Relationship between ideas and emotions by contiguity, continuity, or similarity.
In epidemiology as one variable changes, there is a change in the quality or quantity of another variable.
In epidemiology, the general name of a relationship between two variables. Two related variables, such as age and the incidence of diabetes, are said to be ‘associated.’ Several different types of association are recognized: such as artifactual, causal, an chance.
In statistical terms, this represents two separate events apparently occurring together. Association does not necessarily mean cause and effect. For example, if a researcher finds that children wearing bicycle helmets have fewer injuries, this could imply that helmets protect them (cause and effect) or just that more careful children tend to be those who wear helmets (association).
The act of joining or uniting; coordination with another idea or structure; relationship. In psychiatry, association refers in particular to the relationship of conscious and unconscious ideas.