Review of Principles of Applied Psychology

Abstract

Reviews the book, Principles of Applied Psychology by A. T. Poffenberger (1942). This book contains 35 chapters and 114 figures that reflect the enormous growth in the scope and materials of applied psychology. However, it is selective rather than encyclopedic in character. Its selections follow the main stream of applied psychology, which, as the author defines it, is "so to adjust differentially endowed individuals by training them, by selection of their environment, and by the control of this environment that they may attain the maximum of social productivity and the maximum of personal satisfaction." Thus the adjustment of the individual to his own satisfaction as well as that of society becomes the central theme of this book. The author's emphasis on the psychology of the individual should prove a wholesome antidote. The author's lucid and swift-moving style makes reading a pleasure. The mechanics of the book facilitate rather than hinder its reading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)