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People love projective tests. They are also loved by sellers, because after them it is easy to sell anything.
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An association is a connection in memory, when another appears in a person’s head without justification after one.
Domestic bird? — Hen! Poet? — Pushkin!
Open the dictionary in a random place and poke your finger at a random word. Read it. Now name a few other words that come to mind when you say the first word. For example: «white» -> «snow», «white» -> «day», «white» -> «light»; «black» -> «soot», «black» -> «crow»; «tank» -> «armor», «tank» -> «gun». Etc. Such a pair of words is called an association. If you take the second word in a pair and come up with an association already to it, then a chain of three words and two associations will appear.
Thus, it is possible to build arbitrarily long chains.
Why and how associations form themselves
Associations appear most often by contiguity in space and time: speaking of poultry, chicken is most often mentioned — we remember this. Forks often lie next to spoons on the table — hence the frequent associative connection «spoon-fork». And the “spoon” and the “fusion collider” are neither spatially nor temporally connected in our experience, and such an association is not typical. Associations by similarity (blue-blue) and by contrast (black-white) are a special case.
When do we associate something with something, and when do we not? Most often, the factor of impression and novelty influences. The brighter and stronger something made an impression on us, the sooner we will not only remember it, but will remember it in connection with everything that surrounded it: where, with whom, when, how … Similarly, associations arise faster and more vividly in connection with something new that attracted attention due to the effect of novelty.
In addition to the effect of novelty, the effect of repetition affects the formation of associations. If this girl usually smiles, she will be called Sunshine more often. Smile more often!
Much is determined by the direction of attention of the person himself. Girls have girlish associations, boys have boyish associations, adults have adults, and sexually charged young people have predominantly sexual associations. “What do you think about when you look at a brick? — About the girls. — And why? How are bricks and girls related? “And I always think about them…”
The physiological mechanism for the formation of most associations, most likely, is combination reflexes in the understanding of V.M. Bekhterev. However, the emergence of most associations can be explained as conditioned reflexes according to I.P. Pavlov, and the concept of «reinforcement», more often used in behaviorism.
The use of associations in practical psychology
The method of free (for Jung — directed) associations has been actively used and is still being used in psychoanalysis.
In projective tests, people are presented with a picture with unclear content, and by the nature of the prevailing associative connections, one can draw a conclusion about the person’s characteristic way of perceiving and thinking, about his feelings, needs and interests.
In 1936, Milton Erickson wrote an article in which he outlined the results of his experiment with a word test. associations, the essence of which is that a person unconsciously gives an association to stimulus the word with the words that describe it problem. For example, in response to the stimulus word “belly”, the subject gave the following words: big, anxiety, baby, afraid, operation, illness, forgotten. And that was information about her unwanted pregnancy that she didn’t remember.
Managed associations
Creative people themselves can create their own creative associations, finding interesting and memorable associations. Managed associations are associations that we ourselves create and ourselves can correct or erase. By creating controlled associations, you and I can control our attention and memory.
If you want to remember what you need today when you leave the house, vividly imagine how you see the hallway and immediately remember: «Umbrella!»
And if you heard a good joke, immediately figure out in what company and setting it would be appropriate, and immediately create a picture for yourself that you are with these people in such an environment and tell this joke. With a high probability you will remember him in that situation.