[To face p. 118.
It is impossible in a lecture to give a review of all the manifold uses of the association experiment. I must content myself with having demonstrated to you a few of its chief uses.
Lecture II
THE FAMILIAL CONSTELLATIONS
Ladies and Gentlemen: As you have seen, there are manifold ways in which the association experiment may be employed in practical psychology. I should like to speak to you to-day about another use of this experiment which is primarily of theoretical significance. My pupil, Miss Fürst, M.D., made the following researches: she applied the association experiment to 24 families, consisting altogether of 100 test-persons; the resulting material amounted to 22,200 associations. This material was elaborated in the following manner: Fifteen separate groups were formed according to logical-linguistic standards, and the associations were arranged as follows:
| Husband | Wife | Difference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Co-ordination | 6·5 | 0·5 | 6 |
| II. | Sub and supraordination | 7 | — | 7 |
| III. | Contrast | — | — | — |
| IV. | Predicate expressing a personal judgment | 8·5 | 95·0 | 86·5 |
| V. | Simple predicate | 21·0 | 3·5 | 17·5 |
| VI. | Relations of the verb to the subject or complement | 15·5 | 0·5 | 15·0 |
| VII. | Designation of time, etc. | 11·0 | — | 11·0 |
| VIII. | Definition | 11·0 | — | 11·0 |
| IX. | Coexistence | 1·5 | — | 1·5 |
| X. | Identity | 0·5 | 0·5 | — |
| XI. | Motor-speech combination | 12·0 | — | 12·0 |
| XII. | Composition of words | — | — | — |
| XIII. | Completion of words | — | — | — |
| XIV. | Clang associations | — | — | — |
| XV. | Defective reactions | — | — | — |
| Total | — | — | 173·5 | |
| 173·5 | ||||
| Average difference | —— | = 11·5 | ||
| 15 |
As can be seen from this example, I utilise the difference to demonstrate the degree of the analogy. In order to find a basis for the sum of the resemblance I have calculated the differences among all Dr. Fürst's test-persons, not related among themselves, by comparing every female test-person with all the other unrelated females; the same has been done for the male test-persons.
The most marked difference is found in those cases where the two test-persons compared have no associative quality in common. All the groups are calculated in percentages, the greatest difference possible being 200/15 = 13·3 per cent.