Association

ASSOCIATION (from the Latin preposition ad- and socius-companion), in psychology denotes a connection formed under the influence of experience between two or more contents of consciousness (representations, feelings, desires), expressed in the fact that with the appearance of one of them, there is a tendency for the appearance of another, related to it. For many centuries, the study of associative processes was carried out by simple self-observation and, in part, by comparing one's own experiences with observations of the manifestations of mental life in other people. With the introduction of the experimental method into psychology, it began to be applied to the study of A. In this case, in some investigations (Ebbinghaus, G. E. Müller), main attention is paid to the study of the quantitative side of these processes (strength of A., speed of its formation, mutual relationship of associative members), in others (Calkins, Ziehen, Ribot)-to the study of the quality of A. Further development of methods for experimental investigation of A. leads to their use for diagnostic purposes to determine the properties of personality, often lying beyond the clear consciousness of the subject being investigated (Jung, Freud). In this case, the peculiarities of the quantitative side of the associative process (comparative speed and delay in its course) are interpreted as an expression of its qualitative peculiarities. In modern experimental-psychological literature, two basic laws are usually put forward, determining associative connections of coexistence and sequence. The comparative strength and effectiveness of A. is determined, on the basis of experimental research, by the following main conditions: 1) A. is the stronger, the more often the corresponding representations occurred together or followed one another; 2) A. is the stronger, the more attention was concentrated on these representations during their coexistence or following one another; 3) of two A.s possessing equal strength but different duration, the earlier one weakens more slowly than the later one; 4) A. proves to be more durable if the repetitions, at which it is formed, are distributed over a longer period; 5) A. will be stronger if the stronger representation is in the first place; 6) A.s weaken if immediately after their formation follows mental work requiring increased strain of attention (law of backward inhibition); 7) the establishment of a new A. (a+b) is inhibited by the presence of a previous A. (a+c), into the composition of which one of its members enters (law of associative inhibition); 8) members of A., playing the role of intermediate links between other members of the associative series, on which main attention is concentrated, in subsequent repetitions have a tendency to drop out of consciousness; 9) the number of repetitions required to fix given A.s rapidly increases with the increase in length of the associative series; 10) a faster pace of repetition contributes to the more rapid formation of A., but with a slow pace A.s prove to be more durable; 11) representations associated with strong emotions show a tendency to inhibition (law of emotional inhibition).-A large body of material for the study of associative processes is provided by psychopathology (various forms of amnesia, hypermnesia and paramnesia, in particular-diverse phenomena of aphasia), as well as the latest research in the field of zoopsychology and observations on the formation and extinction of so-called (in the terminology of I. P. Pavlov) conditioned reflexes, which are apparently the ultimate basis of associative processes. - On the anatomical-physiological basis of associative processes SEE ASSOCIATIVE CENTERS.A. Nechaev. Struggle of associations - interaction of associative processes, determined by the laws of repetitions, connections and inhibitions. Disorders of associations accompany almost all forms of mental diseases. The most important: 1) Decrease in the number of A. in organic psychoses (progressive paralysis, senile dementia, etc.) as an expression of the destruction of corresponding brain pathways; one of the consequences is weakening of memory. 2) Weakening of A. in schizophrenia: according to Bleuler, as a result of weakening of the tension of the associative process, individual A.s easily slide off already laid paths and give unusual connections, which leads to phenomena of splitting (fragmentation). 3) Strong emotions, facilitating the emergence of corresponding A.s, inhibiting A.s of the opposite character and causing the emergence of so-called complexes (see), lead the associative process astray and distort its final result. In individual cases (hysteria, reactive psychoses) under the influence of an unexpectedly arisen excessive emotion, groups of associations may detach from the connection with consciousness (be expelled from the latter). 4) The associative process can be facilitated and accelerated as a result of general mental excitement and inhibited in states of depression (manic-depressive psychosis). In both cases, the stability of the target regulation of thinking is usually also violated, which is expressed in the so-called distractibility (most sharply in manic states).