3. WORD ASSOCIATION TEST
Word Association Test created by Carl Jung, is a completely different
approach in Projective Techniques.
Word Association Test is an experimental method that determined personal
complexes. Complexes were detected through the investigation of words
that had associations and psychological connections. The test was invented
by psychologists prior to Jung; however, he perfected the test, which later
led to the development of the lie detector test and his complex theory.
This test usually consisted of a hundred stimulus words that were read out
singly to a subject .The reaction time, verbal response, and test behavior
were recorded and analyzed. Verbal responses were classified according to
several linguistic categories. Before the experiment begins the test person
receives the following instruction: "Answer as quickly as possible the first
word that occurs to your mind."
4. This instruction is so simple that it can easily be followed by
anybody. The work itself, moreover, appears extremely easy, so
that is might be expected that anyone could accomplish it with the
greatest facility and promptitude. But contrary to expectation the
behavior is quite different.
In this test, the experimenter uses a list of « inducer words »
chosen at random. If two words have a common semantic field,
one of them is suppressed, as a necessary condition to get mere
associations.
The experimenter invites the subject to react to each inductive word
as quickly as possible by pronouncing only the first word which is
elicited in his mind. For example, to the word water, launched by
the experimenter, the subject will answer « wet, or green, or H2O,
or washing », etc.
