PROJECTIVE TESTLYNNA B. MARQUELENCIA

PRESENTOR

What is a projective test?

- any personality test designed to yield information about someone's personality on the basis of their unrestricted response to ambiguous objects or situations

This holds that an individual puts structure on an ambiguous situation in a

way that is consistent with their own conscious & unconscious needs.

• Reduces temptation to fake• Doesn't depend as much on verbal

abilities• Taps both conscious & unconscious traits• Focus is clinical perspective - not

normative - but has developed norms over the years

THE BENDER VISUAL MOTOR GESTALT TEST

More commonly referred to as the Bender-Gestalt Test, became a “mainstay in the assessment battery as an assessment tool in appraisal of intelligence as a screening technique for neuropsychological dysfunction, as a clinical tool for sampling visual-motor proficiency, and as a standard projective technique in the assessment of personality.”

Lauretta Bender, M.D. (1897–1987)

Child neuropsychiatrist, best known as the creator of the Bender-Gestalt Test.

She is best remembered for her Visual Motor Test, a neuropsychological exam that became a world standard. She also spent many years researching the cause of childhood schizophrenia and was responsible for studies on child suicides and violence.

a. Gestalt Psychology DefinitionGestalt psychology finds its foundations in German psychology. The word “Gestaltism” literally means the essence or the shape of an entity’s form. Gestalt psychology is based on the principles that the brain is holistic, parallel, analog, and has a tendency to self-organize.

b. Gestalt Psychology Perception

The core of Gestalt psychology is founded upon four main principles. Gestalt systems are 

made up of emergence, reification, multistability, and invariance. Each of these principles explains perception from the Gestalt point of view, rather than traditional explanatory psychology.

• Emergence is, quite simply, the formation of something complex, such as a pattern or puzzle, from simpler and easier rules.

• Reification is the generative aspect of perception. The experienced percept in reification is based upon detailed spatial information instead of the sensory stimulus. Reification can be explained more easily by referring to illusory contours.

• Multistability is a perception experience in which the subject’s perceptions are moving back and forth in an unstable manner creating two possible interpretations.

• Invariance is the unique attribute that states simple geometrical objects are recognized by the perceiver independent of rotation, size, lighting, colors, angles, deformations, and other features of the object.

c. Gestalt Psychology Examples

III II IIII I• You are likely to view this as four separate groups, comprising three, two, four and one members respectively, as opposed to a line of ten different “I’s.” This doesn’t only apply to visual perception, but also music and how a melody is perceived as a melody.

Bender Gestalt Test (The Bender Gestalt Test)

Used as a measure of visual-motor integration and can be used as a screening tool for neuropsychological impairment. The test includes 16 stimulus cards consisting of geometric figures. During this test the subjects on a sheet of copy paper each of the nine figures, and then draw them again from memory. Significant errors in the figure (as seen on the right in the figure, made   by a person with brain damage) may reflect some organic brain dysfunction.

4-Test Criteria correction Bendera) The square the circle or both are too flattened or deformed. b) disproportion between the size of the square and the circle (one is twice larger than the other).

distortion of the form

4-distortion of the formFive or more points scored in circles, points or circles enlarged partially filled circles are not considered.

RotationRotation of the figure at 45 degrees or more; rotation Blast Card but then copied correctly in the rotated position.

RotationRotation of the figure or part 

thereof in more than 45 °, rotation of the card after being copied correctly even in the rotated position.Integration

Fails in the attempt to join the circle and square, the circle and the vertex of the square adjacent or overlapping are separated by more than 3 mm.

Distortion of the formFive or more points scored in circles, points or circles enlarged partially filled circles are not considered for this scoring item.

RotationRotation of the figure at 45 degrees or more.

Change in shapeFive or more points scored in circles, points enlarged.

Distortion of the forma) Three or more curves replaced by angles (if in doubt do not compute). 

b) No curve in one or both lines, straight lines.

Distortion of the forma) disproportion between the size of the 2 hexagons, one must be at least twice larger than the other.

b) The hexagons are excessively deformed; adicón or omission of angles.

Distortion of the formThe hexagon or diamond excessively deformed, angles added or omitted.

EXAMPLES

THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST

Widely used to research certain topics in psychology, such as dreams and fantasies, mate selection, the factors that motivate people's choice of occupations, and similar subjects.

THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST

It is sometimes used in psychiatric evaluations to assess disordered thinking and in forensic examinations to evaluate crime suspects, even though it is not a diagnostic test. The TAT can be used to help people understand their own personality in greater depth and build on that knowledge in making important life decisions.

(Henry Murray )Humanistic Personality Psychology, 1920-1940)

“human personality, because of its present sorry state, had become the problem of our time—a

hive of conflicts, lonely, half-hollow, half-faithless, half-lost, half-neurotic, half-delinquent, not equal to the problems that confronted it, not very far from proving itself an evolutionary failure.”

TAT is a projective personality test that was designed at Harvard University in the 1930s by Christiana D. Morgan and Henry A. Murray.

Along with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Rorschach inkblot test, the TAT is one of the most widely used psychological tests . A projective test is one in which a person's patterns of thought, attitudes, observational capacity, and emotional responses are evaluated on the basis of responses to ambiguous test materials.

• PreparationThere is no specific preparation necessary before taking the TAT, although most examiners prefer to schedule sessions (if there is more than one) over two days.

• RisksThe chief risks involved in taking the TAT are a bad "fit" between the examiner and the test subject and misuse of the results.

• Parental concernsThe TAT does not yield a score, so its results can be difficult to interpret. It is important for parents to remember that the results of a single personality test may not accurately reflect their child's skills, talents, or problems and that there should not be too much emphasis placed upon the results of a single test.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Examples

The young boy hated the violin so much that even its silence was too loud for him.He pressed his fingers into his ears.

All day long the horse went back and forth across the huge grate, dredging the pit behind the barn for lost books.The younger woman sold them to a secondhand bookstore in town.

"I bet my little sissy boy just can't wait to turn around and bend over for my fat cock, can he?“

 

"No, ma'am!"

The Puerto Rican boys never found out that when the middle-aged woman invited them to use her pool, she stood by the window the whole time and watched them out of the corner of her eye.

  

Her adult son hated when the cat got fed before he did.

Even though the graveyard was small, it was so crowded with crosses that the bald man was having trouble finding the one he wanted to piss on.He couldn't hold it in much longer.

Despite all the acid they had taken, the muscular young man was scared when his friends told him to hang onto a rope tied to the back of the car as they started home from the beach.But for a second it was really fun.

The young man was already excited as he posed for his lover, who was sketching the back of his head on the escort's hairless abdomen to use as a target.Then the three of them would take turns on the cavity left by the bullet.

This is a set of instructions for gaining access to the unconscious thoughts and feelings one has towards one’s father.Psychologically speaking, this game has much in common with projective tests like the Rorschach-test or the Thematic Apperception Test developed by Henry A. Murray. The main difference in method is the usage of a group, rather than an individual, as the entity doing the projection. In this game, three persons use their unconscious and conscious minds to create a tragic story about one of the most important things in a person’s life; the relation to a husband or a father.

"This is the story of a little girl who is very disappointed. She’s been struggling to learn to play the violin but she can’t do it. It’s just too difficult. She’s upset and she’s going to tell her mother and father she doesn't want to take violin lessons anymore. She feels frustrated that she’s tried to play it and has failed. She’s feeling discouraged about the whole thing."

Other examples:

RORSCHACH TESTThe Rorschach test (also known as the Rorschach inkblot test, the Rorschach technique, or simply the inkblot test) is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. The test is named after its creator, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach.

GOALThe general goal of the test is to provide data about cognition and personality variables such as motivations, response tendencies, cognitive operations, affectivity, and personal/interpersonal perceptions. The underlying assumption is that an individual will class external stimuli based on person-specific perceptual sets, and including needs, base motives, conflicts, and that this clustering process is representative of the process used in real-life situations.

Hermann Rorschach was born on November 8, 1884, in Zurich,  Switzerland. According to Ellenberger,  young Rorschach was raised "in an atmosphere of extraordinary intellectual, artistic, and cultural concentration."

Hermann Rorschach(created the Rorschach inkblot test in 1921)

He  studied medicine in Zurich, Nuremberg, Bern, and Berlin. Specializing in psychiatry, Rorschach came into contact with and was influenced by members of the psychoanalytic community in Switzerland, including Carl Jung. Jung had pioneered the study of word association testing as a means of tapping unconscious material, and Rorschach, too, had experimented with this procedure. 

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• bat, butterfly, moth• Piotrowski:• bat (53%), butterfly(29%)• Dana (France):• butterfly(39%)

When seeing card I, subjects often inquire on how they should proceed, and questions on what they are allowed to do with the card (e.g. turning it) are not very significant. Being the first card, it can provide clues about how subjects tackle a new and stressful task. It is not, however, a card that is usually difficult for the subject to handle, having readily available popular responses.

THE INKBLOT TESTPopular responses

• Beck:• two humans• Piotrowski:• four-legged animal(34%, gray parts)

• Dana (France):• animal: dog, elephant, bear (50%, gray)

The red details of card II are often seen as blood, and are the most distinctive features. Responses to them can provide indications about how a subject is likely to manage feelings of anger or physical harm. This card can induce a variety of sexual responses.

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• two humans(gray)• Piotrowski:• human figures(72%, gray)• Dana (France):• human(76%, gray)

Card III is typically perceived to contain two humans involved in some interaction, and may provide information about how the subject relates with other people (specifically, response latency may reveal struggling social interactions).

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• animal hide, skin, rug• Piotrowski:• animal skin, skin rug (41%)• Dana (France):• animal skin(46%)

Card IV is notable for its dark color and its shading (posing difficulties for depressed subjects), and is generally perceived as a big and sometimes threatening figure; compounded with the common impression of the subject being in an inferior position ("looking up") to it, this serves to elicit a sense of authority. The human or animal content seen in the card is almost invariably classified as male rather than female, and the qualities expressed by the subject may indicate attitudes toward men and authority. Because of this Card IV is often called "The Father Card".

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• bat, butterfly, moth• Piotrowski:• butterfly(48%), bat(40%)• Dana (France):• butterfly(48%), bat(46%)

Card V is an easily elaborated card that is not usually perceived as threatening, and typically instigates a "change of pace" in the test, after the previous more challenging cards. Containing few features that generate concerns or complicate the elaboration, it is the easiest blot to generate a good quality response about.

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• animal hide, skin, rug• Piotrowski:• animal skin, skin rug (41%)• Dana (France):• animal skin(46%)

Texture is the dominant characteristic of card VI, which often elicits association related to interpersonal closeness; it is specifically a "sex card", its likely sexual percepts being reported more frequently than in any other card, even though other cards have a greater variety of commonly seen sexual contents.

THE INKBLOT TESTPopular responses• Beck:• human heads or faces (top)• Piotrowski:• heads of women or children(27%, top)

• Dana (France):• human head (46%, top)

Card VII can be associated with femininity (the human figures commonly seen in it being described as women or children), and function as a "mother card", where difficulties in responding may be related to concerns with the female figures in the subject's life. The center detail is relatively often (though not popularly) identified as a vagina, which makes this card also relate to feminine sexuality in particular.

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• animal: not cat or dog(pink)• Piotrowski:• four-legged animal(94%, pink)• Dana (France):• four-legged animal(93%, pink)

People often express relief about card VIII, which lets them relax and respond effectively. Similar to card V, it represents a "change of pace"; however, the card introduces new elaboration difficulties, being complex and the first multi-colored card in the set. Therefore, people who find processing complex situations or emotional stimuli distressing or difficult may be uncomfortable with this card.

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• human(orange)• Piotrowski:• none• Dana (France):• none

Characteristic of card IX is indistinct form and diffuse, muted chromatic features, creating a general vagueness. There is only one popular response, and it is the least frequent of all cards. Having difficulty with processing this card may indicate trouble dealing with unstructured data, but aside from this there are few particular "pulls" typical of this card.

THE INKBLOT TEST Popular responses• Beck:• crab, lobster, spider(blue)• Piotrowski:• crab, spider(37%, blue),rabbit head(31%, light green),caterpillars, worms, snakes(28%, deep green)

• Dana (France): none

Card X is structurally similar to card VIII, but its uncertainty and complexity are reminiscent of card IX: people who find it difficult to deal with many concurrent stimuli may not particularly like this otherwise pleasant card. Being the last card, it may provide an opportunity for the subject to "sign out" by indicating what they feel their situation is like, or what they desire to know.

The HIT, developed by psychologist Wayne Holtzman and colleagues, was introduced in 1961. The test was designed to overcome some of the deficiencies of its famous predecessor, the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Unlike the Rorschach, the Holtzman is a standardized measurement with clearly defined objective scoring criteria.

Wayne Holtzman (developed the inkblot 

technique)

THE INKBLOT TECHNIQUES

In summary, it can be said that the beginning of inkblot use may be traced back to the fifteenth century and that a sizable amount of work was done towards the end of the nineteenth century.

• Inkblot procedures have been used for studying imagination, thought processes, reflex hallucinations, intelligence and personality. Currently, they are being used to understand the subject's psychopathology and to hear his/her "inner cry." Currently the work is going on in various International Centers.

Ink Blot Testing

Ink blot testing is a projective technique personality test. Ink blots look like blobs of ink on paper however ink blots tell psychologist's a lot of information about the personality of a patient.

SignificanceInk blot testing assesses the private world of a person's ideas, wishes and fears which allows a psychologist to assess the behavior of a person's personality. Ink blots are commonly used to test mental patients in psychiatric hospitals.

Explanation:

THE PICTORIAL TECHNIQUES

A Blacky picture. Subjects would be asked to create a story based on the picture.

The Blacky pictures were a series of picture cards used by psychoanalysts in mid-Twentieth century America and elsewhere to investigate the extent to which children's personalities were shaped by Freudian psychosexual development.

• The drawings depicted a family of cartoon dogs in situations relating to psychoanalytic theory. The main character, 'Blacky', was accompanied by Tippy, a sibling, and a mother and father. Blacky's sex was decided by the experimenter, depending on the subject who was taking the test.

Draw-A-Person test

The Draw-A-Person test requires the subject to draw a person. The results are based on a psychodynamic interpretation of the details of the drawing, such as the size, shape and complexity of the facial features, clothing and background of the figure

• As with other projective tests, the approach has very little demonstrated validity and there is evidence that therapists may attribute pathology to individuals who are merely poor artists. A similar class of techniques is kinetic family drawing.

Smiling person (combined head and body) age 4½.

The Draw-A-Person Test (DAP, DAP test, or Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test) is a psychological projective personality or cognitive test used to evaluate children and adolescents for a variety of purposes.

House Tree Person Drawings 

The House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) projective technique developed by John Buck was originally an outgrowth of the Goodenough scale utilized to assess intellectual functioning.

• Buck felt artistic creativity represented a stream of personality characteristics that flowed onto graphic art. He believed that through drawings, subjects objectified unconscious difficulties by sketching the inner image of primary process.

• House interpretations  are loosely based on research and on the symbolic meaning of the aspects of the house. They should hopefully be nurturing places with normal levels of detail and normal size. 

• Tree interpretations: The trunk is seen to represent the ego. sense of self, and the intactness of the personality. Thus heavy lines or shadings to represent bark indicate anxiety about one's self, small trunks are limited ego strength, large trunks are more strength... 

• Person intrepretations: Here, the idea is that the person of the same sex is like you, and the person of the opposite sex is what you may not admit is like you. 

THE VERBAL TECHNIQUES

Thank You!!!