单选题
Nineteenth-century associationist theories assumed that the mind functions in terms of association, forming sets of concepts and experiences. Associationists argued that mental contents could be studied by noting the links of similarity, contrast and proximity which exist in an individual's thought and behavior patterns. Pavlov's notion of conditioning is itself base on the associationist theory that one stimulus becomes associated with another. If a bell is rung each time a dog is given food, the dog will become conditioned to salivate on hearing the bell ring, despite the absence of food. First used to investigate the differences in cognitive styles, word-association tests became a sensitive instrument for the detection of emotional concerns. In a word-association test, a subject is presented with a list of about 100 words as stimuli. Each word is chosen by the tester and the subject is required to respond with the first word that comes into his or her mind on hearing the stimulus word. The tester notes the subject's response time for each of the words with the use of a chronometer. It is argued that if the subject is emotionally indifferent to a stimulus word, the response time for the reaction is very short. If, on the other hand, the stimulus word carries emotional significance for the subject, the response time is likely to be significantly longer. In addition, reactions to significant words may also include hesitation, stuttering, involuntary movement or other symptoms of disturbance. Jung, who used word-association tests in the early part of his career, showed that family members, in particular mothers and daughters and husbands and wives, exhibited similar responses to the same stimulus words. He argued that this indicated a failure to achieve individuation and was indicative of the potentially negative dynamics that exist in family relationships. In a test carried out by Donald D. Jaffe, a pioneer of word-association tests, a subject was observed to exhibit delay and disturbance in response to the words "friend", "bottle", and "fight". Jaffe suggested that the subject had been involved in a drunken fight with a friend in which a window had been broken. The subject admitted that such an experience had, indeed, taken place and that the friend had asked the subject to pay for the damages resulting from injuries he had received.