Projective Personality Tests

Psychological Measurements

Lecture, Chapter 14

Projective Personality Assessment

nProjective Hypothesis – when people attempt to understand an ambiguous or vague stimulus, their interpretation of that stimulus reflects their needs, feelings, experiences, prior conditioning, thought processes and so forth.

nExaminers should never draw absolute, definite conclusions from any single response to an ambiguous stimulus.  They can only hypothesize about possible meanings.

The Rorschach Inkblot Test

nConstructed by dropping ink onto a piece of paper and folding it.

nAn individual test in which each of 10 cards is presented to the subject with a minimum of structure

nEach card is administered twice. First, is the free association phase where the subject identifies what they see. Second is the inquiry where the examiner determines several different qualities to the subjects response (location, determinant, form, content, & frequency of response).

Rorschach Scoring

nLocation: W = whole blot; D = common detail; d = unusual detail

nDeterminant: response is determined by pure form (F), movement, color, or shading

nContent: H = human; A = animal; N = nature

nPopular responses: those that occur once in every three responses

nForm Quality: F+ or + = matched stimulus properties of the inkblot well; F. = matched stimulus properties; F- or - = poorly matched

nConfabulatory responses: overgeneralizing from part to whole

nRejection: participant sees nothing; indicates guardedness or defensiveness

Critiques of Rorschach

nClinically valid?

nFeeble attempt at establishing norms by Exner (1986)

nTendency of results to overpathologize subjects.

nUnreliable scoring due to unstandardized administration and scoring procedures

nLack of relationship to psychological diagnosis

nLack of incremental validity

nProblem of “R”

The Holtzman

nGood, though less popular, alternative to the Rorschach

nConsists of 45 cards, each of which can be scored on 22 dimensions, including location, determinant, and content… as well as anxiety and hostility

nOnly one response per card permitted

nAlternative form available that correlates well with original test stimuli

nWell established norms for ages 5 to adulthood

nOvercomes much of the Rorschach’s scientific criticism, but its value and importance have yet to be determined

Thematic Apperception Test

nBased on Murray’s (1938) theory which distinguishes 28 human needs, including the needs for sex, affiliation, achievement, and dominance. Rorschach is atheoretical.

nNot presented as a diagnostic tool, as is the Rorschach; presented as a tool to evaluate human personality characteristics.

nMore structured and less ambiguous than the Rorschach

nConsists of 30 pictures and one blank card

nSubjects are asked to tell a story about each picture, during which subjects theoretically reveal their own strivings, dispositions, and conflicts

nRelatively well received by scientific community.

TAT – Psychometric Properties

nHighly studied on specific variables of achievement motive, contributing to construct-related evidence for validity.

nModest test-retest reliability (.3); split half reliability inappropriate.

nHolds content related evidence for validity

nLow criterion related evidence for validity

nStandardized administration and scoring needed to improve psychometric rigor.

nDue to questionable psychometric properties, quantitative methods of scoring are generally unpopular; clinicians typically rely on their clinical judgment and intuition to score and interpret the TAT.

Lindzey’s Assumptions for TAT Interpretation (1952)

nPrimary assumption: In completing an incomplete or unstructured situation, the individual may reveal his or her own characteristics (strivings, dispositions, conflicts)

nOther assumptions:

nStoryteller ordinarily identifies with one person in the drama; characteristics of this imaginary person may reflect those of the storyteller.

nStoryteller’s characteristics may be represented indirectly or symbolically

nAll stories are not of equal importance

nThemes directly related to stimulus material are less  likely to be significant than those unrelated to stimulus material.

nRecurrent (3+) themes are particularly likely to mirror characteristics of the storyteller.

nStories may reflect momentary and enduring characteristics.

nStories may reflect past events; if so, they still reflect storyteller’s own characteristics.

nStories may reflect group membership or sociocultural factors.

nDispositions and conflicts inferred from storyteller’s creations may be unconscious and thus not always reflected directly in overt behavior or consciousness.

Alternative Apperception Approaches

nSouthern Mississippi TAT (SM-TAT) – constructed with pictures from the Family of Man photo-essay collection

nChildren’s Apperception Test (CAT) – constructed with pictures of animals, rather than humans, for ages 3 – 10.

nTell Me A Story Test (TEMAS) – developed for Latino children; appropriate for minority children.

nGerontological Apperception Test – developed for elderly individuals, involving pictures depicting elderly concerns

nSenior Apperception Test (SAT) – alternative to Gerontological Apperception Test and is parallel in content.

Other Projective Procedures

nAssociation Techniques – asks the client to respond to a stimulus with the first word or image that comes to mind

nWord Association Test – still in use but plays limited role in clinical and counseling settings

nHistorically used by Galton (1879) and clinically by Jung (1910) and Keng and Rosanoff (1910)

nCompletion Techniques – asks the client to complete some task or situation

nRotter Incomplete Sentence Blank – widely used; 7 point score (positive = high; negative = low)

nIncomplete Sentences Task of Lanyon and Lanyon (1980) – 3 point scale; norms available as function of age and gender; positive and encouraging reviews.

nWashington University Sentence Completion Task (WUSCT) – rarely used; measures ego development, or degrees of autonomy, acceptance of self, and awareness of personal faults; most psychometrically sound projective test.

nConstruction Techniques – asks the client to tell a story about a given situation or picture; Rorschach and TAT.

nOrdering Techniques – asks the client to choose from a number of alternatives presented or to order the stimuli or pictures presented to them

nExpressive Techniques – asks the client to perform some activity or task (i.e. draw-a-person)

nScored on absolute size, relative size, omissions, and disproportions

nMost likely projective test to induce “overinterpretation” of results.

Norcross, Koocher, and Garofalo (2006)

nExperts’ ratings (N = 85) of mental health tests according to the following scale:

n1 = not at all discredited

n2 = unlikely discredited

n3 = possibly discredited

n4 = probably discredited

n5 = certainly discredited

nRorschach to diagnose specific disorders: mean = 2.84; STD = 1.24

nTAT for personality assessment: mean = 2.51; STD = 1.21

nHouse-Tree-Person for personality assessment: mean = 3.23; STD = 1.18