Shontz, F.C. &
Green, P. (1992).
Trends in research on the Rorschach:
Review and recommendations.
Applied and Preventive Psychology, pp.
149-156.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Psychometric properties, extent of use, and appropriate areas of research.
Assessment is continually stressed in both psychological training and practice, psychologist’s assessment practices have remained stable, and projective techniques in psychodiagnostic assessment are resilient because they work well in practice.
Authors say Exner’s system may have transformed the instrument into something that Rorschach and many of its users did not wish it to be.
Scientific interest in the Rorschach appears to lie heavily in the diagnostic and psychometric categories.
Table 6
Projective Assessments with Images Thematic Apperception Test
Author, Date, Title, Source
Type of Assessment
Focus Use of Image Scoring/Interpreting Key Points
Anderson, J.W.
(1999)
Chapter 3: Henry A. Murray and the Creation of the Thematic
Apperception Test pp. 23-38.
Evocative Images:
the thematic apperception test and the art of projection, American Psychological Association, Washington: DC
Thematic Apperception Test
Discusses the setting in which the test was created while defining the difference
between projection and apperception as well as the step-by-step development of the TAT and
reasoning behind each attempt.
Many of the pictures were redrawn versions of photographs or paintings. Six cards were redrawn by C.
Morgan and nine were drawn by Samuel Thal.
Not Applicable “Murray’s engagement with art helped him realize a realm in which he had been ignorant. He also became fond of an artist who would later help him create the TAT”.
Table 6
Projective Assessments with Images Thematic Apperception Test
Author, Date, Title, Source
Type of Assessment
Focus Use of Image Limitations Key Points
Bills, R.E. (1950).
Animal Pictures for Obtaining
Children’s Projections.
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 6(3), pp. 291-293.
Thematic Apperception Test
Limitations in testing young children and results in using animal pictures in the TAT.
Series of ten color pictures of animals engaged in various activities. This type of stimulus was thought to elicit more meaningful projections than the TAT cards when used with children ages 5-10 years.
Inadequacies in testing young children include the length of the story told, amount of description evoked, and blocking on individual cards and the test as a whole.
“It appeared easier for children to formulate stories for the animal cards than the TAT cards.
Qualitatively the stories told to the animal cards appear to have more
coherencies and produced a greater quantity of material than the TAT cards.
Neither series of cards however elicited sufficient projected material to cause them to be useful
diagnostic instruments”.
Table 6
Projective Assessments with Images Thematic Apperception Test
Author, Date, Title, Source
Type of Assessment
Focus Use of Image Scoring/Inter preting
Key Points
Cramer, P. (1996) Storytelling, Narrative and the Thematic
Apperception Test The Guilford Press New York: NY
Thematic Apperception Test
To investigate the origins and interpretations of the TAT through narrative and storytelling while discussing
developmental differences between using it with
children,
adolescents, and adults.
Began with several hundred pictures and narrowed down to 20 that elicited
“good” stories.
The features of the final cards were that each picture suggests a critical situation that supports development of fantasy and that there was one character that the subject could identify with.
Dynamics-of-Action Theory:
Discusses measuring the total set of cards combined, instead of one card versus another, to get a more accurate representation between motive and criterion variable.
“The TAT was used by psychologists for nearly 60 years because of the belief that stories will reveal aspects of human nature that may otherwise remain unknown and silent. The stories are a test of creative imagination and are used for subjects to project their own experiences onto the stories, which also may be autobiographies.
Gender identity, defense mechanisms, object relations, achievement motivation, and emotional stance have been investigated in children through the use of the TAT stories”.
Table 6
Projective Assessments with Images Thematic Apperception Test
Author, Date, Title, Source
Type of Assessment
Focus Use of Image Scoring/Interpreting Key Points
Deabler, H.L.
(1947).
The
Psychotherapeutic Use of the
Thematic
Apperception Test.
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 3(3), pp. 246-252.
Thematic Apperception Test
Administration and therapeutic
application as well as the integration of case studies.
“Experience with the test shows that of the set of 20 pictures, 4 or 5 pictures in the group are significant in affording pertinent data. These stories form the nucleus for further associations and expression so that the crucial problem is exposed”.
Interpretation of the test is best to be left to the client himself. The therapist achieves his best results when he allows the client the opportunity to work out and express his emotions and arrive at his own insights by a process of his own self-discovery.
This instrument lends itself to build rapport and
establish a working relationship with a client. The TAT is used as an “ice breaker” and the therapist allows himself to be a responsive listener, mirroring back the client attitudes, feelings, and emotions as they are expressed during the interview.
Table 6
Projective Assessments with Images Thematic Apperception Test