Concept
Association (psychology)
Overview
Association in psychology refers to a mental connection between concepts, events, or mental states that usually stems from specific experiences. Associations are seen throughout several schools of thought in psychology, including behaviorism, associationism, psychoanalysis, social psychology, and structuralism. The idea stems from Plato and Aristotle, especially about the succession of memories, and it was carried on by philosophers such as John Locke, David Hume, David Hartley, and James Mill. It finds its place in modern psychology in such areas as memory, learning, and the study of neural pathways.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Association (psychology) is discussed.
In their inhibition-forms, which we have just discussed, they lead us directly over to memory-associations. The old theory of association derived from these its schematism of association forms. In reality they are the association phenomena that are most of all noticed, because with them the ideas that are bound together seem to be distinguishable from each other because of their succession in time.
Wilhelm Max Wundt, An Introduction to Psychology Translated from the Second German Edition
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is
Psychologists have of course gone very deeply into the question of what the causes of association may be; and some of them have tried to show that contiguity and similarity are not two radically diverse laws, but that either presupposes the presence of the other. I myself am disposed to think that the phenomena of association depend on our cerebral constitution, and are not immediate consequences of our being…
William James, Talks To Teachers On Psychology
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
The pair of thoughts will form an instance of what is called '_Association by Similarity_.'[484]
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1
a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Associations attached in this way have been made the subject of very instructive experiments, which have played a notable part in the history of psycho-analysis. Wundt’s school originated the so-called ‘association-experiment,’ in which the subject of the experiment is bidden to reply to a given ‘stimulus-word’ as quickly as possible with whatever ‘reaction-word’ occurs to him.
Sigmund Freud, Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis
names the idea; opens on it
In considering the causal laws of psychology, the distinction between rough generalizations and exact laws is important. There are many rough generalizations in psychology, not only of the sort by which we govern our ordinary behaviour to each other, but also of a more nearly scientific kind. Habit and association belong among such laws. I will give an illustration of the kind of law that can be obtained.
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
names the idea
Related ideas
- Operant conditioning
- John Locke
- David Hartley (philosopher)
- James Mill
- Learning
- Classical conditioning
- Psychology
- Plato
- Psychoanalysis
- Social psychology
- Structuralism
- Aristotle
- Memory
- Mental representation
- B. F. Skinner
- Hippocampus
- Behaviorism
- David Hume
- John B. Watson
- Little Albert experiment
Place in the tradition
Part of History of philosophy in Poland.