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