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Understanding Projective Personality Tests

Projective personality tests have no clearly defined answers and use ambiguous stimuli to reveal information about a person's unconscious mind and personality. The two most common tests are the Rorschach inkblot test, which uses inkblots and interprets a person's responses based on location, determinants, content, and form of their descriptions, and the Thematic Apperception Test, where people create stories for ambiguous pictures that are analyzed to uncover their thoughts, feelings, and problem solving abilities.

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124 views19 pages

Understanding Projective Personality Tests

Projective personality tests have no clearly defined answers and use ambiguous stimuli to reveal information about a person's unconscious mind and personality. The two most common tests are the Rorschach inkblot test, which uses inkblots and interprets a person's responses based on location, determinants, content, and form of their descriptions, and the Thematic Apperception Test, where people create stories for ambiguous pictures that are analyzed to uncover their thoughts, feelings, and problem solving abilities.

Uploaded by

Tattsun
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Projective Personality Tests

Projective Test
• Have no clearly defined answers
• Use an open-ended format
• Present ambiguous stimuli and ask test
taker to interpret what they see
- The interpretation is thought to reveal
information about their personality
• Two most common projective personality
tests are the
– Rorschach Inkblot Test
– Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Rorschach Inkblot Test
• Created by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann
Rorschach in 1921
• Uses 10 official inkblots
– 5 black and white
– 2 black and red and white
– 3 multicolored
Rorschach Inkblot
• Person is shown card with inkblot and asked
what they think it could be
• Responses to cards are interpreted according to
the following factors:
– Location  responding to whole card or part of card?
– Determinants  responding to particular shaping,
coloring, textures
– Content  the precise object that the test-taker is
seeing
– Form  is the answer based on the actual shape of
the blot, or are they seeing a different form entirely?
Thematic Apperception Test
• Created in the 1930’s by Harvard
psychologist Henry Murray
• Involves a picture interpretation technique
• Test takers are shown ambiguous pictures
and asked to create a story for the picture
TAT
• Subject’s story may include:
– What has led up to the event shown
– What is happening at the moment
– What the characters are feeling and thinking
– What the outcome of the story was
TAT
• Each story is carefully analyzed to uncover
the test takers unconscious mind,
including any
– Repressed aspects of personality
– Motives and needs for achievement
– Power and intimacy
– Problem solving abilities

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