Chapter Two-How To Master Word Association Test

In this chapter you will gain a deep understanding of all four factors in the Word Association Test. Learn how they are assessed across different tests and the key qualities they evaluate.

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2. Orientation

Before we get into learning, it is important that we understand why these tests are being conducted and how they are interconnected.

All the tests which are conducted as a part of the psychological evaluation; all the tasks which are conducted by the GTO, as well as the personal interview, are gauging the same qualities in the candidate. The difference is only of the method and medium.

The qualities which are being gauged in all the three techniques (psychology tests, GTO, and personal interview) are divided into four categories. Each of these categories is called a ‘Factor’. Let us take a brief look at these Factors and what qualities fall under it.

Factor 1 mainly relates to the qualities of the brain. Qualities like Effective Intelligence, Organizing Ability, Power of Expression and Reasoning Ability. If observed carefully, it can be noticed, that all these qualities relate to a human being’s mental faculty. For example, power of expression relates to how clearly you can express what is in your mind or heart without leaving any room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation. How you think and speak reveals a lot about your mental faculty.

Reasoning Ability relates to what is the logic or rationale behind what you think and/or do. This, again, involves use of brain and common sense. Organizing Ability, again, involves working in a systematic and effective manner. This again, is not possible, without use of intelligence and common sense. In the subsequent chapters, we will study how factor 1 is checked in the Word Association Test.

Factor 2 mainly relates to what can be called group behavior or social behavior of an individual. How he/she interacts with others and his interpersonal skills are key here. The main qualities under Factor 2 are Social Adaptability and Cooperation. Social Adaptability, for sake of ease of understanding, can be explained as a person’s ability to easily mingle up with a group of people or a surrounding which is not his own. More importantly, how easily and quickly is the group or surrounding accepting him. For instance, if a person who was born and raised in Haryana is sent to Kerala, then how quickly and easily will he mingle up amongst the people there and get used to the culture and way of life there and how quickly and easily will the people there accept him. That is an easy way to understand social Adaptability. Cooperation is a self-explanatory term.

An example can be taken of Factor 2 to understand how Psychology tests, GTO tasks and personal interview are all gauging the same qualities in the candidate. During the personal interview when the IO is asking about friends, he is evaluating the Factor 2 element in the candidate. During the Command Task in the GTO, candidates are deliberately asked to call others for help. The candidate who gets called by many candidates gets a good score on Factor 2. The purpose of requirement of assistance during the Command Task is primarily to check Factor 2 of the candidates. How Factor 2 is checked in each of the Word Association Test, we will see in the subsequent section.

Factor 3 mainly relates to qualities like Initiative, Speed of Decision Making, and Liveliness. Initiative is a self-explanatory word. When there is a task at hand that nobody else will like to do, either because it is too difficult or of an unpleasant nature (example: cleaning garbage), then will you come forward proactively to do it? If and when there is an emergency at hand, will you act quickly and that too in a correct manner? This is where Speed of Decision Making is. Liveliness is the area where most candidates fall short. The section of Hobbies and Interests on the PIQ directly relates to Liveliness.

If a person has any concrete hobby and/or interest, it shows that he has a certain zeal and enthusiasm for life. He has done things apart from what is his daily routine and mandatory work or activity. Most of the candidates do not have concrete hobbies and interests. During the interview, they have nothing to talk about when it comes to hobbies and interests. This shows they have done nothing apart from the mandatory routine things. Hence, the element of liveliness in them is considered to be low. It is believed in psychology, that a person who does not have any interest in life apart from the regular routine work, will have no energy and quickness to act even when there will be an emergency at hand since he is a person who is very low on energy and enthusiasm in life. Hence, liveliness is also related to how an individual will behave in an emergency situation. In the subsequent chapters, we will study how factor 3 is checked in the Word Association Test.

Factor 4 mainly relates to qualities like Moral and Physical Courage as well as Mental and Physical Stamina. If your boss is doing something wrong deliberately, will you stop him? This is moral courage. Fighting in a Kargil kind of a situation is physical courage. Can you read a 500 page book? This is mental stamina. Can you run 5 kilometres? This is physical stamina. In the subsequent chapters, we will study how factor 4 is checked in the Word Association Test.

The qualities listed above are not the only qualities which fall under that particular Factor. I have just included the main ones for a brief understanding. Each of the qualities being gauged is directly related to the role of an officer. For example, if a person has mental stamina, then he will be able to undergo courses during his career without getting tired. He will not get tired of learning. We all know how the career of an officer involves undergoing many courses at different stages of his/her career.

Now that we have understood what are the qualities being gauged in the candidate, we will now discuss about how the psychology tests are gauging the same qualities in the candidate and how the psychology tests are interlinked.

In order to understand how the tests are interlinked, we first need to understand how the tests are designed. For instance, in Word Association Test, each of the word which gets displayed belongs to one of the four Factors. In the 60 words which get displayed during the entirety of the test, there is a balanced mix of all the four Factors. Around 10-15 words are of Factor 1, 10-15 of Factor 2, 10-15 are of Factor 3 and the same is true for Factor 4. In Thematic Apperception Test as well, 2-3 images are of Factor 1, 2-3 of Factor 2, 2-3 of Factor 3 and then 2-3 of Factor 4. In Situation Reaction Test also, 10-15 situations are of Factor 1, 10-15 are of Factor 2, 10-15 are of Factor 3, and 10-15 are of Factor 4.

Let us now see how the tests are interlinked and are gauging the same qualities in the candidate.

Video series of our offline psychology class will help you understand the quality, depth and methodology of teaching, particularly with regards to word association test.