The Associative Field as a Reflection of the Psychological Meaning of the Word

The article examines the associative field as a way to study the psychological meaning of a word. Analysis of cue – target pairs represented in Russian Associative Dictionary and Edinburgh Associative Thesaurus allowed to establish the psychological meaning of the word “America” for the Russian and British respondents. The fields are dominated by reactions-representations reflecting the connections of the cue “America” with the capitalist system (money, business, dollars, commerce), with other countries, cities, political and historical figures. In the speech actions of the Russians America is associated with the world of music (the Doors, rock and roll), the film industry (Hollywood, Disneyland) and American goods (Nike (sneakers), jeans). There is a military component (boat, tank) in the reactions of the British. The study revealed an ambiguous attitude towards America. On the one hand, the reactions of the Russians and the British create the image of a large, rich, prosperous country (bolshaya/big. Velikay/great, zhituha/life, kayf/ buzz, klass/class, nice, generous, great, hurrah). On the other hand, the cue “America” is associated with negative emotions and assessments (nadoela/tired, ne hochu tuda/don’t want to go there, tupaja/syupid, dislike, drugged, hate, indifferent, sick, tawdry, ugh).