Chapter Four-How To Master Word Association Test​

Let us now understand how the board will try to gauge Factor 2 of the candidate through the psychology tests. What kind of words will be displayed in order to check Factor 2 of the candidate? Very simple: words like group, cooperate, help, and society are amongst some of the words which will be displayed to check Factor 2 of the candidate. Each of these words relates to how the candidate interacts with others or what can be called the social behavior of the candidate. In a way, it directly relates to the interpersonal skills of the candidate. You ‘cooperate’ with others and not merely with your own self. Same is true for the word ‘help’. The word ‘group’ relates to a group of people and thereby gauges your interaction with group of people and same is true for the word ‘society’. 

Similarly, in Thematic Apperception Test, one of the most common images which is displayed to check Factor 2 is that of a visibly urban and educated looking young man talking to a group of villagers. The fact that the young man is urban and not from a rural area and is highly educated is made clear from the way he is dressed. He will be shown wearing nice formals, hair nicely combed and wearing nice shoes. Now again, does it mean that villagers don’t dress up like this? Obviously not! However, to make it clear that he is not from a village, the people he is talking to are shown wearing dhoti and pagdi or something similar which makes it amply clear that they are villagers. This stark difference in the way the characters are dressed is to make it clear to the candidate that the young man does not belong to that village. 

There will be additional elements visible in the image to leave no doubt in the candidate’s mind that the scene is of a rural area. For example, there may be a bullock cart shown in the background. The houses shown in the background are also made to look like houses in a village. All these elements are added to ensure that the candidate realizes that it is a rural area in the background. The board expects that the image will generate a set of thoughts in the candidate’s mind which will make him write a story around the few important points: What the board will be trying to gauge in the story is: what is the young man talking to the villagers about? What is his work there? And most importantly, how will he coordinate with the villagers to achieve the purpose or aim regarding which he is talking to them? Based on what and how the candidate will write in response to the image, it will become clear whether his/her Factor 1 is strong or weak or non-existent.