that though the •child of the poorest and humblest pafeqts can be, and is, treated as expensively and thoroughly in the child -welfare clinics and the kindergartens as the'ohild.of the richest, immediately he is grown up, he becomes a mere' member in,a factory." >' Juvenile Delinquency. While he was in ChWago, Dr, Beeby sat as an honorary member of the Bench in the Children's Court. He was struck with the terrible juvenile delinquency, problem that America is now facing. In 'certain districts in Chicago,, he said, tip to thirty per cent, pi the boys between the ageß of 1* and came before the Court at least once a year. The children were simply being brought up in an environment in which the ffangsters were , treated as - the . local BOds, and there was no getting-them out of it. Again, however, the juvenile offenders were dealt with as individuals, and every effort was made v to fidn out all'about the background of their individual lives'in Order to try to change it to make the child a normal, decent citizen. ♦'lt all costs money, of 6ourse, J)r. Beeby remarked,- "and it is afetonishinif to note that in Chicago, which is probably the mogt corrupt city in the United States, and during last year, which was probably one .of the most corrupt in the history of its adjninistration, nearly £2,50,000 was set aside for child welfare work alone." "The aspect of the United States that is perhaps of greatest interest to Dr, Beeby continued,. "is the fact that everything' they've got, ■whether good or bad, is the logical development of everything we ourselves have at present. For example, they have taken the motor-car to its logical 'conclusion, and now the streets are so | crowded that one can hardlvdrive a car at all: Their . legal code 1§- based oil ours in so far that we. seek to pro*, tect the individual from oppression,- but they have taken it to such.a state.that it now protects the guilty, and the gangster can, by making appeal after appeal, probably get off scot free."