CHAPTER XII
MAKING EXPERIENCE AN ASSET: JUDGMENT
FORMATION Increasing Human Efficiency in Business: A Contribution to the Psychology of Business | ||
GENERAL CONDITIONS GIVING VALUE TO EXPERIENCE
1. Health and Vigor.
The mind and body are so intimately connected that the value of an experience is seriously affected by depletion or exhaustion of the body. The experiences acquired when one is fresh and vigorous are remembered; those acquired when one is tired are forgotten. Most college students find that lessons gotten in the morning are better remembered and are more readily applied than those learned after a day of exhaustive work. We get most out of those experiences secured when we are feeling the most vigorous, whether the vigor be dependent upon age, rest, or general health.
2. Experience is valuable proportionately as we apply ourselves to the task on hand. By intensity of application we not only accomplish
3. The value of an experience depends upon what has been called the "personal attitude" sustained during the experience. Three forms of "personal attitudes" have been distinguished and are designated as follows:—
(a) The submissive or suggestible attitude.
(b) The self-attentive attitude.
(c) The objective or the problem attitude.
(a) One is likely to be thrown into the submissive attitude when a new situation arises (a business problem), if one knows that he is in the presence of others who could solve the problem with relative ease or accuracy. In such a situation the individual is hampered in his thinking by the presence of those who are more expert than he. His thinking is
(b) The self-attentive attitude is similar to the submissive attitude, but is not to be confused with it. If when confronted with a difficult problem my attack upon it is weakened by the expectation of assistance from others, I am in a submissive attitude. If, however, my attack is weakened by my realization that I am on trial,—that what I do with the problem will be observed by others,—then I become self-conscious and am thrown into the self-attentive attitude. If I am conscious that I am being watched, it is quite difficult for me to hit a golf ball, to add a column of figures, or to deliver a lecture on psychology. So long as I am self-attentive my efficiency is reduced; I hit on no improved methods of thought or action, and my experience therefore has no permanent value.
(c) So soon as I can forget others and myself and can take the objective, or the problem attitude, the chances of efficient action are greatly increased. I find it relatively easy
4. That experience is the most valuable that is acquired in dealing with conditions similar
The experience secured in responding to one situation will be valuable in responding to a similar situation because of the three following facts:—
(a) Two similar conditions may secure identical factors in our activity. Thus school life and the executive's work secure such identical activities as are involved in reading, in writing, or in arithmetic, and so forth, whether accomplished in the schoolroom or the office.
(b) The method developed in one experience may be applied equally well to another activity. In connection with a course in college, a student may acquire a scientific method of
(c) Ideals developed in one experience may be projected into other experiences. If the ideals of promptness, neatness, accuracy, and honesty are developed in one relationship of life, the probabilities are somewhat increased that the same ideals will be applied to all experiences.
Provided that the four general conditions discussed are secured, we then have the more specific and important question to ask:—
CHAPTER XII
MAKING EXPERIENCE AN ASSET: JUDGMENT
FORMATION Increasing Human Efficiency in Business: A Contribution to the Psychology of Business | ||