Similar conclusions were reached by Jung on the basis of experimental psychology.[1]
Jung and Riklin collected a great number of associations from normal persons with the intention of finding out first whether there exists any regularity in the reactions, and second whether there are definite reaction types. It was soon found that the process of association is an extraordinarily flighty and variable psychic process, and is under the influence of numberless psychical events which are beyond the limits of objective control. It was also found that attention exerts the greatest influence on the association process. It directs and modifies the associative process and at the same time can be most readily controlled by experiments. It is the delicate affective apparatus which is the first to react in abnormal physical and psychic conditions, thus modifying the associative accomplishments. It was therefore decided to investigate experimentally the following questions:
1. The laws of fluctuation in association within normal limits.
2. The direct effects of attention on the process of association, especially whether the validity of association relatively diminishes with the distance from the fixation point of consciousness.
A number of educated and uneducated persons were examined. A hundred stimulus words were given and the reactions noted. The reaction time was measured with a one fifth second stop watch. The second series consisted of one hundred associations plus internal distraction by means of the "A-phenomenon" (Cordes), and the third series of one hundred associations was taken by external distraction by means of a metronome. Altogether 12,400 associations were taken and were classified as follows:
| I. | Inner associations. |
1. Coördination; e. g., cherry—apple, murder—gallows, sea—depth, father—God.
2. Predicative relation; e. g., snake—poisonous, war—bloody, mountain—beautiful, water—refreshing.
3. Causal dependence; e. g., cut—pain, pain—tears, appetite—fat, frost—cold.
- ↑ Jung und Riklin: Diagnost. Associationsstudien, Beit., I.
