Projective Tests
William P. Wattles, Ph.D.
Francis Marion University
Ambiguous Stimuli
• When there is no “correct” answer the
individual’s response may be driven by
internal conflicts, motives, needs and
perceptual press.
The Projective Hypothesis
• Freud originated the idea of projection in
1911
– Classical projection
– Defense mechanism to attribute negative
personality traits to others.
– Not fared well in research
Projective testing
• Disciples of projective testing are heavily
invested in psychoanalytic theory and its
postulation of unconscious aspects of
personality.
•
Gregory, R. J. (2004). Psychological Testing: history, principles, and applications. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon
Need for projectives
• Access to peoples attitudes and traits is
blocked
– response factors
– introspective limits.
Projection
• Generalized or assimilative projection
• Individuals’ personality characteristics,
needs, and life experiences influence their
interpretation (apperception) of
ambiguous stimuli.
Principal Advantages
• Projective techniques allow the clinician
to:
a. bypass conscious defenses
b. obtain access to unconscious
information, such as conflicts, impulses,
of which clients are not aware
Projective Drawings
• Projective drawings are expressive
techniques in that they suggest aspects of
the person while he or she is performing
some activity.
Drawings
• To obtain an accurate view of a person’s
inner world, one must somehow
circumvent unconscious defenses and
conscious resistances.
Rorschach
• Stimuli from the environment are
organized by a person’s specific needs,
motives, and conflicts.
Popularity Versus Validity
• TAT:Controversy regarding reliability and
validity is ongoing.
• Rorschach: Despite initial (and continuing)
popularity reviews have been quite critical
• Drawings: Their use declined in response to
poor reviews regarding validity…yet, drawing
techniques are still ranked among the ten most
frequently used tests.
Literature Review
Lilienfeld, S. O. , Wood, J. M. and Garb, H.
N. (2000). The Scientific Status of
Projective Techniques. Psychological
Science in the Public Interest, 1, 27-66.
Anastasi
• Projective techniques present a curious
discrepancy between research and
practice.
• When evaluated as psychometric
instruments, the majority make a poor
showing.
• Yet, their popularity in clinical use
continues unabated
Aiken
• Because of scoring problems, most projective
techniques fail to meet conventional standards
of reliability and validity.
•
Aiken, L. R. (2003). Psychological Testing and Measurement, 11 th edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Gregory
• “In general, attempts to validate the H-T-P as a
personality measure have failed miserably”
• “Indeed, the absence of standardized
procedures is such that we should rightly
regard the TAT as a method not a test.”
• “the Rorschach has not yet gained the status of
scientific respectability enjoyed by many other
personality tests, and perhaps it never will.
•
Gregory, R. J. (2004). Psychological Testing: history, principles, and applications. Boston: Allyn and Bacon
The Projective Paradox
• “The evidence is quite clear that personality
inferences drawn from projective tests are often
wrong. In the face of negative validation
findings, the enduring practitioner acceptance
of the tests constitutes …the projective
paradox.
•
Gregory, R. J. (2004). Psychological Testing: history, principles, and applications. Boston: Allyn and Bacon
The Projective Paradox
Illusory Validation
• Clinicians may notice confirming
instances and ignore contradictions
The Projective Paradox
• Often may be used only for hypothesis
generation.
Most frequently used tests
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
WAIS
MMPI
Sentence completion*
TAT*
Rorschach*
Bender-Gestalt
Projective Drawings*
Current Training
• 49% of directors of clinical psychology
graduate programs and 65% of the
directors of clinical internships believe
that formal training in projectives is
important.
Current Practitioners
• 82% of clinical psychologists administer
the Rorschach at least “occasionally” and
43% report frequently or always using it.
• A recent estimate place the number of
Rorschachs administered each year at 6
million.
Projective techniques
• Present respondents with an ambiguous
stimulus and ask them to disambiguate it.
Rorschach
• Has the distinction of being the most
cherished and the most reviled of all
psychological assessment instruments.
Interpretive Systems
• Developed in the 20’s
– Content
– Location
– Determinents
• Color
• Movement
• shading
• Exner System released in 1974 suggested a
scientific basis for the Rorschach.
Exner
• Exner norms are unrepresentative of the
U. S. population and tend to make
normal adults and children appear
maladjusted.
File Drawer Problem
• Studies with negative results less likely to
be accepted for publication (publication
bias)
• Also less like to be submitted.
Low base rate
• Studies tend to be based on
differentiating two equally sized groups.
• In real life base rates may be very low.
Popularity of Rorschach
• Part of the allure is its mystery
• How could something as simple as 10
inkblots reveal inner personality
• “X rays of the mind”
• A deep well with rich and valuable
information.
• Intuition and clinical lore.
Face Validity and Test Utility
• Can a test high in face validity be useful
in a psychological evaluation?
• What does it add to the interview data?
Criticisms of Projectives
• Overly complex
scoring systems
• Questionable norms
• Subjectivity of
scoring
• Poor predictive
validity
• Inadequate validity
• Extensive time
required to learn
• Heavy reliance on
psychoanalytic
theory
• Objective tests more
time and cost
effective
TAT
• TAT produces personal data that
theoretically bypass a subject’s conscious
resistances.
Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT)
• Morgan & Murray 1935.
Elicit fantasy material from patients in
psychoanalysis.
31 cards
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 are best used with children; however, all
cards may be administered to any subject.
IAT
• Kim (2001) showed that even participants
who were fully informed about the
functioning of the IAT were not able to
fake positive implicit attitudes toward
Blacks.
IAT
• It is further assumed that implicit
measures are not subject to conscious
control, and, thus, response factors and
introspective limits (Greenwald et al.,
2002) do not diminish their validity.
• Proponents of projective techniques
maintain that inventories and other selfreport instruments fail to get at deeper
layers of personality because people
either are not aware of their
characteristics and problems or will not
reveal them.
Humility
• How good a job of understanding
psychological functioning do we do?
The End
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