Projective Personality Testing

Psychological Testing

Projective hypothesis  DEFINITION: In a projective test, an individual “supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a manner consistent with the individual’s own unique pattern of conscious and unconscious needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and ways of perceiving and responding.”

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.

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.

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 examinee’s responses.

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?”

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.

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 examinee’s perception matches the corresponding part of the inkblot.

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.

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

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.

Exner’s 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.

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.

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.

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

.

TAT: Conclusions  Based on:  Stories told by examinee.

 Clinician’s notes:  Examinee’s response to the cards.

 Extra-test behavior and verbalizations.

 Analysis of story requires special training.

TAT: Interpretation 

Murray’s 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.

TAT Interpretation (cont.) 

Basic assumption:



Examinee is identifying with protagonist in the story.



Examinee’s concerns, hopes, fears, and desires are reflected in the protagonist’s needs, demands, and conflicts.



That is, the examinee’s personality is projected onto the protagonist.

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.

Variations of the TAT  Thompson TAT 1949:  Use with African Americans.

 CAT 1949 (3-10):  Pictures of animals.

 CAT - H:  Humans instead of animals.

 Blacky Pictures Test 1950:  Used Blacky the dog and his family and friends.

Blacky Test

Blacky Test

Blacky Test

Blacky Test

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Projective: Figure 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.

Machover’s 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.”

Machover’s 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.

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.