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Jung's Word Associaton Test

Jung developed the word association test to uncover unconscious mental processes. The test involves presenting a subject with a list of 100 words and recording their immediate responses, as well as response times. Words that elicit longer response times, different answers the second time, or mechanical responses indicate the presence of complexes, which are emotionally charged unconscious ideas. Analyzing a subject's responses provides insight into their hidden complexes and personality traits. Jung found the test useful for therapy but later abandoned it, though it is still sometimes used today in Jungian therapy and as a projective technique.

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767 views2 pages

Jung's Word Associaton Test

Jung developed the word association test to uncover unconscious mental processes. The test involves presenting a subject with a list of 100 words and recording their immediate responses, as well as response times. Words that elicit longer response times, different answers the second time, or mechanical responses indicate the presence of complexes, which are emotionally charged unconscious ideas. Analyzing a subject's responses provides insight into their hidden complexes and personality traits. Jung found the test useful for therapy but later abandoned it, though it is still sometimes used today in Jungian therapy and as a projective technique.

Uploaded by

Moussa Sbeity
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Jung's Word Association test

(by Moussa Sbeity, 4/02/2022)

'Our conscious intentions and actions are often frustrated by unconscious processes whose very
existence is a continual surprise to us. We make slips of the tongue and slips in writing and unconsciously
do things that betray our most closely guarded secrets – which are sometimes unknown even to
ourselves. … These phenomena can … be demonstrated experimentally by the association tests, which
are very useful for finding out things that people cannot or will not speak about.' [“The Structure of the
Psyche,” CW 8, par. 296.]

Word association testing has been used extensively in psychology to assess the personality of the test
subjects (Galton, 1880; Kent and Rosanoff, 1910; Russell, 1970). However, and thanks to Freud's
discoveries, Jung added to the test an important twist: its application to unconscious mental processes.
It is thanks to his studies in word association (published later as a book) that Jung discovered what he
called 'complexes'.

[A complex] is the image of a certain psychic situation which is strongly accentuated emotionally and is,
moreover, incompatible with the habitual attitude of consciousness. [“A Review of the Complex Theory,”
CW 8, par. 201.]

The efficiency of the test is based on the premise that as individuals with an unconscious side, what is
hidden in this unconscious, so to speak, tends to frustrate our conscious activities. The test thus relies on
the dynamic of projection, where aspects of our personalities are projected, or revealed.

The typical word association test consists of a list of one hundred words. The subject is asked to give an
immediate association, that is, the first word that comes to mind whenever a word is mentioned.

''objects once experienced together tend to become associated in the imagination, so that when any one
of them is thought of, the others are likely to be thought of also, in the same order of sequence or
coexistence as before” (Wettler and Rapp, 1996).

The principle of mental association is also old:

" Do you not know, then, that lovers when they see a lyre, or a garment, or anything else which their
favourite is accustomed to use, are thus affected ; they both recognize the lyre and receive in their minds
the form of the person to whom the lyre belonged." ( 'The Phaedo', Plato)

This is repeated a second time. Meanwhile, the analyst measures the delay in response for each word,
then asks the subject for comments on words to which there was a delay, a different association in the
second round, or a mechanical response. These words are marked as 'complex indicators'.

After the test, a sort of a map of personal complexes is produced.

Jung believed this test was excellent for family therapy, though he abandoned it later. Nowadays, it’s still
a relevant resource that several studies support. It's used in Jungian therapy programs or as a
complementary projective technique. (https://exploringyourmind.com/carl-jung-word-association-test/)

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