< Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu
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THE ASSOCIATION METHOD

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word. The test person waives any reaction; for the moment he totally fails to obey the original instructions, and shows himself incapable of adapting himself to the experimenter. If this phenomenon occurs frequently in an experiment it signifies a higher degree of disturbance in adjustment. I call attention to the fact that it is quite indifferent what reason the test person gives for the refusal. Some find that too many ideas suddenly occur to them, others, that not enough ideas come to their minds. In most cases, however, the difficulties first perceived are so deterrent that they actually give up the whole reaction. The following example shows a case of hysteria with many failures of reaction:

Stimulus
word
Reaction
Time
Unit 0.2 second
ReactionReproduction
to sing9nice+
dead15awful ?
long *40the time, the journey ?
ship †+
to pay11money
window10bighigh
friendly50a manhuman
to cook10soup+
ink9black or blue+
angrybad
needle9to sew+
lamp14light+
to sin
bread15to eat+
rich * †40good, convenient+
yellow18papercolor
mountain10high+
to die15awful+
salt †25salty+
newgood, nice
custom †
to pray
money †35to buy, one is able+
pamphlet16to write+
to despise †22people+
finger †
dear12thing+
bird12sings or flies+
* Denotes misunderstanding.† Denotes repetition of the stimulus words.

In example 3 we find a characteristic phenomenon. The test person is not content with the requirements of the instruction, that is, she is not satisfied with one word but reacts with many words. She apparently does more and better than the instruction requires, but in so doing she does not fulfill the requirements of the instruction. Thus she reacts:—custom—good—barbaric; foolish—narrow minded—restricted; family—big—small—everything possible.

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