A Study of Association in InsanityKent, Grace Helen
Science
A Study of Association in Insanity
Kent, Grace Helen
Association of ideas; Psychology, Pathological
It is not always easy to judge whether or not a given reaction should
be classed as non-specific. A study of our material made with special
reference to this type of reactions has enabled us to select the
following list of words, any of which, occurring in response to any
stimulus word, is classed as a non-specific reaction:
article, articles
bad
beautiful, beauty
fine
good, goodness
great
happiness, happy
large
man
necessary, necessity
nice
object (noun)
people
person
pleasant, pleasantness, pleasing, pleasure
pretty
small
thinking, thought, thoughts
unnecessary
unpleasant
use, used, useful, usefulness, useless, uselessness, uses, using
woman
work
It should be mentioned that some of these words occur as reactions to
one or several stimulus words with such frequency
(_citizen--man_, value 27.8 per cent; _health--good_, value
9.4 per cent) as to acquire in such instances a value as high as that
of strictly specific reactions.
*Doubtful Reactions* have already been defined (p.40): any
reaction word which is not found in the table in its identical form,
but which is a grammatical variant or derivative of a word found
there, is placed in this group.
§ 4. INDIVIDUAL REACTIONS; EXPLANATION OF GROUPS AND METHODS OF
APPLICATION.
*Normal Reactions.*--Inasmuch as the frequency tables do not exhaust all
normal possibilities of reaction, a certain number of reactions which
are essentially normal are to be found among the individual reactions.
In order to separate these from the pathological reactions, we have
compiled an appendix to the frequency tables, consisting mainly of
specific definitions of groups of words to be included under each
stimulus word in our list. This appendix will be found at the end of
this paper.
A word of explanation is perhaps due as to the manner in which the
appendix has been compiled. It was developed in a purely empirical
way, the basis being such individual reactions, given by both normal
and insane subjects, as seemed in our judgment to be obviously normal.
It must be acknowledged that the appendix falls short of all that
might be desired. In the first place, its use involves to some slight
extent the play of personal equation, and it therefore constitutes a
source of error; in the second place, it is in some respects too
inclusive while in other respects it is not sufficiently so. However,
the error due to personal equation is slight; the inclusion of certain
"far-fetched" or even frankly pathological reactions may be discounted
by bearing in mind that the general value of this group is not equal
to that of the group of common reactions; and the number of strictly
normal reactions which are not included is after all small. Our
experience has shown us that the appendix constitutes an important aid
in the analysis of individual reactions.
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