Projective Personality Testing

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• Projective Personality Testing
• Psychological Testing

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Projective hypothesis

• DEFINITION In a projective test, an individual
  supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a
  manner consistent with the individuals own
  unique pattern of conscious and unconscious
  needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and
  ways of perceiving and responding.

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Concerns About Projectives

• Assumptions
• The more unstructured the stimuli, the more
  examinees reveal about their personality.
• Projection is greater to stimulus material that
  is similar to the examinee.
• Every response provides meaning for personality
  analysis.

• There is an unconscious.
• Subjects are unaware of what they disclose.
• Situational variables
• Age of examiner.
• Specific instructions.
• Subtle reinforcement cues.
• Setting - privacy.

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Inkblots as projective stimuli

• The Rorschach
• Hermann Rorschach (1884 - 1922).
• 10 bilaterally symmetrical inkblots on separate
  cards
• 5 black and white.
• 2 black, white, and red.
• 3 multicolor.

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Inkblots Initial administration

• What might this be?
• Record response verbatim
• Include time until first response.
• Position of card, spontaneous statements,
  nonverbal gestures or body movements.
• No discussion of examinees responses.

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Inkblots The inquiry

• What made it look like _____? or How do you
  see ____?
• Clarify initial responses and determine which
  aspects of inkblot were most influential.
• Determine if examinee remembers initial responses
  and if original response is still seen.
• Ask about any new perceptions?

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Inkblots Testing the limits

• Ask specific questions to get additional
  information about personality functioning.
• Identify confusion/misunderstanding about the
  task.
• Determine if examinee is able to do better with
  more testing structure.

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Inkblots Scoring Categories

• Location
• Part of inkblot utilized
• Entire blot, large or small section, minute
  detail, white space.
• Determinants
• Qualities of the inkblot
• Form, color, shading, movement.
• Popularity of response
• Frequency of response.

• Content
• Human figures, animal figures, blood etc.
• Form
• How accurately examinees perception matches the
  corresponding part of the inkblot.

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Inkblots Interpretation of scores

• Generate hypotheses based on patterns of
  response, recurrent themes and interrelationships
  among scoring categories
• Whole responses - conceptual thought processes.
• Form - reality testing.
• Human movement - imagination.
• Color - emotional reactivity.

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Inkblots Psychometric Properties

• Split-half and test-retest methods are not
  feasible.
• Inter-scorer reliability (with respect to
  categories) is acceptable.
• Inter-scorer reliability (with respect to
  interpretation) is not always acceptable.
• Convergent validity of .41
• WAIS - .62
• MMPI - .46

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The Rorschach Ink Blot

• Still widely used clinical instrument
• Most frequently used projective test
• Most frequently taught projective technique in
  counseling psychology programs and practicum
  sites.
• Extensively used as a research instrument
• Thousands of references in the Mental
  Measurements Yearbook.

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Exners system for the Rorschach

• Comprised of best features of 5 different
  systems.
• Coding categories
• Location.
• Determinants.
• Form quality.
• Content.
• Popularity.

• Coding categories (cont.)
• Organizational activity.
• Special scores.
• Indexes derived
• Obsessive style.
• Depression.
• Coping deficit.
• Schizophrenia.

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Pictures as Projective Stimuli

• First used in 1907
• Differences reported in responses of boys and
  girls to 9 pictures.
• Variety of pictures utilized
• Paintings, drawings, etchings, or photos of
  animals, people, objects or anything.

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Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• Morgan and Murray (1935).
• Elicit fantasy material from patients in
  psychoanalysis.
• 31 cards
• 30 black white with scenes
• Describe story.
• 1 blank
• Imagine picture on card and tell related story.

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TAT Administration

• A set of 20 cards is recommended, but the number
  may vary based on length of stories
• Some cards are suggested for use with adult
  males, adult females, or both.
• Some cards are best used with children however,
  all cards may be administered to any subject.

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TAT Conclusions

• Based on
• Stories told by examinee.
• Clinicians notes
• Examinees response to the cards.
• Extra-test behavior and verbalizations.
• Analysis of story requires special training.

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TAT Interpretation

• Murrays concepts
• Need - determinants of behavior arising from
  within the individual.
• Press - determinants of behavior arising from
  within the environment.
• Thema - interaction between need and press.

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TAT Interpretation (cont.)

• Basic assumption
• Examinee is identifying with protagonist in the
  story.
• Examinees concerns, hopes, fears, and desires
  are reflected in the protagonists needs,
  demands, and conflicts.
• That is, the examinees personality is projected
  onto the protagonist.

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TAT Psychometric properties

• Reliability
• Split-half, test-retest, and alternate-form
  reliability measures are not appropriate.
• Inter-rater reliability is acceptable.
• Situational factors
• Examiner.
• Events just prior to administration.

• Delivery of instructions.
• Transient internal needs states.
• Stimulus pull.
• Desire to fake good or bad.
• Validity
• Conflicting opinions regarding the validity of
  the assumptions and the interpretations.

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Variations of the TAT

• CAT - H
• Humans instead of animals.
• Blacky Pictures Test 1950
• Used Blacky the dog and his family and friends.

• Thompson TAT 1949
• Use with African Americans.
• CAT 1949 (3-10)
• Pictures of animals.

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Blacky Test
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Blacky Test
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Blacky Test
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Blacky Test
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Other Picture-Story Tests

• The Picture Story Test 1949
• Used with adolescents.
• Education Apperception Test and School
  Appreciation Test
• Measure kids attitudes toward school and
  learning.
• TEMAS
• Hispanic characters and urban settings.

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Other picture-story tests (cont.)

• Make A Picture Story Method 1952
• Arrange pictures of figures on pictorial
  backgrounds.
• The Apperception Personality Test 1990
• 8 stimulus cards with recognizable people in
  everyday settings more upbeat than TAT.
• Multiple choice questions fill in the gap.

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Words as Projective Stimuli

• Semi-structured technique
• Use of open-ended words, phrases and sentences
  provides a framework within which the examinee
  must operate.
• Word association and sentence completion tests
• 2 best-known examples.

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Early Influences Word Projection

• Galton 1879
• Present series of words and respond with first
  word that comes to mind.
• Jung 1910
• Key words representing possible areas of
  conflict.
• Kent-Rosanoff Free Association Test 1910
• Attempt to standardize responses to specific
  words.

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Word Association Test

• Rapaport, Gill and Schafer (1946)
• 3 part test consisting of 60 words.
• Basis of evaluation
• Popularity.
• Response time.
• Content.
• Test-retest response.

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Sentence Completion Tests

• Complete the following
• I like to _____________.
• Stems may be general or specific depending on the
  setting.
• Obtain information about interests, goals,
  fears, conflicts, needs, etc.
• High degree of face validity
• Most vulnerable projective test to faking.

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Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (1950)

• Most popular.
• 40 incomplete sentences .
• 3 levels
• high school, college and adult.
• Estimates of inter-scorer reliability (with
  respect to scoring categories) are in the .90s.

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ProjectiveFigure Drawings

• Quick and easy administration
• Individually or in a group.
• Non-clinicians can administer.
• Pencil and paper only.
• Used to obtain information about intelligence,
  neurological intactness, visual-motor
  coordination, cognitive development, and learning
  disabilities.
• Questionable use.

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Machovers Draw-A-Person Test

• Administration
• Draw a person on piece of 8 1/2 X 11 blank
  white paper.
• 2nd drawing of other sex.
• Tell me a story about the figure.

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Machovers Draw-A-Person Test Evaluation Criteria

• Placement of the figure
• right - future left - past upper right -
  suppress past and optimism lower left -
  depression.
• Facial expressions
• large eyes or ears - suspiciousness paranoid.
• Light pencil pressure
• character disturbance.
• Figure size, line quality, symmetry etc.

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Other Figure Drawings

• House Tree Person (HTP)
• Buck 1948.
• Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD)
• Burns Kaufman (1970).
• Picture of everyone in family doing something.
• No widely accepted scoring system.