Negative Words In WAT And How To Handle Them

Psychological or psychometric testing is based on the principles of projective testing. The psychological testing consists of WAT, TAT, SRT, SD. These tests are important because the psychologist extracts the map representation of the candidate’s character/attitude and qualities.

Word Association Test (WAT) is a test of imagination. And it’s absolutely imperative to test the personality of the candidate through his/her association of ideas about men and matters. The psychologist assesses the personality of the candidates by showing them words of different kinds. The same words arouse different ideas, feelings, and emotions in different people. Therefore, one word becomes a peephole into different personalities.

And so, it is not recommended to cram up the reactions noted down in books. But you can always seek guidance from people, professional mentors, etc. You can practice WAT by yourself at home using timers.

Moving forward to WAT, there are two kinds of words that are projected in SSBs, namely- Positive words and Negative words. Some candidates find it difficult to tackle the negative words because we tend to react positively to a negative word but somehow in the stipulated time of 15 secs and the extreme pressure exerted; we generally do not perform the way we want to.

So, in this article, we shall describe you three ways to form a positive idea from a negative word shown in the slides.

Now, when you find the word Hate flashed on the projector, the first image that comes to your mind is a feeling of dislike or revenge. The word Defeat draws the sketch of failure in our thoughts. This is natural but you need to do a little practice to transform those images into a positive frame.

1. Denial method: Along with the negative word denial expression is used to deny the existence of the negative word. For this type, words like does not, no, never are used in the sentence. 

Syntax: TPSN (third person singular noun) + Denial words (is not, does not, has not, never) + OW  (Original word) + Other words.

Examples:Hate

: Never pays in a relationship.
: Good friends never hate each other.
: Good understanding never creates hatred.

2. Use of antonyms: Instead of the original word, its antonym can be used in the sentence.

Examples: Hate

: Loving people brings them closer to us.

3. Remedial method: A remedial or curative word is used as a starting word showing its remedial effect for the negative word. Words like removes, overcome, cures, eliminates, etc can be used.

Syntax: RW (Remedial word) + removes/overcomes/cures + OW (Original word)

Examples: Hate

: Love cures hatred.
Sorrow:  Joy overcomes sorrow.

Some examples of negative words:

1.  Sad: Happiness overcomes sadness.
2. Harm: A teacher never harms his own students.
3. Failure: Success overcomes failure.
4. Vices: Virtues remove vices.
5. Shy: Frankness eliminates shyness.
6. Reject: A brave never rejects challenges of life.
7. Suicide: Courage removes the feeling of suicide.
8. Bomb: High alert overcomes bomb explosion.
9. Fear- Winners bravely face their fear.
10. Dismiss: A good leader never dismisses a good idea.
11. Snake: Snake poison is useful for medical purposes.
12. Knife: Knife is a useful instrument for a surgeon.
13. Cruel: Kindness overcomes cruelty.
14. Blame: An officer never blames the innocent.
15. Fight: She doesn’t fight with her siblings. 

Some more words for practice:

1. Weak
2. Selfish
3. Hijack
4. Difficult
5. Blood
6. Darkness
7. Loneliness
8. Lies
9. Tiredness
10. Crime
11. Kill
12. Enemy
13. Murder
14. Death
15. Divorce
16. Dowry
17. Mistakes
18. Fatigue
19. Danger
20. Aggression
21. War