The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

INDIVIDUALITY DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUALITY.--"An individual is a single thing, a being that is, or is regarded as, a unit. An individual is opposed to a crowd. Individual action is opposed to associate action. Individual interests are opposed to common or community interests." These definitions give us some idea of the extent of individuality. Individuality is a particular or distinctive characteristic of an individual; "that quality or aggregate of qualities which distinguishes one person or thing from another, idiosyncrasy." This indicates the content. For our purpose, we may define the study of individuality as a consideration of the individual as a unit with special characteristics. That it is a _unit_ signifies that it is one of many and that it has likeness to the many. That it has _special characteristics_ shows that it is one of many, but different from the many. This consideration of individuality emphasizes both the common element and the diverging characteristics. INDIVIDUALITY AS TREATED IN THIS CHAPTER.--The recognition of individuality is the subject of this chapter. The utilization of this individuality in its deviation from class, is the subject of the chapter that follows, Functionalization. INDIVIDUALITY AS CONSIDERED BY PSYCHOLOGY.--Psychology has not always emphasized the importance of the individual as a unit for study. Prof. Ladd's definition of psychology, quoted and endorsed by Prof. James, is "the description and explanation of states of consciousness, as such."[1] "By states of consciousness," says James, "are meant such things as sensation, desires, emotions, cognitions, reasonings, decisions, volitions, and the like." This puts the emphasis on such divisions of consciousness as, "attention," "interest," and "will." With the day of experimental psychology has come the importance of the individual self as a subject of study,[2] and psychology has come to be defined, as Calkins defines it, as a "science of the self as conscious."[3] We hear much in the talk of today of the "psychology of the crowd," the "psychology of the mob," and the "psychology of the type," etc., but the mind that is being measured, and from whose measurements the laws are being deduced and formulated is, at the present the _individual_ mind.[4] The psychology which interested itself particularly in studying such divisions of mental activity as attention, will, habit, etc., emphasizes more particularly the likenesses of minds. It is necessary to understand thoroughly all of these likenesses before one can be sure what the differences, or idiosyncrasies, are, and how important they are, because, while the likenesses furnish the background, it is the differences that are most often actually utilized by management. These must be determined in order to compute and set the proper individual task for the given man from standard data of the standard, or first-class man. In any study of the individual, the following facts must be noted:--