Abstract:
The Association Adjustment Inventory is a modified form of the Kent-Rosanoff Free Association Test and is designed for use as a screening instrument for maladjustment and immaturity. It can also be used as a diagnostic aid for general psychosis, depression, hysteria, withdrawal, paranoia, rigidity, schizophrenia, impulsiveness, sociopathy, psychosomapathia, and anxiety. Assuming that deviant thinking is closely related to deviant behavior, the inventory presents 100 stimulus words and four alternative words for each stimulus. The examinee selects one of the alternatives as an appropriate association for each stimulus word. Scoring involves comparing the response profile of an examinee with the general Scoring Key (which allows certain adjustments for juvenile respondents) and the Psychotic Response Key. In this way, an overall similarity with either general or psychotic norms can be identified. Subscores for the personality traits mentioned above are also computed. Scoring should be dome by a mental health expert although administration of the test can be done by a clerical employee. Men and women may be evaluated using the same norms since no significant difference was found between their response patterns. Test-retest reliability is in the .80s and .90s and a correlation of -.41 with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale shows a tendency for severely disturbed individuals to have lower intelligence scores. Validity is based on the fact that the test was normed on 2000 normals and over 1000 psychotics and other deviantes, and that it can be used to separate psychotics from non-psychotics, neurotics from non-neurotics, and juveniles from adults with great accuracy. A cross-validation correlating labor turnover at a film processing plant with scores on the Inventory showed the test to be a valid predictor of tenure at the .01 level. This test also has a Spanish version, the Inventario de Associaciones, but validity and reliability information on this version is not part of the EAC East collection.