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INTRODUCTION

The Thematic Apperception Test, familiarly known as the TAT is a method of

revealing to the trained interpreter some of the dominant drives, emotions, sentiments,
complexes, and conflicts of a personality. Special value resides in its power to expose
the underlying inhibited tendencies which the subject, or patient, is not willing to
admit, or cannot admit because he is unconscious of them.

TAT was first described in 1935 in an article by Christina Morgan and Henry
Murray. Murray and his colleagues developed the test at the Harvard Psychological
Clinic, and he described the complete method in his book “Explorations in
Personality” in 1938. Murray argued that the test was valuable method of getting at
aspects of client’s personality that are unconscious or which the client does not wish
to reveal (Murray, 1943).

Utility

The TAT will be found useful in any comprehensive study of personality and
in the interpretation of behavior disorders. psychosomatic illnesses, neuroses, and
psychoses. As now constituted, it is not suitable for children under four years of age.
The technique is especially recommended as a preface to a series of psychotherapeutic
interviews or to a short psychoanalysis. Since the TAT and the Rorschach yield
complementary information, the combination of these two tests, as Harrison and
others have pointed out, is peculiarly effective.

Psychometric characteristics

Thematic Apperception Tests are meant to evoke an involuntary display of one's

subconscious. There is no standardization for evaluating one's TAT responses; each
evaluation is completely subjective because each response is unique. Validity and
reliability are, consequently, the largest question marks of the TAT. There are trends
and patterns, which help identify psychological traits, but there are met responses to
indicate different conditions a patient may or may not have. Professionals most
commonly use it in the early stages of patient treatment. The TAT helps professionals
identify a broad range of issues that their patients may suffer from. Even when
individual scoring procedures are examined, the absence of standardization or norms
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make it difficult to compare the results of validity and reliability research across
studies. Specifically, even studies using the same scoring system often use different
cards, or a different number of cards. Standardization is also absent amongst
clinicians, who often alter the instructions and procedures. Murstein explained that
different cards may be useful for specific clinical questions and purposes, making the
use of one set of cards for all clients impractical.

Reliability

Internal consistency, a reliability estimate focusing on how highly test items

correlate to each other, is often quite low for TAT scoring systems. Some authors
have argued that internal consistency measures do not apply to the TAT. In contrast to
traditional test items, which should all measure the same construct and be correlated
to each other, each TAT card represents a different situation and should yield highly
different response themes. Lilienfeld and colleagues countered this point by
questioning the practice of compiling TAT responses to form scores. Both inter-rater
reliability (the degree to which different raters score TAT responses the same) and
test-retest reliability (to degree to which individuals receive the same scores over
time) are highly variable across scoring techniques. However, Murray asserted that
TAT answers are highly related to internal states such that high test-retest reliability
should not be expected.
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Assessment Report of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Bio Data
Name: S.R
Age: 22 years old
Gender: Female
Education: MS Clinical Psychology
Birth order: 3rd born.
No. of siblings: 5 (1 sister& 3 brothers)
Religion: Islam
Marital status: Single
Father: Alive
Mother: Alive
Reason for Referral
The client was self-referred for fulfilling academic purpose.
Background Information
Client was born with normal birth. The client was physically healthy at birth.
She has completed all developmental stages. Now she is physiologically and
psychologically fit.
She started school education at the age of 3. She had done metric with above
average and Fsc in pre-medical with average grades. After doing bs-honors in applied
psychology with outstanding performance now she is doing MS in clinical psychology.
She has a good relationship with her peers. She is an obedient girl and always
gives respect to teachers. Her parents have a loving and caring attitude towards her. She
has a healthy home environment and always takes care of siblings and parents.
Her parents appreciated her because she always works hard and tries to give
100% for every work. Her siblings always take her advice and help with their
schoolwork. She also helps her mother with household chores. A client is always
admired by her family, relatives, cousins, and friends.
She suffers from jaundice at 5th level, but her studies were not affected at all.
She never suffers from another disease throughout her life. She is a habitual lazy girl
and does not take part in any extracurricular activities.
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Her hobby is reading books, and she visits different libraries for reading. She
is a social girl with too many friends. All my friends are satisfied with her.
She always shows excellent academic performance throughout her academic
performance which indicates that her intellectual level is good.
Behavioral Observation
She was dressed simply. She was wearing dupatta on her head. She became a
little bit nervous at the starting time. She was good at starting but felt fatigued in the last
few minutes during the test. She was not able to give proper attention to the items.
Test Administration
The test was administered in the psychological testing lab of Lahore Garrison
University. Proper instructions were given before the test. She carefully listens to all the
instructions. The lab environment was quite calm and peaceful. The room temperature
was normal. The participant was provided with a chair and table to sit comfortably.
Instructions
Murray's instructions included a statement that the TAT was "a test of
imagination, one form of intelligence" and further stipulated:
I am going to show you some pictures, one at a time, and your task will be to
make up a story for each card. In your story, be sure to tell what has led up to the
event shown in the picture, describe what is happening now, what the characters are
feeling and thinking, and then give the outcome. Tell a complete story with a
beginning, middle, and end. Do you understand? Since you have fifteen minutes for
the pictures, you can start making up a story. Here is the first picture. (Murray, 1943)
The blank card is presented at the end of the story cards, with the following
instructions:
"Now I am going to ask you to do something different. This time the card has
no picture on it, so you can make up any story that you'd like. See what you can see
on this bank card. Imagine some picture there and describe it in detail.”
If the subject fails in doing this, the examiner says, “Close your eyes and picture
something and tell a story about it.”
The time measured should begin when the picture is first presented and end when the
subject begins his or her story.
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Qualitative Analysis
Picture 12F

Story
W is an old woman in her 90s. She lives alone in a run-down wooden house
far away from town, on the corner of the forest. Her husband died in the war a long
time ago. She had two sons, who both went their own way when they were incredibly
young. In her youth, W was an exceptionally beautiful woman. She would often sing
at the town's celebrations. Everyone adored her. She had a very graceful and radiant
presence. Now, as she lives alone in the dusty old house, she often stands in front of
the mirror and stares at her old, wrinkled face and thinks about the good old days.
When she was young and pretty and she had everything, she ever hoped for. She gets
lost in her memories of the time when she was the object of everyone's attention, and
the hours pass by like minutes as W thinks of the days gone by.
Interpretation
In this story, the hero is projecting how the girl standing in mirror is missing
her good old days. Death is also the thematic part of this story where her husband has
been died in a war and everyone betrayed her including her own sons. As she is
looking at herself in the mirror, she is projecting the need to re-experiencing her good
times again, which shows that she could not have adequate time to fulfill her wishes
of being famous or being with her loved ones. She again projects the feelings of
loneliness, helplessness and lost belongingness. She thinks that she had little time
when she was attractive, and she somehow wants to change the circumstances to
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make her again the center of attention. This shows her thinking of less life satisfaction
and more regrets towards her existence and its fewer achievements.
Picture 13G

Story
M is a social worker by profession. She believes that her purpose in this world is
to help others, especially those who are underprivileged. This is why she often leaves
her city to travel to a nearby village, where she helps the people with their minor
illnesses and educates women on different health related issues. The way to the
village is not an easy one though since the village is towards the north and the houses
are built on the mountains. There are also no proper roads or an adequate transport
system that takes people up to the village. For this reason, M must walk a long way
and on a very unstable bridge on her way to the houses in the village. However, M is
still determined to continue her mission of helping the village people.
Interpretation
Here, the hero depicts a lady who is quite determined, extrovert and empathetic
towards others. She is quite helpful and is projected as a lady who is destined to
revolutionize the world by her services. No matter how many hurdles come in the
way, she is quite determined towards her goals and is making her way from those
irregular pathways. The basic need that is been shown is the need to interact with
needy people and help. Helping induces internal satisfaction thus the purpose of being
helpful may be the hero’s way of being satisfied. It is also clear that the hero is quite
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intent towards stabilizing herself and her environment no matter how many hurdles
are coming in her way.
Picture 3GF

Story

In this picture a woman is standing next to an open door holding a side of the

door with one hand and other hand covering her downcast face. She is looking very

depressed and sad. She also looked extremely ill. She needs the help of someone, but

no one is here to help her. She is alone and so sad. Her husband died, and she is

lonely.

Interpretation

Here, the hero is depicting a lady and targets the depressive feelings of a

subject, the basic need that is been shown is the need of interacting with people and

helping. Helping induces internal satisfaction thus the purpose of being helpful may

be the hero’s way of being satisfied.

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Picture 7GF

Story

In this picture young girl is sitting on a couch with a doll in her hands, and an

older woman sitting behind her is reading to her from a book. Picture also depicts that

the young girl looks angry and her mother trying to apologize to her for her

misbehave with other, but she looks truly angry.

Interpretation

The intention here is to bring out the style and manner of mother-child

interaction. When the older women are the subjects, the picture often elicits feelings

and attitudes toward children. Because both figures are looking away, either figure is

sometimes perceived as rejecting the other. This card draws out negative feelings and

interactions, and it is important to note how these feelings are resolved, expressed, or

avoided. Sometimes the older woman is described as reading a fairy story to the

younger girl and, it can also be portrayed as a mother telling a fairy tale to her child.
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Picture 8GF

Story
In this picture a W sitting on a chair with her chin resting in her hand. She is
peering into space. She looks very depressed and upset. She feels lonely and afraid.
Her husband died, and she miss him a lot. Now, as she lives alone in the dusty old
house, she often thinks about the good old days. When she was young and pretty and
she had everything, she ever hoped for. She gets lost in her memories of the time
when she was the object of everyone's attention, and the hours pass by like minutes as
W thinks of the days gone by.
Interpretation
In this story, the hero is projecting how the girl misses her good old days.
Death is also the thematic part of this story where her husband has been died in a war
and everyone betrayed her including her own sons. She again projects the feelings of
loneliness, helplessness, and lost belongingness. She thinks that she had little time
when she was attractive, and she somehow wants to change the circumstances to
make her again the center of attention. This shows her thinking of less life satisfaction
and more regrets towards her existence and its fewer achievements.
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Picture 9GF

Story

In this picture W standing behind a tree looking at another woman, who seems

to be running on a beach.as it seems that they are in very difficult situation, and they

needs helps but no one is here to helps them.

Interpretation

In this the hero depicts how the female peer relations and is important in

elaborating on the issues such as conflict resolution, jealousy, sibling rivalry, and

competitiveness. Because the figure standing behind the tree is carefully seeing the

woman on the bench, stories may provide details surrounding paranoid ideation. This

card was intended to bring out female peer relations, and elaboration on the issues

such as sibling rivalry, jealousy and so on. Paranoia can also be depicted here, as the

woman on the foreground is standing behind a try.

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Picture 17GF

Story

The sun is shining from between the clouds with a building over the bridge. A

woman is standing on the bridge looking at the water. The girl looks incredibly sad

and maybe she is thinking about suicide as she looks very depressed by face.

Interpretation

In this picture the hero depicts how Attitudes toward a recent separation or the

impending arrival of a loved one are sometimes described. This card can be

particularly useful in cases of suicidal depression, where the figure on the bridge is

perceived as contemplating jumping off, as a last attempt to resolve her difficulties.

An inquiry into the specific difficulties the story character has met and the way she

has attempted to resolve these difficulties can often reflect the subject’s manner and

style of coping with his or her own difficulties. The story related to the card reveals

attitudes or feelings toward the impending arrival or recent separation with a loved

one. This card is also effective in case of suicidal patients.

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Picture 18GF

Story
In this picture Just below the flight of stairs, a woman is grasping the throat of
another woman.as picture depicts that both women are looks truly angry as one
woman is grasping the throat of other, and the other women tries to escape from
situation.
Interpretation
In this picture the hero depicts that woman manages aggressive, hostile
relationships with the other women is primary type of information this picture elicits.
Note should be made of what types of events trigger this aggressiveness, and of the
way the conflict is or is not resolved. Feelings of inferiority, jealousy, and response to
being dominated are also often described. Although the representation of
aggressiveness in the picture is quite explicit, subjects occasionally try to deny or
avoid this aggressiveness by creating a story in which one figure is attempting to help
the other one up the stairs. This may point to general denial and Repression of
hostility and denial is other useful information revealed from the card.
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16 Blank Card

Story
M is a teacher by profession. She believes that her purpose in this world is to
help others, especially those who are underprivileged. This is why she often leaves
her city to travel to a nearby village, where she helps the people with their minor
illnesses and educates women on different health related issues. The way to the
village is not an easy one though since the village is towards the north and the houses
are built on the mountains. There are also no proper roads or an adequate transport
system that takes people up to the village. For this reason, M must walk a long way
and on a very unstable bridge on her way to the houses in the village. However, M is
still determined to continue her mission of helping the village people. Interpretation
Here, the hero depicts a lady who is quite committed, extrovert and empathetic
towards others. She is quite helpful and is projected as a lady who is destined to
revolutionize the world by her services. No matter how many hurdles come in the
way, she is quite determined towards her goals and is making her way from those
irregular pathways. The basic need that is been shown is the need to interact with
needy people and help. Helping induces internal satisfaction thus the purpose of being
helpful may be the hero’s way of being satisfied. It is also clear that the hero is quite
determined towards stabilizing herself and her environment no matter how many
hurdles are coming in her way.
Discussion
From each story narrated by the girl, it is quite clear that she is somehow
abandoned by any of her family members due to which, her other relations are
suffering as well. Her positivity and helping nature has somehow been manipulated,
but she had no as such issue with this manipulation as her aim is to help others but as
she got replaced with any other when it comes to giving attention and importance, her
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kindness and soft heartedness is still residing inside her, but she has become broken
and can never give her part as passionately as she used to give.
She is quite an enthusiastic person but due to lack of opportunities and her life
as the only responsible person for family is creating hurdles towards her
achievements. She considers that her life has been unjust to her when it comes to time
and opportunities. She somewhere thinks that the time where she could do something
for her has died and now, she is a rotten, useless person whom no one needs and who
cannot sustain with any relationship.
She has only shown positive behavior with her sister whom she doesn’t want
to lose at all and with whom she is completely comfortable, and she thinks is only the
helpful person for her.
Conclusion
Thus, the subjective TAT can effectively rule out the themes of a person’s
personality and the projection of his thinking over any objective picture.