CHAPTER- IV
PROBLEM
mD
PROCEDURE
4.1
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
4.2
DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS USED
4.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
4.4
SCOPE OF TOE STUDY
4.5
HYPOTHESES TO TOB STUDY
4.6
PROCEDURE ADOPTED TO THE STUDY
a*
construction of the fr*ord Association Test
b.
Sample
c.
Tools utilized in the study
d.
Data collection
4 . 1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The present study is a scientific one to construct a
word association test in Gujarati language.
of behaviour is not caused by accident.
Any segment
The word response
given to a word stimulus has a psychological potentiality
of revealing some hidden emotional attachment of the
subjects.
The subjects of a similar general background
will tend to give one of a fairly small number of stereo­
type response words to a particular stimulus word in a
free-discrete association test.
The content of the
responses will be able to reveal the subjects' personality.
The speed of expressing a response has also a diagnostic
significance.
The test is intended to furnish a general
trend of normality or complexes of personality of students
of standard VIII to XI.
The test will work as a
projective tool.
4.2 JSl'INITION QE THE TriREb UbEU
a. The uora Association Test
(i) The word association test is a' projective
technique of free association through a
word list.
(ii) Th® list of words which are fully compre­
hensible and commonly used is prepared with
each of the words serving as a stimulus.
(iii) The subject is expected to respond freely
to each word stimulus with a word
immediately occurring in his mind.
(iv) The subject is not to respond within a forced
time limit but is motivated to be quick in
responding to the stimulus.word.
(v) The subject has to respond in written form
in group testing and in oral form in
individual testing.
Tryout
A ‘tryout* means a trial administration of the
test to a small sample with a view to assessing the
workability of the test and to revising it wherever
necessary.
The rationale behind calling the study 'tryout*
and ‘not standardisation* is promoted by P. Kline
(1973:112) by giving two reasons, “First, that in
most projective technique, aspects of responses
that go beyond what is readily classifiable are
often mare informative than an array of frequencies.
Second that incidence of responses of given kind is
bound to vary with the culture and the general
circumstances within which a technique is being
applied.”.
It was also found not advisable of taking the
study as standardisation referring to Bell's
comments about a word association test.
Bell
C1948:20) says* "Word usage so varies with the
region, the cultural group, the socioeconomic
status, the intelligence, and the age, that norms
for each particular segment of the population with
which the test is to be used must be developed".
The investigator thought over the subject and
decided to call it a "tryout"1 rather than
**standardization" *
3 OBJECTIVES,0F THE STUDY
1. To study individuality or commonness observed
through the frequency of the word responses?
2. To find out whether the responses are normal or
otherwise;
3. To study the bearing of the nature of responses
on the facts of personality complexes of the
respondent?
4. To study the relationship between word variation
in responses and other components of mental
\
ability:
(a) intelligence,
■
(b) verbal ability, and
(c) creativity?
5. To study cultural differences through the
analysis of the responses;
6. To study the subjects' attitude towards some
aspects of their life such as school, society.
religion, nature and sex;
' ?. To study the reaction time in relation to stimulus
words, responses and mental abilities.
4.4 SCOPS OF THE STUDY
The present study takes within its orbit the word
list comprising commonly used words in Gujarati language
easily comprehended by high school pupils.
— - The word list is of 100 words.
—
The words are related to body, sex, entertainment,
food, family characters, house, school, animal,
nature, religion, social characters, social
values and are also used generally.
—
The words contain nouns, adjectives, pronouns and
verbs.
—
The word list is presented in a discrete free
association form.
—
Instructions are prepared separately for written
group testing and oral Individual testing.
The study is mainly restricted to the students of
Vivldhlaxi Vidyamandir, Palanpur, although a sample from
two other schools is drawn.
The schools are of Gujarati
medium having higher secondary classes.
4.5 HYPOTRflLSEo IN THE &TUDY
1. The frequency of responses reveals the normality or
abnormality of the respondents.
2. There is sex-difference in responses.
3. Responses vary in written group testing and oral
Individual testing.
4. The level of intelligence is a determinant of the
speed and the nature of responses.
5. The level of verbal ability is a determinant of the
speed and the nature of responses.
6. The emotional state of the respondent influences
the speed and the nature of responses.
7. The nature of responses expresses attitude towards
the aspects related to the stimulus words.
8. The cultural background of the respondent affects
the nature of responses.
9. Gex-difference influences the speed of responses.
10. Popular responses take less time than other
responses.
11. Grammatical form of a stimulus word influences the
speed of responses.
12. Verbal association between the stimulus and the
response affects the speed of the responses.
4.6 PR0CSDUR5 ADOPTED IM THE STUDY
a. Construction of the Word Association Test
(i) Item selection
The commonly used 350 words were selected for pre­
pilot testing through the following procedures:
.
—
Referring to Gujarati text-books;
—
Referring to the compos ition work done by the
high school students in Gujarati language;
— . Referring to the word list of the various word
association tests.
(ii) Pre-pilot testing
The pre-pilot testing was done to evaluate the
comprehensibility of the 350 words.
Twenty-five students
of grade VIII who were low scorer in Gujarati, were given
the words.
The students were asked to give meaning of
the words, opposite word, and explanation of the
contextual use of the words.
faeventy words were discarded after pre-pilot testing.
In consultation with two psychology-knowing teachers, 100
words were selected -for pilot testing.
(iii) Pilot testing was done on a class of 40 students
of grade IX with a view to finalizing the
instructions and to understanding the test
administration procedure.
b, Sample
(i) Group testing
The word association test is a projective
technique.
The test was to be tried out to study
its workability as a psychological tool.
normative study.
It is not a
It was decided to collect data from
a fairly representative population of Palanpur.
Most of
the sample# that is of 515 students, have been taken from
vividhlaxi Vidyamandir# Palanpur,
In addition to that
sample# 40 Muslim students from City High School# Palanpur
and 45 mostly rural students of Adarsh Vidyalaya# Palanpur
have been included in the sample.
Group testing was done
to collect data from the sample.
The sample for group
testing is shown in Table 8.
TABLE 3
i
SAMPLE FOR ‘GROUP TESTING
std.
VIII
s t d .x i
Boys
Girls
Boys
Girls
. rp
Girls
std. X
|Girls
std. IX
0
t
a
1
66
67
3y
80
37
74
35
515
-
-
-
-
35
5
-
-
-
-
- •
-
-
66
67
42
M
NO.
School
><
o
m
1
Vividhlaxi
117
Vidyamandir
2
City High
-
40
37
8
45
111
43
600
school
3
Adarsh
Vidyalaya
T
o
t
a
1
117
39
115
60
(iij Individual testing
A sample of 90 students was taken only from
Vividhlaxi Vidyamandir, Palanpur for individual testing.
The sample for individual testing is shown in Table 9.
TABLE 9 t SAMPLE FOR INDIVIDUAL TESTING
std. IX
School
Boys
Vividhlaxi Vidyamandir
32
Girls
13
Std.X
Boys
30
Girls
Total
15
90
The study of reaction time of the response was an
important aspect of the study.
For this purpose# responses
of 80 students from the sample were studied.
Ten students
(S boys and 2 girls) were dropped out from the study due to
slackness in time recording.
c. Tools utilized in the study
1. The Word Association Test constructed by the
experimenter.
2. Desai-Bhatt Group Test of Intelligence, standardized
in Gujarati language.
3. Urvashi Desai’s Verbal Ability Test, standardized in
Gujarati language.
4. Bell Adjustment Inventory, translated into Gujarati
language.
d. Data collection
(1) The Word Association Test is administered as a
group test to 600 students in their own class room.
The group testing is done according to a fixed
procedure which was thought on the lines of Kehrberg1s
(1964s81) Group Testing Procedure of his word association
test.
^2) The Word Association Test administered individually
to 90 students, reaction time and emotional
features are noted during each response.
The testing is done according to a fixed procedure
which was usually followed by most of the psychologists
since long.
(3) During group testing the time for responding to the
stimuli is kept common.
The stimulus words not
responded to are considered as ‘Confused
or
Blocking*.
(4) Total responses to each word stimulus are analyzed
in frequency tables.
Indices of the most popular
responses are prepared.
cc-
showing associative
hierarchy of each table is calculated.
Sex-
difference and testing procedure difference are
studied, calculating CR of the most popular
responses of the comparative groups.
Tables are prepared on lines of Kent-Rosanof'f *s
work.
oc of associative hierarchy is calculated according
to Horvath's C1963s361-364) guidelines given in his paper.
(5) The content of the responses is analyzed in view of
the individual responses.
’
Woodworth's Classifica­
tion Scheme used for establishing verbal
association is utilized.
i6J uesai-Bhatt Group Test of Intelligence i-s
administered to 64 individually tested students.
The co-efficient of correlation is calculated
between IQ ana reaction time of the responses.
The content of the responses of four students is
analyzed to study the effect of intelligence on responses,
koodworth's Classification scheme is adopted.
t>
(7) drvashi Uesai's Verbal Ability Test is administered
to 69 students.
The relationship between speed and
verbal ability is studied by calculating the
co-efficient of correlation.
Content; of responses of four students is analyzed
to study effect of verbal ability on the nature of
responses.
Woodworth's Classification Scheme is adopted.
(8) The responses of two highly creative students are
analyzed using Woodworth's Classification Scheme
and the nature of the responses is studied.
(9) Bell Adjustment Inventory is administered to 40
■
.students.
The responses of one highly adjusted
and another poorly adjusted students are analyzed
by Woodworth’s Classification Scheme and studied
comparatively.
110} As an additional study, the V.ord Association Test is
administered to five boys of Remand Home, Palanpur
and three girls of Vikas Gruh, Paladi, Ahmedabad.
Their responses are studied and compared with
normals' responses.