measurement of personality degree course (three years
TRANSCRIPT
MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY
Degree Course (Three Years)
Psychology Honours
B. A. Part– I Honours Paper I : General Psychology
Unit 9
by
Dr. Ranjan KumarPh. D ; M Phil ; PGDGC
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ram Ratan Singh College, Mokama
Patliputra University, Patna
Presented by
Dr. Ranjan KumarPh. D in Clinical Psychology (RINPAS, Ranchi)
M. Phil. in Medical & Social Psychology (RINPAS, Ranchi)PG Diploma in Guidance & Counselling (RIE,NCERT,BBSR)
Assistant Professor of PsychologyRam Ratan Singh College, Mokama
Patliputra University, Patna
MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY
What is Personality?
s People differ from
each other in
meaningful ways
s People seem to show some consistency in behavior
Personality is defined as distinctive and relatively
enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting
Personality
• “Dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment”.
– Gordon Allport (1937)
• The process an individual uses to organize his or her experiences, in terms of a changing world of physical and social realities such that the reality fills his own needs and values.
• Consists of different facets- needs, drives, motives, traits, abilities, behavior systems and libido organization, depending on one’s frame.
situations
• Situation 1 :-Suppose that you are new to the organisation,
and not familiar to your colleague. You get a chance to interact with them in this party.
What will you do in this situation?
a) You will take the initiative to talkb) Feel strange and nervous so will not talk with othersc) You will wait for someone else to talk to youd) you will stand and smile to others.
Definition of Personality Trait
Enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide
range of social and personal contexts
Definitional Features of Personality Disorder
Enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture and is manifested in at least two of the following areas:
Definitional Features of Personality Disorder
• The pattern is manifested in at least two of the following areas: cognition, affectivity, interpersonal functioning, or impulse control (Criterion A)
• The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations (Criterion B)
• Leads to significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (Criterion C)
Definitional Features of Personality Disorder
• The pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be traced back to adolescence or early adulthood (Criterion D)
• The pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder (Criterion E)
• The pattern is not due to the direct physiologic effects of a substance or a general medical condition (Criterion F)
Three Clusters of Personality Disorders
• Cluster A (odd eccentric)
– Paranoid
– Schizoid
– Schizotypal
Three Clusters of Personality Disorders
• Cluster B (dramatic-emotional)
– Antisocial
– Borderline
– Histrionic
– Narcissistic
Three Clusters of Personality Disorders
• Cluster C (anxious-fearful)
– Avoidant
– Dependent
– Obsessive-compulsive
Personality Tests
• Observe and describe the structure and content of personality – the characteristic ways an individual thinks, feels, behaves, and interacts
• Clarifies – Diagnoses– Problematic patterns of behavior– Intra and interpersonal dynamics– Treatment implications
• Can be objective or projective
Measuring Personality & Psychological Functioning
• Objective testing– Specific questions or statements to which the person responds
by using specific, fixed answers or a rating scale
– Scores tabulated and compared to reference groups
• Projective testing– Ambiguous or unstructured stimuli to which client is asked to
respond freely.
– Unconscious or conscious needs, motives, interests, dynamics are projected onto ambiguous stimuli revealing internal dynamics or personality
– More challenging to score and interpret than objective
Objective Tests
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI; MMPI-2)
• Millon Multi-Axial Inventory III (MCMI-III)
• 16 Personality Factors (16PF)
• NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)
Morey, L., & Hopwood, C., (2008) Objective Personality Evaluation (Chap. 18, 455) in Handbook of Clinical Psychology (eds Michel Hersen and Alan Gross, Wiley.
The Projective Techniques
• Projective tests allow the examinee to respond to vague stimuli with their own impressions
• Assumption is that the examinee will project his unconscious needs, motives, and conflicts onto the neutral stimulus
• Word association tests, inkblot tests, sentence completion tests, storytelling in response to pictures, etc.
The Projective Techniques (cont.)
• Three features:- Disguised: no face validity
- Global: the whole personality
- Reveals unconscious aspects of personality
- Types:- Inkblot: Rorschach
- Picture interpretation: TAT
- Sentence completion: Rotter Incomplete SB
- Picture construction: DAP
The Rorschach Inkblot Test
• The Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most commonly used projective test
– In a 1971 survey of test usage, it was used in 91% of 251 clinical settings survey
– It is one of the most widely used tests that exists
– It is widely cited in research
History
• The earliest use of inkblots as projective surfaces was J. Kerner's (1857)
– He was the first to claim that some people make idiosyncratic or revealing interpretations
• In 1896, Alfred Binet suggested that inkblots might be used to assess personality (not psychopathology)
History
• Herman Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, was the first to suggest (1911) the use of inkblot responses as a diagnostic instrument
– In 1921 he published his book on the test, Psychodiagnostik (and soon thereafter died, age 38)
History
• Rorschach's test was not well-received, attracting little notice– David Levy brought it to the United States - thought it was
scientifically unsound.
– His student, Samuel Beck, popularized its use here, writing several papers and books on it starting with Configurational Tendencies in Rorschach Responses (1933)
• Several other early users also published work on he Rorschach– Several offered their own system of administration, scoring, and
interpretation, leading to later problems in standardization
What is the Rorschach?• The stimuli were generated by dropping ink onto a card
and folding it
– They are not, however, random: the ten cards in the current test were hand-selected out of thousands that Rorschach generated
• Ten blots – 5 black/white, 2 red/gray (II & III) and 3 color (VIII – X)
• Thought to tap into the deep layers of personality and bring out what is not conscious to the test taker
• The following are the inkblots
Administering the Rorschach
• The test is usually administered with as little instruction and information as possible
– The tester asks 'What might this be? and gives no clues or restrictions on what is expected as a response
– Anxious subjects often do ask questions, and vague answers are offered
– Some advocate sitting beside the subject to avoid giving clues by facial expression
– If only one response is given, some hint to find more may be offered: "Some people see more than one thing.“
Administering the Rorschach
• The cards are shown twice:
– The first time responses are obtained - free association phase
– The second time they are elaborated – inquiry phase
Rorschach (cont.)Exner’s Comprehensive Scoring System
1. Location
- W = whole (intellectual potential)
- D = subdivisions (common sense)
- Dd = details (compulsive tendencies)
- DW (confabulated detail)
2. Content (i.e., general class to where response belongs)
- people, part of a person, clothing, animal, part of an animal, nature, anatomical
Rorschach (cont.)
3. Determinants (i.e., specific property of the blot)
- F = shape/outline (rational approach)
- M = movement (imagination)
- C = color (emotional reactions)
- Y = shades of grey (depression)
4. Form Quality
5. typical vs. unusual response
6. time
Rorschach (cont.)
norms = unrepresentative
inter-rater reliability
test-retest reliability
construct validity
criterion validity
Psychometric Properties of the
Rorschach
• The Rorschach is a popular test, however, it has been plagued by low reliability and validity.
• Obviously, it is difficult to measure any of the usual psychometric properties in the usual way
– Validity and reliability are usually low because of the open-ended multiplicity of possibility that is allowed and by the lack of universally-accepted standardized instructions, administration protocol, and scoring procedure
Interpreting the Rorschach
• Uses norms for five groups: nonpatient, outpatient nonpsychotic, inpatient character problem, inpatient depressive, inpatient schizophrenics one
• Deviation from norms can mean an invalid protocol, or brain damage, or emotional problems, or a low mental age (or just an original person)
Psychometric Properties of the
Rorschach
• Reliability studies that have been done find r-values varying from 0.1 to 0.9
• Parker (1983) analyzed 530 statistics through meta-analysis (9 studies) and found an internal reliability of .83
• W responses has been linked to general intelligence (r = 0.4); Movement responses are said to suggest strong impulses or high motor activity; DW (confabulatory) responses are taken as signs of a disordered state; low response rate is associated with mental retardation, depression, and defensiveness
• Overall, more research is needed to determine the reliability and validity of the Rorschach.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Construct a story about what you see on the following picture
Describe:
- what led up to the scene
- what is happening
- what the characters in the story might think or feel
- how the story will end
Thematic Apperception Tests• The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 30 grayscale
pictures + one blank for elicitation of stories – each contain a dramatic event or critical situation
• Most subjects see 10-12 cards, over two sessions
• Based on Murray's (1938) theory of 28 social needs (sex, affiliation, dominance, achievement, attitudes etc.)
• People would project into their story their needs
• Attention is paid to the protagonist in each story and his/her environmental stressors
• Many variations on this 'story-telling' test exist
TAT (cont.)
• Administration: not standardized
- Not the same 20 cards
- Not the same order
- Seldom 2 sessions
- Instructions differ
• Scoring is Minimal
• Low Reliability & Validity
TAT – scoring/interpretationScoring• Congruence with picture stimuli
• Conformity with directions
• Conflict
Psychometric properties:
• internal consistency is low;
• high reliability but diminishes with time, 2 months, r = .80; 10 months r = .50;
• Inter-rater reliability vary with studies: range .3 to .9
Examples of Projectives
• Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB)
Complete the following sentences to express your real feelings:
- I like ……..
- My greatest fear ……..
- This PSY 3090.D instructor is ……..
RISB (cont.)
• Designed to screen for emotional maladjustment
• Info about wishes, desires, likes, dislikes, fears, and locus of control
• 40 items: easy to administer (group or ind.)
• Rigorous scoring system: high interrater r
• Scoring ranges from 0 to 6
• Responses are scored as to the degree of conflict expressed, optimism shown, length of responses, omissions
• Psychometrically sound but less used
Draw-a-Person Test
- Originally to assess children’s intelligence
- Now: a screening procedure for emotional disturbance
- Cannot constitute a diagnosis
- The administration:
• Draw a person
• Draw a person of the opposite sex
• Draw yourself
Draw-a-Person Test
• Administrator Asks:
- Can you please draw a person?
- Draw whatever you like in any way you like?
Administrator Then Asks:
- Draw a person of the opposite sex?
Draw-a-Person Test (cont.)• Subjective vs. quantitative scoring system
• Clinician looks for:– Sequence of body parts
– Verbalizations during the drawing process
– Size & placement of figures on the page
– Amount of action depicted
– Systematization in doing the task
– Number of erasures
– Shading
– Gender of picture
– Over attention to certain body parts
Draw-a-Person Test (cont..)
• Among the plausible but empirically untrue relations that have been claimed:
- Large size = Emotional expansiveness or acting out
- Small size = emotional constriction; withdrawal, or timidity
- Overworked lines = tension, aggression
- Distorted or omitted features = Conflicts related to that feature
- Large or elaborate eyes = Paranoia
Other common projective tests
• CAT – Children Apperception Test – (Bellak, 1975)• Word Association Test – Rapaport et al. (1946, 1968) – 60
words: neutral and traumatic – scored: popularity, RT, content, test-retest responses
• Sentence Completion – Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank – 40 sentences – evaluated on 7 point scale by “need for therapy” to “extremely good adjustment”
• House-Tree-Person Test (Buck, 1948) & Draw-A-Person(Machover, 1949): Subject is asked to draw– Scoring is on absolute size, relative size of elements, omissions
"If there is a tendency to over-interpret projective test data without sufficient empirical grounds, then projective drawing tests are among the worst offenders."
Kaplan & Saccuzo, Psychological Testing, 2001, p. 467
Projective tests: Defined
• The psychologist George Kelly offered this
tongue-in-cheek definition in a 1958 article
titled "Man's construction of his alternatives"
(included in the book "The Assessment of
Human Motives", edited by G.Lindzey):
“When the subject is asked to guess what
the examiner is thinking, we call it an
objective test; when the examiner tries to
guess what the subject is thinking, we call it
a projective device.”
Projection
• The term projection was introduced by Freud.
• 1894 - explained as a tactic of attribution.
• 1896- described it as a process of defensively attributing
one’s own feelings or drives to others or the world to avoid
awareness of those feelings or drives.
• 1913- projection was not created for the purpose of defense;
also occurs where there is no conflict. (“Totem and Taboo”).
Projective Technique
• term coined by Lawrence Frank (1939).
• psychological assessment procedures in which respondents
project their need and feelings onto ambiguous stimuli.
• The stimuli are relatively unstructured materials and / or
tasks that a person is asked to describe.
Definition of Projective Technique
• “A projective technique is an instrument that is considered
especially sensitive to covert or unconscious aspects of
behavior, it permits or encourages a wide variety of subject
responses, is highly multidimensional, and it evokes
unusually rich or profuse response data with a minimum of
subject awareness concerning the purpose of the test. Further,
it is very often true that the stimulus materials presented by
the projective test is ambiguous, interpreters depends upon
little holistic analysis the test evokes fantasy responses, and
there are no correct or incorrect response to the test”.
– Lindzey (1961)
Classification of Projective Techniques (Lindzey, 1961)
A. ASSOCIATION-
Rorschach
SIS
Helmotz Inkblot Test
Word Association Test
B. CONSTRUCTION-House-
Tre
TAT
CAT
SAT
C. COMPLETION- Sentence completion
Rosenzweig Picture
Frustration Study
D. EXPRESSIVE-
e-Person Test
Draw a person
Painting
Drawing
Storytelling
• E. CHOICE: It is not projective techniques in the true sense of the term. Step of
towards objectifying the projective techniques.
The szondi test
• Samuel Beck (1944,1945), Bruno Klopher (1954,1956), Zygmunt
Pitrowski (1950,1957), Marguerit Hertz (1942, 1951), and David
Rappaport (1944,1946) had essentially completed their “systems’’ by
developing their own style of interpretation of the ‘Rorschach’.
• Beck adhered closely to Rorschach’s format for coding and scoring.
• Klopher was stressed to phenomenology and the theories of
personality developed by Freud and Jung.
• Pitrowsi, Hertz and Rappaport represented a middle ground
between the two intersect systems.
• Exner (1969) came up with the Comprehensive Analysis of
Rorschach that combined all the 5 systems
Klopher‘phenomenology’
BeckOriginal Rorschach format
Pitrowsi, Hertz and
RappaportExner
Short Sketch of Rorschach Born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1884.
Childhood and youth and in Schaffhausen.
High school friends called him ‘Klex’.
Father was an art teacher.
Confused b/w art and science after school.
Enrolled in medical school at University of Zurich, passed in 1913.
Married Olga Stempelin, moved to Russia.
Returned to Switzerland in 1914.
Pursued MD in Psychiatry under Eugen Bleuler, along with Carl Jung.
experimented with a large number (hundreds) of ink blots, administered to different psychiatric group (300 mental patients and 100 control subjects) as part of MD thesis.
finally hand selected a set of ten for their diagnostic value.
Incorporated ‘response characteristics’ differentiating b/w different diseases into a scoring system.
procedure were further sharpened by supplementary testing of mentally retarded and normal person, as well artists, scholars, and other distinct groups of people.
Published Psychodiagnostik in 1921.
Died in 1922 of Peritonitis.
The Rorschach Inkblot Test
The Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most commonly used projective test
In a 1971 survey of test usage, it was used in 91% of 251 clinical settings survey (in US)
Camara et al. in 2000 supported these findings. According to recent surveys by the American Psychological
Association (APA), 82 % of its members ''occasionally'' and 43 % ''frequently'' use the test
It is widely cited in research, third only to the MMPI and the NEO Personality Inventory (a five-factor personality measure)
It is estimated to be administered to 6 million people per year
“No general discussion of psychological tests is complete without reference the Rorschach, despite its scientific inadequacies.” [Kaplan & Saccuzzo / Psychological Testing]
The Rorschach test is a projective test in which
subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and
then analyzed using psychological interpretation,
complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists
use this test to examine a person's personality
characteristics and emotional functioning. The test
is named after its creator, Swiss psychiatrist
Hermann Rorschach.
The Rorschach
• Six pivotal questions (Weiner):
• Is the Rorschach :
• objective OR subjective assessment technique?
• a measure of perception OR a measure of association?
• personality structure OR personalitydynamics?
• a test OR method?
• a psychometrically sound measuring
Objective Vs. Subjective provides objective assessment of cognitive structuring style.a stimulus to fantasy that provides subjective assessment of thematic imagery.
Both.
Perception vs. Association most responses are likely to be joint product of perceptual and associational processes, and they contribute to their final form.
Both.
Structure vs. Dynamics assessment of personality structure proceeds through structural variables and assessment of personality dynamics through content variables .
Both.
Test Vs. Method “a set of tasks or questions intended to elicit particular types of behavior when presented under standardized situations and to yield scores that will have desirable psychometric properties such as high reliability and high validity” (APA,1974). According to this statement Rorschach established as more than a test.
Test.
Psychometrically sound Doubtful reliability and validity. ??
Variables correlated with intellectual functioning
form level, Movement responses , Whole responses reflects person’s intellectual activity, capacity and creativity.
Yes.
Card number Type Name
I Achromatic Reality card
II Semi chromatic Reality card
III Semi chromatic Interpersonal card
IV Achromatic Authority card
V Semi chromatic Reality card
Card number Type Name
VI Achromatic Phallic card
VII Achromatic Mother card
VIII Chromatic Reality card
IX Chromatic Neurotic card
X Chromatic Frustration tolerance card
Administering the Rorschach
• The test is usually administered with as little instruction
and information as possible
– The tester asks 'What might this be?' and gives
no clues or restrictions on what is expected as a
response
– Anxious subjects often do ask questions, and
vague answers are offered
– Some advocate sitting beside the subject to
avoid giving clues by facial expression
– If only one response is given, some hint to find
more may be offered: "Some people see more
than one thing."
– The orientation of the card and subject RT is
Administering the Rorschach
• The cards are shown twice
– The first time responses are called ‘performance proper’ ; the second time they are called ‘inquiry’
– The test administrator asks about:
• i.) Location: Where did the subject see each item?
–A location chart is used to mark location
–W = whole; D = Common detail; Dd = Unusual detail; S= Space response
• ii.) Determinant: What determined the response?
– Form (F) [F+ = good form; F = match; F- = poor form]
– Perceived movement? Human (M); Animal (FM); Inanimate (m)
–Color (C, CF, FC); shading (Y); texture (T).
Administering the Rorschach
– The test administrator asks about:
• iii.) Content: What was seen?
–Human (H); animal (A); nature (N)?
• The test administrator also scores
popularity/originality: How frequently is the
percept seen?
Location Description
W Where the entire blot is used in the response. All portions must be used.
D Common Detail Response A frequently identified area of the blot.
Dd Common Detail Response A frequently identified area of the blot.
S Common Detail Response A frequently identified area of the blot.
Determinant Description
F+ Good form response
F- Poor form response
C Only color response
CF Color dominated form response
FC Form dominated color response
Y Shading response, e.g x-rays (figure IV)
YF Shading dominated form response , e.g- ‘Mist or fog, this gray spread out’
(figure VI )
“white” association is also Y response
FY From dominated shading response, e.g- a map with island and the white is
the water (figure I)
T Texturally determined association has its origin is touch. It is most common
as something soft in relation to fur association.
V Vista association are – the distance, usually landscapes, some times aerial
views, mountains, valleys and hills .
M (Movement
response)
M in part humans, movement in animal response, expression of emotion,
Abstract emotions, inanimate and natural forces, human purpose .
CONTENT DESCRIPTION
H Percepts of humans. Religious figures such as angel, devil and naming of human form e.g-dance,
coitus, dolls are usually H.
Hd With human details, external part of the body
A Percepts of animal, e.g- mammals, fish ,birds and insects.
Ad With animal details, e.g- headless animal is Ad.
An Anatomy, internal organ (lungs, esophagus, heart) also in all ‘x-ray’ association.
Bt All plant life is here grouped,
Bl When blood has been perceived
Sex All obvious names of sex organs are here included, also secondary body parts, usually outer.
Ab
(abstraction
)
Moods or emotions are the more common abstractions, e.g- depression, fright. Seasons of the year,
because of connotation, e.g-green recalls spring
Al
(alphabet)
Like the letter ‘w’ or the numeral 7’
Ar
(architectur
e)
Such percept as windows, arches.
Art Includes seals and similar emblems and commercial trademarks.
As
(astronomy)
Moon and star are the also sunrise or sunset
Ay
(anthropolo
gy)
It is necessary for the ‘totem pole’
CONTENT DESCRIPTION
Cg
(clothing)
Reflecting personal interest, e.g- nuns habit
Cl (cloud) Several related association are included e.g- strom, mist.
Dh (death) Funeral association are included
Fi (fire) Association is comprised here- fire, smoke, burning candles etc.
Fd (food) Prepared food, as sweets, desserts. All meat is Fd
Ge
(geography)
Comprise all specific places names and general terms for geographic details e.g- peninsula, strait.
Hh
(household)
i.e- furniture, kitchen utensils
Ls
(landscape)
Fountain and certain urban scenes or objects. Also applies to all seascapes e.g-lighthouse scenes,
harbors, ocean floor scenes etc.
Mu (music) Musical instruments, also bells
My
(mythology)
Dragons, gnomes, trolls belong here
Na (nature) Responses like sky and northern lights belong here.
Pr
(personal)
e.g- fan, perfume bottle, bow tie etc..
Rl (religion) Association names a person of religious significance, e.g-Mary, Moses, Buddha etc.
Ru (rural) Characteristic only of the rural scence
Sc (Science) Specimens, living or not, seen in scientific work, tools of science etc..
Tr (travel) All means of travel, by land, sea, or air and all parts of such travel media are here grouped.
Vo
(Vocation)
Some content closely associated with a specific vocation- ‘plasterer’s trowel, wheelbarrow.’
Card no.
7
Direction Response Time
10 secs
Response
1. Two humans Dancing
Location
W
Determinant
F, M
Content
H
2. Human Face Statue D F, Y H
Two Humans Dancing
Head
body
Dress/skirt
Face statue
Scoring the Rorschach
• Some quantitative information is obtained: i.e. percent of W, D, Dd, and S responses
• Deviation from norms can mean an invalid protocol, or brain damage, or emotional problems, or a low mental age (or just an original person)
• These quantitative measures can be validated
– i.e. # of W responses ---general intelligence;
– Movement responses ---Coping skills, fantasy living, prognosis;
– low response rate ---mental retardation, depression, and defensiveness
Scoring the Rorschach
• Alas, many attempts to validate signs are unclear
• Often there is fail to replicate, or the findings contradict expert claims
• Most scoring is qualitative: i.e. analyzing content
– There are no hard and fast rules
– All but the most ardent proponents suggest that
the protocol be analyzed in the context of other
tests results and clinical information.
Contemporary Use: Scoring
Beck scoring system:
The Structural Summary
Location
Location (W, D, Dd)
Use of white space (S)
Determinants
Form (good, poor, bad quality)
Movement (active and passive)
Color
Texture
Shading
Content
Animal
Human
Anatomy
Botany
Mythology
Religious
Architechture
Scoring Systems:
Five scoring systems-
1. Beck : It is widely used for clinical practice.
2. Exner : It is mainly used for research purpose.
3. Klopfer
4. Rappaport
5. Pietrowski
Rorschach indicators of Normalcy (Beck)
Adult population:
Average number of responses: 32
Whole responses : 05
D responses : 22
M responses : 03
Human responses : 04
Affective ratio range : 0.40- 0.60
An responses : 02
F+ percentage : 79
P responses : 07
Rorschach indicators of Schizophrenia
Less number of responses
High IRT
Less number of W responses
Less F+ percentage
Low number of P responses.
Deviant verbalization
Confabulation
Contamination
Projected inference
Perseveration
Poor form conceptions
Poor color responses
Few or no human movement
responses
Rejections
Variability
Rorschach indicators of Affective disorders
Manic disorders:
High number of responses
Short reaction time
C and CF are high
Low F+ %
Wider content category
High affective ratio
Depression
Less number of responses
Increased RT
Less W responses
More D responses
No M responses
Presence of shading
responses
High F+ %
More P responses
More A responses
Narrow content category
Rorschach indicators of Organicity
Ten Piotrowski signs of organic brain disease:
1. Number of responses < 15.
2. Response time >60 seconds.
3. < 2 M.
4. Less F+%.
5. Less than four popular responses.
6. One or more color naming responses.
7. Perseveration
8. Impotence
9. Perplexity
10. Automatic phrasing.
Bell describes them as “among the most valuable for clinical diagnosis, although
their findings have not been entirely accepted by other experimenters”.
Rorschach and Culture
• Marked differences in response patterns noted among
different cultures all over the world.
• Particularly in:
– Texture- typically Zero in European populations.
– Good Form- poor ‘good form’ responses among Europeans
(F20 may be suspected by American standards!)
– Colour- Colour response less in Europeans, Colour-Form more
common than Form-Colour among Europeans.
– Common responses-– French commonly identify ‘Chameleon’ in card VIII, in
Scandinavians, ‘Christmas elves’ common for card II, ‘Musical
Instrument’ for card VI in Japanese, ‘Ganesha’ for card IX in India.
Indian Scenario
• More than 1000 studies on Rorschach in India since 1950s.
• More than 6000 Dissertations & Theses on Psychology in
India.
• More than 200 MD Theses on Rorschach.
• Most ‘Ubiquitous’ place in Clinics, Research and Academics
in Psychiatry and Psychology setting in India.
Rorschach: Validity and Reliability
Poor psychometric reputation
Lack of standardized rules for administration and scoring
Poor inter-rater reliability
Lack of adequate norms
However, Meta-analytic evidence (Meyer-Parker, 2000,01,02) supports the general validity of the Rorschach
Very comprehensive method for assessing basic personality structure and dynamics of the individual including the aspects like intelligence, affect, thought, fantasy, creativity and ego-strength.
Somatic Inkblot Series
• Developed by Dr. Wilfred E. Cassell in 1960.
• A recent extension of the traditional inkblot projective
techniques.
• Developed specifically to understand the manifestation of
problems through somatization, and to hear the suffering
individual's "inner cry."
• There are two parts: SIS I and SIS II.
• SIS-I consists of 20 images.
• SIS-II consists of 62 images.
There are two types of cards:
chromatic and achromatic.
It provides images in three forms:
on cards,
in a booklet
and on videotape.
Can be used to assess the depth and
significance of
somatic symptoms,
conversion reactions,
somatic delusions
and sexual dysfunction.
undetected affective disorders.
Death anxiety in those facing
major surgery, terminal illness.
aggressive impulses.
• Can also be used with therapies such as
physical therapy,
sensory feedback training,
behavioral therapy,
and desensitization for psychophysiological
symptoms associated with pathological anatomy
responses.
Holtzman Inkblot Test
Concieved by Wayne Holtzman and colleagues and
was introduced in 1961.
Projective personality assessment test for persons aged
five years and up.
Consists of 45 inkblots. The test administrator, or
examiner, has a stack of 47 cards with inkblots (45 test
cards and 2 practice cards) face down in front of him
or her.
Purpose
• Used to assess the personality structure of a test subject.
• Sometimes used as a diagnostic tool in assessing
schizophrenia,
depression,
addiction,
and character disorders.
Word Association Test
dates back to Avicenna, in the 11th century, who developed a
system for associating changes in the pulse rate with inner
feelings.
technique developed by Carl Jung to explore psychological
complexes in the personal unconscious.
recognized the existence of groups of thoughts, feelings,
memories, and perceptions, organized around a central
theme, that he termed psychological complexes.
Word Association
In word association, respondents are presented with a list of words, one at a time and asked to respond to each with the first word that comes to mind. The words of interest, called ‘test words’, are interspersed throughout the list which also contains some neutral, or filler words to disguise the purpose of the study. Responses are analyzed by calculating:
(1) the frequency with which any word is given as a response;
(2) the amount of time that elapses before a response is given; and
(3) the number of respondents who do not respond at all to a test word within a reasonable period of time.
Word Association
EXAMPLE
STIMULUS MRS. M MRS. Cwashday everyday ironing fresh and sweet clean pure air soiled scrub don't; husband does clean filth this neighborhood dirt bubbles bath soap and water family squabbles children towels dirty wash
B. Construction Projective Test:
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):
Method of revealing to the trained interpreter some of the dominant
drives, emotions, motives, sentiments, complexes and conflicts of a
personality.
Developed by the American psychologists Henry A. Murray
and Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard during the 1930s.
Originally designed to measure personality factors for individuals
above the age of 11 years.
30 grayscale pictures + one blank for elicitation of stories
Not all are (though all may be) seen by everyone: some are suggested for men, some for women, some for youth, some for elderly Most subjects see 10-12 cards, over two sessions
Based on Murray's (1938) theory of 28 social needs (sex, affiliation, dominance, achievement etc.) Thema = Interaction between needs and environmental
determinants
• The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation
technique because it uses a standard series of provocative
yet ambiguous pictures about which the subject is asked to
tell a story. The subject is asked to tell as dramatic a story as
they can for each picture presented, including the following:
– 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 Scoring Procedures
Bellak & Abram(1997)
1). Main theme
2). Main hero/heroine
3). Main needs and drives of the
hero/heroine
4). Conception of the environment
(world)
5). Figures seen as ….
6). Significant conflicts
7). Nature of anxieties
8). Main defenses against conflicts and
fears
9). Adequacy of superego as manifested
by “punishment” for “crime”
10). Integration of the ego:
Reality testing
Judgment
Sense of reality of the world and of the
self
Regulation and control of drives,
affects, and impulses
Scoring Systems:
Absence of a normative scoring system for responses.
The original scoring system devised in 1943 by Henry Murray.
attempted to account for every variable that it measures. time-consuming and unwieldy.
Other scoring systems focus on one or two specific variables— for example, hostility or depression. more practical for clinical use, they lack
comprehensiveness
More comprehensive system given by Zubin et al., (1965).
Interpretation
• Nomothetic & Idiographic Interpretation
• Nomothetic:
– refer to comparing the subject’s responses to a normatic
comparison sample, in order to determine the degree of
unusualness of the responses
• Idiographic:
– refer to examining the individual subject’s record &
discerning meaning from the particular responses he or she chose
• Both methods should be used in TAT.
Contemporary applications of TAT
• widely used as a tool for research into areas of psychology
such as dreams, fantasies, mate selection and what motivates
people to choose their occupation.
• Used to assess personality disorders, thought disorders,
• in forensic examinations to evaluate crime suspects,
• to screen candidates for high-stress occupations.
• routine psychological evaluations, typically without a formal
scoring system, as a way to explore emotional conflicts and
object relations.
• TAT is widely used in France and Argentina using a
psychodynamic approach.
• The Israeli and also Indian army uses the test for evaluating
potential officers.
• It is also used by the Services Selection Board of India.
The TAT: Validity and reliability
• Standardization of administration and scoring is minimal (Only 3% of psychologists use standard scoring systems)
• loaded words produced more distress in several studies.
• Internal consistency is low
• 2 month test-retest r = .80; 10 month test-retest r = .50
• Inter-rater reliability varies with studies between 0.3 to 0.9
• A meta-analysis by Spangler (1992) found average correlations between TAT and other criteria around 0.20
Children’s Apperception Test
appropriate for children aged three to 10 years.
Developed in 1949 by Leopold Bellak and Sonya Sorel
Bellak
Intended to measure the personality traits, attitudes,
and psychodynamic processes evident in pre-pubertal
children.
Originally developed to assess psychosexual conflicts
related to certain stages of a child's development.
E.g. relationship issues, sibling rivalry, and aggression.
• Original CAT featured ten pictures of animals in such
human social contexts as playing games or sleeping in a bed.
• Today, this version is known as the CAT or the CAT-A (for
animal). Animals were chosen for the pictures because it was
believed that young children relate better to animals than
humans.
• Takes 20–30 minutes to administer.
• The second version of the CAT, the CAT-H, was developed in
1965 by Bellak and Bellak.
• The CAT-H includes ten pictures of human beings in the
same situations as the animals in the original CAT.
• appeals especially to children aged seven to 10, who may
prefer pictures of humans to pictures of animals.
Senior Apperception Test
• Developed by Leopold Bellak.
• Geriatric population aged above 50 years of age.
• Indian adaptation has been done by Dr. Uma Choudhury.
• Procedure for administration is similar to TAT.
• Useful instrument to study personality dynamics, behavior
disorders etc.
C. Completion Projective Test: Sentence Completion Test
The SCT is a logical extension of the word association methods.
Many different forms of the sentence completion type tests are available.
The SCT is a semi structured projective technique.
This test provides respondents with beginnings or stems of questions and
respondents complete the sentence in ways that are meaningful to them.
The responses are believed to provide indication of attitudes, beliefs,
motivations, or other mental states. ( Rhode, 1957; Lah, 1989).
Two Types:
1. Client-administered
2. Clinician-administered
Interpretation
The SCTs seem to reveal anxieties and hostilities.
Until the dynamics of unconscious processes are
better understood, predictions can safely be made only
from present behavior and personality, and the SCT is
not a safe guide for prediction (Symonds, 1997).
15 Popular SCTs
1. The Tendler Sentence Completion Test
2. The Sentence Completion Test for the
Office of Strategic Services Assessment
Program
3. The Incomplete Sentences Blank
4. The Forer Structured Sentence
Completion Test
5. Sack’s Sentence Completion Test
6. The Miale—Holsopple Sentence
Completion Test
7. The Sentence Completion Method
8. The Peck Sentence Completion
9. The Aronoff Sentence Completion
10. The Personnel Reaction Blank
11.Loevinger’s Sentence Completion Test
of Ego Development
12. The Incomplete Sentences Task
13. Mayer’s Gravely Disabled Sentence
Completion Task
14. The Sentence Completion Series
15. Sentence Contexts
Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB)
- The Incomplete sentences test
(Julian Rotter, 1950) is
designed as a screening tool for
one construct: over-all
emotional adjustment
- This is a well-standardized
projective that requires subjects
to complete 40 short sentence
stems in a way that “expresses
your real feelings”
Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB)
Example sentence stems:
I like ……..
My greatest fear …….
I am …….
Men …….
Dancing …….
Sports …….
Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank
Three forms: high school, college, adult
40 incomplete sentences/stems, usually only 1-2 words long
Takes 20-25 minutes
The use of directed stems allows one to probe the subject explicitly for locus of control (internal/external), interests, likes, hopes, fears etc.
Each item scored on 7-point scale where higher numbers indicate more severe maladjustment
The scoring system is well defined.
Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank
• There is good inter-rater reliability (about 0.90)
• Cronbach’s alpha = 0.69
• Test-retest reliability close to 0.80 after 1-2 weeks; 0.50 after
months; 0.38 after 3 years
• Validity studies have tended to support the idea that the RISB
measures adjustment
Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study
a projective personality measure of the respondents approach to dealing with hypothesized frustration.
The test was developed by Saul Rosenzweig (1948)
Format
The measure consists of 24 cards
on which are cartoon drawings of obviously frustrating interpersonal situations.
In the pictures two characters are depicted with speech balloons coming out of their mouths.
Separate versions are available for use with children and adolescents
Administration
As the script of the antagonist is filled in their balloon, respondents are asked to imagine they are the other person and what would they say in this situation.
The test take 15-20 minutes to administer.
Scoring
Responses are scored on nine factors, derived from threetypes of aggression (obstacle-dominance, ego-defense, and need-persistence) and
three directions of aggression (extraggression, imaggression, and intraggression) derived from psychoanalytic theory and related to the defensemechanisms.
Validity
face validity good- people’s self report about how they would react is a good predictor of their actual behavior in frustrating situations.
D. Expressive Projective Test- Other Common Projective Tests
House-Tree-Person Test (Buck, 1948) & Draw-A-Person(Machover, 1949): Subject is asked to draw
Scoring is based on many aspects: Absolute & relative size of elements
Sequence of elements
Omissions and detailing/emphasis/erasures (especially of body parts)
Verbalizations while drawing
Size & placement of figures on the page
Amount of action depicted
Systematization in doing the task
Shading
The problem with drawing tests
- Among the plausible but empirically invalid relations that have been claimed:
- Large size = Emotional expansiveness or acting out
- Small size = emotional constriction; withdrawal, or timidity
- Erasures around male buttocks; long eyelashes on males = homoeroticism
- Overworked lines = tension, aggression
- Distorted or omitted features = Conflicts related to that feature
- Large or elaborate eyes = Paranoia
Criticism
"If there is a tendency to over-interpret projective test data
without sufficient empirical grounds, then projective drawing
tests are among the worst offenders”.
-- Kaplan & Saccuzo
Psychological Testing, 1993
PROJECTIVE TESTS: CURRENT STATUS
Despite perennial predictions of forth coming demise of Projective Techniques, they continue to find place in research and clinical assessment.
In academic psychology the climate of opinion about projective tests is still favorable.
The impact of cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology is just beginning to be felt in Rorschach psychology and likely to be influential for a long time to come.
Clinicians still regard the vivid and compelling data of subjective experience in favor of the often dry and impersonal result of subjective research.
Conclusion
Projective tests can be used to get satisfactory answers about the ‘why’ of human
behavior and the varied complexities of human mind.
In current scenario the projective test (Rorschach & TAT) has been undoubtedly
widespread in application with very high frequency in the field of mental health,
academics, private institution and practice, in business, industry and armed services
but, there has been debate involving regarding the psychometric adequacy,
reliability, validity, statistical prediction, and more recently, appropriateness with
diverse groups, multicultural, and cross-cultural research.
References
Principles of Rorschach Interpretation, Irving B. Weiner.
Rorscach’s test- Basic Processes, Samuel J. Beck, Anne G. Beck.
Rorscach Inkblot Test: A guide to Modified Scoring System, Dr. Rakesh Kumar.
Normative Data of Rorschach inkblot Test on Indian adults, Ms. Shweta.
PROJECTIVE TESTS: CURRENT STATUS, Chairperson: Dr. DevvartaKumar, 9th September 2003, Venue: Berkeley Hill Conference Hall, CIP, Kanke.