Projective Personality Tests

Chairperson: Dr. Ramanujam Presenter: Dr. Tejus Murthy

Basis of projective tests

Projective hypothesis Projective method

Basis of projective tests

Advantages of projective tests

Markedly reduced chances of faking No need for great proficiency in language Cross-cultural utility Tap the unconscious as well as conscious material

Inkblots as projective stimuli The Rorschach

Hermann Rorschach Swiss Psychiatrist

Procedure of administration
1. First administration 2. Inquiry 3. Testing the limits

The Rorschach Card I

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.

Popular responses: bat, butterfly, moth

The Rorschach Card II

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.
Popular responses: two humans, four-legged animal: dog, elephant, bear

The Rorschach Card III

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).

Popular responses: two humans

The Rorschach Card IV

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".

Popular responses: animal hide, skin, rug

The Rorschach Card V

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. Popular responses: bat, butterfly, moth

The Rorschach Card VI

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. Popular responses: animal hide, skin, rug

The Rorschach Card VII

Card VII can be associated with femininity (the human figures commonly seeing 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 make this card also relate to feminine sexuality in particular.

Popular responses: heads/faces of women or children

The Rorschach Card VIII

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.

Popular responses: four-legged animal: not cat or dog

The Rorschach Card IX

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.

Popular responses: human

The Rorschach Card X

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.

Popular responses: crab, lobster, spider, caterpillars, worms, snakes

Scoring
Location Determinants Content Popularity Form

Rorschach responses in various conditions

Schizophrenia- certain blockings of response, confabulations, contaminations, M below normal , F (minus) responses, few popular responses, personal references, perseveration , stereotype and so on. There is bizarreness and variability of responses. Anxiety- preponderance of shading responses, color shock and shading shock. Depression- greater number of achromatic responses and texture responses. Mania- greater color response. Neurotic records generally show color shock or shading shock and increased form inability to elaborate responses. Organic records is characterized by few responses, inability to elaborate responses in enquiry, confusion in defining limits of responses, perseveration, lack of human movement responses and presence of responses which have determinants without form interest.

Reliability of the Rorschach

1. Split-half reliability 2. Test-retest reliability 3. Inter-scorer reliability

Pictures as projective stimuli

Henry A Murray Christiana D Morgan Originators of the TAT

TAT

TAT

TAT

TAT

TAT

TAT

TAT

Indian adaptation of TAT and CAT has been done by Dr. Uma Chowdry of Kolkata.

TAT

William Henrys variables for TAT interpretation

Description Manifest stimulus demand Form demand Latent stimulus demand Frequent plots Significant variations Introduced figures

Critiques of the TAT

The relation between expression of fantasy stories and behavior in real life may be only tentative. High susceptibility to faking.

Childrens Apperception Test

Developed by Leopold Bellak and Sonya Sorel Bellak and first published in 1949. Used in children between 3 and 10 years of age. CAT-A - animals CAT-H - humans CAT-S - the stimuli include pictures of children in common family situations such as prolonged illnesses, births, deaths, and separations from parental figures.

Blacky Pictures Test (Blum, 1950)

Psychoanalytically based cartoon-like items featuring Blacky the dog

Blacky Pictures Test (Blum, 1950)

Psychoanalytically based cartoon-like items featuring Blacky the dog

Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study

Developed by Saul Rosenzweig Consists of 24 cartoon pictures, portraying 2 persons in frustrating situations Each picture has 2 speech balloons, a filled one for the frustator or antagonist and a blank one for the victims response to the situation Direction of aggression: Intropunitive (directed inward) Extrapunitive (outwardly expressed) Inpunitive (avoided or glossed over) Types of reactions Obstacle dominance response concentrates on frustrating barrier Ego defense attention is focused on protecting the frustrated person Need persistence attention is focused on solving the frustrating problem

Words as projective stimuli

Word association tests

Sentence completion tests

general/specific Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank High face validity, most susceptible to faking

Sounds as projective stimuli

B F Skinner

auditory inkblots
Reasons for disuse:
lack of differentiation lack of complexity and richness unsatisfactory scoring systems

The production of figure drawings

Quick, Easy, Cheap
Karen Machover Draw A Person Test Instructions Factors for evaluation Placement of figure Characteristics of individual drawn

The production of figure drawings

House-Tree-Person Test (Buck, 1948)

Kinetic Family Drawing Test (Burns & Kaufman, 1970,1972)

Projective methods in perspective

Assumptions
Ambiguity of stimulus Similarity of stimulus The assumption of the unconscious

Situational variables
Presence of examiner Age of examiner, instructions given Examiners contribution

Franks response to those who would reject projective methods because of their lack of technical rigor:
These leads to the study of personality have been rejected by many psychologists because they do not meet psychometric requirements for validity and reliability, but they are being employed in association with clinical and other studies of personality where they are finding increasing validation in the consistency of results for the same subject when independently assayed by each of these procedures. . . If we face the problem of personality, in its full complexity, as an active dynamic process to be studied as a process rather than as entity or aggregate of traits, factors, or as static organization, then these projective methods offer many advantages for obtaining data on the process of organizing experience which is peculiar to each personality and has a life career.

Reference
Psychological Testing and Assessment An Introduction to Tests and Measurement 6th Ed. Ronald Jay Cohen and Mark E Swerdlik