The invention discloses a water soluble copolymer with high viscosity and salt resistance, and a preparation method and an application thereof. The preparation method comprises the steps of: adding acrylamide 20 weight parts, an anionic monomer or/and a cationic monomer 0.1-15 weight parts,, a vinyl polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 0.05-4 weight parts,, a surfactant 0.5-90 weight parts,, and deionized water 70-900 weight parts, into a three-neck reaction bottle, adjusting the solution pH to 2.5-9, introducing N2 for 30min, adding an initiator persulfate 0.001-0.2 weight parts, at 20-70DEG C, and reacting for 6-36 hours to obtain a low-molecular weight water soluble copolymer with molecular association ability, high viscosity and salt resistance, which can be used in intermediate-permeability oil reservoir and low-permeability oil reservoir development. An associated water soluble polymer oil displacement agent is obtained by preparing the copolymer into an aqueous solution with copolymer concentration of 0.3-3 g/L and surfactant concentration of 0.01-4 mmol/L, adding into a mixer with a stirring device, and stirring uniformly at room temperature; and the obtained oil displacement agent has high viscosity, salt resistance, temperature resistance and shear resistance, and can be used in intermediate-permeability oil reservoir and the low-permeability oil reservoir development.