Psychological Assessment

Projective Personality Tests

Projective Tests: Essential Features Individuals must impose their own structure

which is meaningful Stimulus material is unstructured Indirect (disguised) method Freedom of response Interpretation is broad

Projective Tests

Rorschach Inkblot Test Thematic Apperception Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922)

Nicknamed “Kleck” or inkblot

Talented art student who decided to study science

Dream convinced him of relationship between perception and unconscious

1921 published Psychodiagnostik

Died in 1922

RorschachInkblotTest

Rorschach: Historical

5 Scoring Systems Adopted by 5 American psychologists with

very different theoretical backgrounds Shared common features (same blots were

used, reponse phase followed by inquiry) 5 different systems of administration, scoring

and interpretation emerged Two most popular (Beck, Klopf)

Rorschach: Validity and ReliabilityPoor psychometric reputation: Lack of standardized ruls for administration

and scoring Poor inter-rater reliability Lack of adequate norms Unknown or weak validity

Rorschach: Contemporary Use John Exner Established Rorschach Research Foundation

in 1986 Integrated five scoring and interpretation

systems Established empirical support for new system Provide a center for training

Contemporary Use: AdministrationAssociation Phase

What might this be?

Present all the cards Record response verbatim Note location of response

Inquiry Phase

I want you to help me see what you saw. I’m going to read what you said, and then I want you to show me where on the blot you saw it and what there is there that makes it look like that so that I can see it too. I’d like to see it just like you did, so help me now.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A psychometrically sound test? An in-class exercise

Contemporary Use: Training

Exner workshops on administration, scoring, and interpretation

Contemporary Use: Scoring

Exner scoring system: The Structural Summary

Location Location (W, D, Dd) Use of white space (S)

Determinants Form (good, poor, bad quality) Movement (active and passive) Color Texture Shading

Contemporary Use: InterpretationExample: F+% = F+ & Fo/Total F

This variable concerns the conventional use of contour in the pure F responses.

See example of Structural Summary: S-Constellation (suicide constellation)

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A psychometrically sound test? Particularly useful in assessing thought

processes

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Developed by Henry Murray and colleagues

at Harvard Psychological Clinic 31 TAT cards depicting people in a variety of

ambiguous situations (one blank card) Examinee is asked to create a story about

each picture

TAT: Administration

Now I want you to make up a story about each of these pictures. Tell me who the people are, what they are doing, what they are thinking or feeling, what led up to the scene, and how it will turn out.

TAT: Scoring/Interpretation

Content analysis of themes that emerge from the stories

TAT: Psychometric Critique

Selection of cards is not standardized Lack of norms Clinicians rely on qualitative impressions

Thematic Apperception Test

Used to assess: Locus of problems Nature of needs Quality of interpersonal relationships