Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments) -- SSA Says Do Not Consider Them

The Commissioner re-issued EM-21065 REV 2 effective January 6, 2025. EM-21065 follows the effective date of SSR 24-3p, removed references to SSR 00-4p, and made editorial changes. EM-21065 describes the SkillTRAN products (OccuBrowse, Job Browser Pro, and OASYS) as useful but does not replace policy, judgment, or decision-making. EM-21065 emphasizes that the SkillTRAN reports of aptitudes and work situations (temperaments) are not consistent with agency policy:

These ratings do not represent functional requirements for work because they reflect the personal interests, natural abilities, and personality characteristics of job incumbents rather than occupational requirements that adjudicators must consider when assessing the vocational impact of limitations or restrictions resulting from a medically determinable impairment(s), as is required for SSA’s disability programs.

SSA misapprehends the origin of aptitudes and temperaments. These data categories are not part of SkillTRAN products but are instead part of the DOT dataset. Every major reporter of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) dataset report aptitudes and temperaments. The Selected Characteristics of Occupations (SCO) is just that, a statement of selected characteristics. The selected characteristics implies that the dataset contains other characteristics that the Department of Labor did not select. The "unselected" characteristics include not only aptitudes and temperaments but also work fields and materials, products, subject matter, and services codes (necessary for transferable skills analysis). 

The Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (DOL 1991) (RHAJ) explains all data fields used in the DOT, SCO, and the unselected characteristics. The RHAJ defines aptitudes in chapter 9. The RHAJ explains:

Every aptitude factor must be considered independently in the rating process for each job. The analyst estimates the level of each aptitude required of the worker for average, satisfactory performance based on a careful evaluation of the work activities of the job and the specific worker abilities which can be identified in terms of the aptitudes.

The RHAJ defines the 11 aptitudes:

General Learning Ability -- the ability to "catch on" or understand instructions and underlying principles. 

Verbal Aptitude -- the ability to understand the meaning of words and to use them effectively. 

Numerical Aptitude -- the ability to perform arithmetic operations quickly and accurately. 

Spatial Aptitude -- the ability to think visually of geometric forms and to comprehend two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional objects. 

Form Perception -- the ability to perceive pertinent detail in objects or in pictorial or graphic material. 

Clerical Perception -- the ability to perceive pertinent detail in verbal or tabular material.

Motor Coordination -- the ability to coordinate eyes and hands or fingers rapidly and accurately in making precise movements with speed. 

Finger Dexterity -- the ability to move the fingers and manipulate small objects with the fingers rapidly and accurately. 

Manual Dexterity -- the ability to move the hands easily and skillfully. 

Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination -- the ability to move the hand and foot coordinately with each other in accordance with visual stimuli. 

Color Discrimination -- The ability to match or discriminate between colors in terms of hue, saturation, and brilliance.

Each of these abilities pertain to specific work functions required of the ability to perform work activity. General learning ability relates to the ability to meet the bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQ) of work, to become proficient within prescribed training periods. Coordination and dexterity relate to the ability to perform work tasks according to employer expectations. The 11 categories of aptitudes represent functional abilities whether naturally occurring or diminished by medically determinable impairments. 

Semi-skilled can require coordination and dexterity. 20 CFR § 404.1568(b). The ability to perform light work includes sedentary work unless the person has a loss of dexterity or inability to sit for long periods. 20 CFR § 404.1567(b). The aptitudes address the reasonable expectations of employers related to the BFOQ. 

The RHAJ explains temperaments in chapter 10:

Temperaments, a component of Worker Characteristics, are the adaptability requirements made on the worker by specific types of jobs. 

The category Temperaments is one of the components of job analysis because different job situations call for different personality traits on the part of the worker. Experience in placing individuals in jobs indicates that the degree to which the worker can adapt to work situations is often a determining factor for success. A person's dissatisfaction or failure to perform adequately can sometimes be attributed to an inability to adapt to a work situation rather than to an inability to learn and carry out job duties.

EM-21065 focuses on personality traits ignoring the concept of the ability to adapt. The inability to adapt to work or vocational adaptability is grounded in the medical-vocational guidelines (the grids). Appendix 2 § 201.00(c) holds:

Vocational adjustment to sedentary work may be expected where the individual has special skills or experience relevant to sedentary work or where age and basic educational competences provide sufficient occupational mobility to adapt to the major segment of unskilled sedentary work. Inability to engage in substantial gainful activity would be indicated where an individual who is restricted to sedentary work because of a severe medically determinable impairment lacks special skills or experience relevant to sedentary work, lacks educational qualifications relevant to most sedentary work (e.g., has a limited education or less) and the individual's age, though not necessarily advanced, is a factor which significantly limits vocational adaptability.

Subsection (g) states that people closely approaching advanced age have limited vocational adaptability. See also §  202.00(c), (d). Vocational adjustment represents the correct inquiry in §§  201.00(c), (f), (g), (h), 202.00(b), (c), (f), 203(c). Vocational adjustment and adaptability is an important part of the step five analysis of the ability to successfully perform other work on a sustained basis. SSR 96-8p, 83-10 (the issue of work adjustment), 85-15, 83-11. The RHAJ definition of temperaments as related to the ability to adapt as including the concept of adjustment puts this category of the nature of work as compliant with the policy articulated by the regulations. 

Aptitudes and temperaments represent functional requirements and relate to the question of vocational adjustment and adaptability. These data points within the DOT dataset correlate with questions that arise in the sequential evaluation process and warrant pointed inquiry in appropriate cases. EM-21065 does not identify an ambiguity in the regulations and is inconsistent with the requirement that adjudicators take administrative notice of the requirements of unskilled work in the national economy. 

This is what happens when an agency chooses to legislate outside of formal or informal rulemaking processes. 

___________________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments) -- SSA Says Do Not Consider Them, California Social Security Attorney (January 9, 2025) https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com

The author has been AV-rated since 2000 and listed in Super Lawyers since 2008.