Psychodiagnostic technique "Complex analogies": description of the test

In the practice of psychodiagnostics, one of the main roles is assigned to the study of thinking. Diagnosis of this mental process is applicable in a variety of cases - in the work of a school psychologist, with professional selection, in medical, judicial practice and many others. The methods of research are divided according to their orientation (which characterization of thinking is studied) and by age of the subjects for whom they are suitable. The methodology "Complex analogies" is one of the most used in the arsenal of practical psychologists, because not only the results of testing are informative, but also the research process itself.

What is the method used for?

The "Complex Analogy" technique is designed to diagnose thinking, its verbal and logical component. It reveals how much a person has the ability to understand complex logical relationships, to abstract abstract connections. This verbal test is designed to work with adolescents, young men and adults, i.e. Persons over 14 years of age.

The method "Complex analogies" is able to detect such violations of thinking as diffusion, slipping of conclusions, illogicality, spreading. It is also effective for working not only with healthy people, but also with suffering reasoning - a violation of thinking, which manifests itself in a tendency to empty, superficial reasoning, verbosity, and the absence of an integral thought in the utterance.

Description of the stimulus material

The "Complex Analogy" technique has in its arsenal a stimulus material consisting of twenty pairs of words united by a certain logical connection. The subject has to determine it and solve the problem. There are six types in all, they are presented in a cipher-table with samples of logical connections. The work of a person consists in determining the encrypted connection in the samples and relating to them the proposed 20 pairs of words. For example, in the pair "Cheerful-listless" there is an opposition, these words are antonyms. In the cipher table you need to find the same pair with the contrast of concepts and note in the answer form the corresponding letter of the cipher. In this case, the pair corresponds to the code "Light-darkness".

"Complex analogies," a technique: the form is two columns: the left contains all 20 pairs of words, in the right there are the letters A, B, B, D, E corresponding to one of the ciphers. To show the relationship between words in the first column, you need to encircle the letter of the cipher.

• Cipher A denotes a logical connection "one-set" or "one-a collection of units", for example, "head-romance".
• In cipher B, the second word indicates to which class of phenomena or objects the former belongs. For example, "singing is an art."
• Cipher B indicates 2 words belonging to the same class, but the second is larger in scale than the first. For example, "Sea-ocean".
• Cipher G is represented by opposing concepts, for example, "praise-swearing".
• In code D, the second word is the consequence of the first, for example, "fright-flight."
• Cipher E - synonyms, for example, "crying-roaring".

Procedure for the study

The technique "Complex analogies" involves instructing the subject before starting testing: "Before you have a table with 20 pairs of words that are logically linked in the left column, in the right there are 6 letters that correspond to the type of logical connection. The connection is established between the pair, and find the most suitable one in the table "Cipher" .Then, draw a letter from the right column, which corresponds to the type of connection you selected from the table "Cipher." You have 3 minutes for all the work.

In the process of testing, it is important to pay attention to how the subject reacts to the task, what arguments he utters aloud. If necessary, you can tell the fulfillment of 1 task, to see if the instruction was correctly understood, and in what direction the person thinks. Then he does everything himself.

Methodology "Complex analogies": interpretation of results

After the subject has finished testing, you must first calculate the number of correct answers and make an assessment. If less than 6 correct answers were given - 0, 5 correct answers - 12-14, 9 hits - 19-20 points.

If the person gave the most correct answers, one can conclude that he can understand the logical connections, he can operate with abstract concepts.

If the subject experiences difficulties at the instruction stage, can hardly reason aloud about how the pairs of words are related, performs most tasks only with the help of a specialist, one can draw conclusions about the low level of development of logical thinking, the difficulty in understanding analogies between abstract concepts, o Illogical reasoning.

It is worth noting that even adults can hardly cope with some pairs of words. The technique of "Complex analogies" is not quite simple. Therefore, it is worthwhile to go very carefully to explaining the instructions, to make sure that the person correctly understood the task, and only then to proceed with its implementation.