Personnel selection in the British Forces

Abstract

Reviews Personnel selection in the British Forces (1949), by Phillip E. Vernon and John B. Parry. This book presents a summarized account of the application of psychological methods to personnel selection in the British Navy, Army, Air Force, and Army Territorial Service during World War II. In the judgment of the reviewer the authors have made three significant contributions in the writing of this book: They have presented a brief, clear description of selection procedures as they existed in the British Armed Forces during World War II; the book provides a good summary of the applications of psychology to personnel selection before the war; and the results obtained during the war are critically evaluated and integrated with the knowledge which existed prior to the war. A drawback is that the serious student of personnel psychology may be disappointed to find that data are presented only in summarized form. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)