How did early North American clinical psychologists get their first personality test? Carl Gustav Jung, the Zurich School of Psychiatry, and the development of the “Word Association Test” (1898–1909).

Abstract

Clinical psychology emerged in the United States during the first decades of the 20th century. Although they focused on intelligence tests, starting around 1905 certain clinical psychologists pursued personality assessment through a specific, nonintellectual kind of test: the word association test as devised by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich. The test was a key device in the professionalization of North American psychiatry and psychology during the early 20th century: from 1905 onward it was acknowledged, discussed, and applied by experimental and clinical psychologists. However, Jung's original experiments and the development of the test itself have received only superficial or casual attention by historians of science. This article attempts to provide a critical, streamlined, and detailed account on the origin, development, and substance of the Zurich word association experiments. By drawing on heretofore overlooked primary sources, I offer a new, critical perspective on the emergence and development of Jung's test while engaging with its main theoretical and methodological aspects. I show that the test was neither Jung's sole creation nor did it consist of a simple, straightforward set of tasks. Contrarily, it was the result of a highly collaborative, multilayered institutionalized research program on linguistic and mental associations. The program, its data and its assumptions fueled several debates and data-driven discussions at Zurich, precluding the test from achieving a stable, standardized character. As a result, the history of Jung's program reflects both the advances and the limitations of early 20th-century personality testing.

The Most Obvious Development of “The "Basic Idea”

“…We conclude that there are at least three aspects to the basic idea: (1) a commitment to a scientific approach, with “experiments” from which “tests” were derived; (2) a focus on the study of the individual differences; and (3) an examination of “higher” or more “complex” aspects of the individual. We agree with Fierro (2022) that Jung’s Word Association Test was the first “personality” test to come to North America and add that Rorschach’s inkblot test was the second major personality, reaching not only North America but spreading around the world.…”

“…The word "complex" was introduced in discussion by Bleuler at the Burghölzli, according to a source cited by Meier (1968Meier ( /1984, and then developed by Jung. (For more detailed accounts of the word association experiment, see Fierro [2022], Petchkovsky et al [2013], Akavia [2013], and Shamdasani [2003]). In the Definitions chapter of his 1921 book, Psychological Types, Jung explained that complexes "always contain something like a conflict .…”

“…Jung and Riklin proposed that the words for which participants took a longer time to give an association than their own average response time could point to what they called the “feeling-toned complex.” The word “complex” was introduced in discussion by Bleuler at the Burghölzli, according to a source cited by Meier (1968/1984, p. 173), and then developed by Jung. (For more detailed accounts of the word association experiment, see Fierro [2022], Petchkovsky et al [2013], Akavia [2013], and Shamdasani [2003]). In the Definitions chapter of his 1921 book, Psychological Types, Jung explained that complexes “always contain something like a conflict… (they) are the ‘sore spots,’ … the skeletons in the cupboard which we do not like to remember … but which frequently come back to mind unbidden and in the most unwelcome fashion” (Jung, 1921/1971, para.…”

“…Fierro stated that, “In Jung’s own terms, association experiments were conceived as “the means of studying experimentally the behavior of the complex” (2022, p. 6).…”

“…Only then did the “research experiment” become an examination test . (p. 139, emphasis in original) Similarly, concerning Jung’s work, Fierro (2022, p. 12) has recently argued that the word association experiments were transitioning into word association tests between 1904 and 1905 because Jung had recognized the clinical implications of his discoveries on reaction times. By 1905, Jung had proposed a relatively straightforward method for using the experiments as a test and concluded that there were 11 clear signs of an active constellating complex (or “complex indicators”; Fierro, 2022, p. 13).…”