Associative experiment as a means of identifying the specificity of the concept of “fear”

At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the term is steadily fixed in the active linguistic thesaurus. Concepts are abstract units reflecting acquired knowledge, experience, results of all human activities and generalized information about the world in the form of standard devices. Y. S. Stepanov defines the concept as a “cultural clot in the human mind. A person is an ordinary person, not a creator of cultural values — a person enters into culture, and in some cases influences it ” [8 ]. Cognitivists construct concepts differently, but everyone agrees that concept is a heterogeneous, multi-layered entity. According to V. A. Maslova, structural concept “includes, in addition to the conceptual basis, the socio-psycho-cultural part, which is not only in the thought process by a native speaker, but also the person experiences this; it includes associations, emotions, evaluations, national images and connotations inherent in a given culture ”[1].

Associative experiment method is used for experimental research. American psychologists G. H. Kent and A. J. Rozanoff are considered to be its authors in practical psychology. [2] Today, associative experiment is the most advanced technique of psycholinguistic analysis of the semantics of speech. In applied psycholinguistics, special “dictionaries of associative norms” are established on the basis of associative experiments (typical, “normative” associative reactions). One of the most famous associative dictionaries was created by J. Deese. He took the most frequent reactions to some stimulus words and asked them experimentally as stimuli, receiving new reactions to them; then he carried out a factor analysis of the resulting mediated links and, as a result, revealed a number of groups resembling semantic fields. [3] This way he showed that the associative structure of the word has the same characteristics as the linguistic structures associated with the study of semantics, such as semantic fields. J. Deese formulated the unity of the psychological basis of association and semantic components of meaning. After that, linguists had a much greater interest in the possibility of studying the laws governing the organization of speech mechanisms using a free associative experiment.[4]

An associative experiment is a method for detecting associations, clichés that have developed in a person’s mind. An associative experiment helps to determine the content of a concept in the cognitive consciousness of a native speaker, distribute the attributes that form a concept, and build the associative layer of a concept. Therefore, this technique is an effective way of approaching an individual's linguistic consciousness. The core of linguistic consciousness is made up of the most frequent associations with the largest number of cognitive connections.[5]

According to the researcher N. V. Ufimtseva, an associative experiment is useful for understanding the individual characteristics of different cultures, because this way it is possible to reveal peculiarities of the functioning of human linguistic consciousness and their specificity. Associative method is an “associative profile” of images in consciousness that is specific for a particular culture and language and integrates the mental and sensory knowledge possessed by a specific ethnos” [125]. L. Ye. Bessonova believes that “building a new associative paradigm of conceptual theory allows obtaining information about the ways of conceptualizing the language and world of a person, the content and structure of concepts as complex thinking units, identifying not only conceptually significant cognitive signs, but also figurative components of concepts” [6].

There are several types of associative experiments, which are used to analyze the content side of a concept and highlight its cognitive features. A free associative experiment is a quick, instantaneous response to a stimulus word. This method helps to get a variety of linguistic material, which is necessary to build the associative field of a concept. It was found that there are many types of associations that reflect the processes occurring in the deeper layers of the human psyche. [7] Linguists suggested that the study of diversity of associations and their connections allows to draw conclusions about the relationship between subjective reality, i.e. the meaning associated with a word in human consciousness of a particular culture, and the “objective construct” of the world’s picture in human consciousness. The resulting reactions provide an opportunity to make a detailed picture of what lies in the minds of each subject, and to register the reflection of culture in the answers of the subjects.[8]

The total number of respondents participating in the free associative experiment – 46. Thus, we have identified 84 units, where the dominant senses were noticed and now the associative field structure can be built on the basis of the results.

46 people took part in the experiment: students of technical and humanitarian specialties aged from 22 to 35 years old, average age of the subjects was 28 years old. The total number of verbal reactions is 152 (84 units). Without any doubt, the nature of associations depends on many factors: age, gender, profession, educational level of the subjects, because the method of associative experiment involves not only cognitive structures, but also the individual characteristics of the participants. Everyone has their own fears - this is our feature. When a person is afraid, faces something unpleasant, alien, unknown, and he / she is left alone with this, no one can help that person overcome it. Thus, fear “fences off” a person from society, as if closing up, locking a person in himself / herself, leaving no slightest gap for escape. But, anyway, fear is an integral part of our being, that is why it is so important to overcome, defeat it. Fear can be an obstacle, or opposite motivation. If fear of uncertainty (as noted by some respondents) is transformed into curiosity, then the focus shifts from fear to the search for knowledge and moving forward. Overcoming fear and perceiving it as a motivator help humanity develop and scale new heights.

The association “future” was among the younger participants in the experiment, moreover, they noted “uncertainty”. This is related to their life situation, self-determination and the search for a path. Also, during the experiment, cultural features were noted, namely those things that were bitter experiences or things on the agenda. For example, the Respondent from the UAE immediately wrote "snakes", a student from Korea noted "nuke" and only representatives of American culture noted "terror" and "evil", which is an external threat. Representatives of Russian culture approached this issue more introspectively and their fears emanate from their powerlessness, helplessness, uncertainty, confusion, and so on. In one thing, we are all alike, respondents from different cultures often noted the word "death". Fear of death and extremity are one of the basic fears. People are afraid to die, because this fear is necessary for survival and avoidance of dangerous situations. The eternal question is what is primary in a human being: social or biological. Some things are laid by nature, some things are formed depending on how a person develops in society. The social layer is superimposed on the biological, but the basic fears of specific threats are present in people since childhood. It can be real momentary threats in the form of predators, darkness, something hot, sharp or high. For example, if you show the silhouette of a flying goose over the heads of the goslings that are grown in the incubator, they will stretch their necks and squeal. But if you change the direction of movement, the silhouette will look like a falcon. Chicks will instantly cling to the ground from fear, although they have never seen a falcon in their lives. [9] Fear is an inevitable part of our life. It accompanies us in different new forms from birth to death. The experiment showed many faces of fear, where some fears are existential and insurmountable; other challenge us and can make us better. The question is how can we use it in the process of personal development, so that it helped us move forward, as it is a powerful motivator.