Associationism

Associationism, in psychology, the theory that the mind learns by combining simple, irreducible elements through association. Aristotle recognized four methods by which the mind associates one idea with another: similarity (for example, an orange and a lemon), difference (hot and cold), contiguity in time (sunrise and a rooster's crow), and contiguity in space (cup and saucer). The British empiricist philosophers John Locke and David Hume stressed the importance of sensory perceptions in associationism. Other philosophers, such as David Hartley, John Stuart Mill, and Alexander Bain, continued formulating theories of associationism during the 19th century and were responsible for an associationist school of psychology. In addition to Aristotle's original four methods of association, the school included such laws as intensity, inseparability, and repetition. The appearance of James Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829) probably marked the moment of associationism's greatest influence.

The birth of modern experimental psychology in the late 19th century gave rise to a new adaptation of the concept of associationism. Now the “irreducible elements” associated were called stimuli and responses. A stimulus could be associated with a response; a stimulus could be associated with another stimulus; a response could be associated with a response; or one stimulus-response combination could be associated with another stimulus-response combination.

Every major behavioral psychologist has utilized the mechanism of associationism. Although behaviorists believe all thought processes can be accounted for through associations of stimuli and responses, other psychologists strongly reject such an approach as inadequate to explain creative thought and verbal behavior.

The association of ideas, images, and objects has practical uses beyond its disputed role in formulating psychological theories. Free association, in which a person voices thoughts as they occur without considering their effect and with no regard to logic, is a basic, proven tool of psychotherapy. Free association is also used in the business world, in “brainstorming” sessions in which staff members are encouraged to express their views freely and thereby develop new concepts or solutions for problems.

Deliberate associative devices are employed in all modern teaching, but especially in the language arts and in the teaching of foreign languages. Music, movement, and color aid students with the recall of vocabulary and the sounds of most words.