Rorschach Inkblot Method and Thematic Apperception Test: Comparative Analysis, Exams of Psychology

Download Rorschach Inkblot Method and Thematic Apperception Test: Comparative Analysis and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Quiz 8 Define the projective hypothesis - The primary rationale underlying projective tests that proposes that when people attempt to understand an ambiguous or vague stimulus, their interpretation of that stimulus reflects their needs, feelings, experiences, prior conditioning, thought processes, and so forth projective hypothesis example - When a frightened little boy looks into a dark room and sees a huge shadow that he interprets as a monster, he is projecting his fear onto the shadow. The shadow itself is neutral—neither good nor bad, nei- ther fearsome nor pretty. What the child really sees is a reflection of the inner work- ings of his mind. a problem with all projective tests is that - many factors can influence one's response to them a response may reflect a recent experience or an early experience one has forgotten historical antecedents to using inkblots - J Kerner Binet Whipple's first set of standardized inkblots Rorschach, who used them for identifying psychological disorders Hermann Rorschach - developed one of the first projective tests, the Inkblot test in order to identify psychological disorders Identify five individuals who played a dominant role in the development of the Rorschach - 1. Beck: 2. Hertz 3. Klopfer 4. Piotrowski 5. Rapaport Describe the Rorschach stimuli - Rorschach constructed each stimulus card by dropping ink onto a piece of paper and folding it. The result was a unique, bilaterally symmetrical form on a white back-ground. Of the 10 finally selected, five were black and gray; two contained black, gray, and red; and three contained pastel colors of various shades Briefly describe Rorschach administration and scoring - In the administration procedure, each of the 10 cards is presented to the subject in a nonrestrictive way. There is a free-association phase where the cards are presented first and every response and reaction recorded, and the inquiry phase, where the examiner shows the cards again and scores the subject's responses. Responses are scored according to at least 5 dimensions, including location (where), determinant (why), form quality, content (what), and frequency of occurence (popular-original) 5 dimensions of scoring for the inkblot, according to the textbook - Location, where the perception was seen Determinant, what determined the response Form quality, to what extent the response matched the stimulus properties of the inkblot Content, what the perception was Frequency of occurrence, to what extent the response was popular or original popular responses occur - once in every three protocols on average scoring for location - the examiner must determine where the subject's perception is located on the inkblot a location chart can be used. the examiner notes whether the subject used the whole blot (W), a common detail (D), an unusual detail (Dd), or a confabulatory response (DW). in scoring for location, the examiner notes - whether the subject used the whole blot (W), a common detail (D), an unusual detail (Dd), or a confabulatory response (DW). confabulatory response (DW) - the subject overgeneralizes from a part to the whole. the more confabulatory responses a subject makes, the more likely that they are in a disordered state the type of information in which scoring categories are summarized as a frequency or percentage, as is with W, D, and Dd responses, is considered - the quantitative, structural, or statistical aspect of the Rorschach the relative proportion of W, D, and Dd location choices varies with - maturational development. for example, W responses occur most within the ages 3-4, so if an adult is making a lot of W responses, it might suggest immaturity or low mental age the scores of a client can be compared to the scores of a reference group. the Rorschach has never been adequately normed overpathologizing - diagnoses from the Rorschach wrongly identify more than half of normal individuals as emotionally disturbed VERY BAD unreliable scoring - when looking at reliability scores for the Rorschach individually, it appears unreliable. When meta-analysis is conducted, however, it gains a higher level of reliability. the lack of separate results on reliability and validity should affect only the - assessment of the validity of the Rorschach lack of relationship to psychological diagnosis - there is a notable absence of proven relationships between the Rorschach and psychological disorders and symptoms is not a valid diagnostic tool for disorders the problem of "r" - subjects can give as many responses "R" as they want, which makes their scores go up. cooperative people are more likely to give more responses, especially space responses, but people who give more space responses are interpreted as uncooperative. this leads to false labeling of the subject. space responses - responding tot he white space within or around the inkblot instead of responding to the inkblot List the pros of the Rorschach - 1. lack of standardized procedures is a historical accident than can be corrected 2. test interpretation is an art, not a science; all test interpretation involves a subjective component 3. a new look at the data reveals that the Rorschach is much more stable than is widely believed 4. has a large empirical base 5. available evidence is biased and poorly controlled and has therefore failed to provide a fair evaluation rejection - when a person fails to provide a response to an inkblot two results of unstandardized Rorschach administration and scoring procedures is - 1. reliability investigations have produced varied and inconsistent results. Even when reliability is shown, validity is questionable. 2. scoring is not linked to any criterion-related evidence or theory, which limits construct validity 3. important variables are not controlled, such as race or sex the unstandardized Rorschach administration and scoring procedures limits what kind of validity - construct form quality - the extent to which the percept (what the subject says the inkblot is) matches the stimulus properties of the inkblot is difficult to score in summary, among the prime problems of the Rorschach from a psychometric viewpoint, are - its variable number of responses from one subject to another, lack of standard procedures, and lack of an alternative form Describe the Holtzman Inkblot Test - the Holtzman Inkblot Test was created to meet some of the difficulties of the Rorschach. The subject is permitted to give only one response per card. An alternate form is available that correlates well with the original test stimuli. Well-established norms are presented. Nowhere near as popular as the Rorschach. The best that can be said is that there is simply not enough info to judge its clinical utility compared with the Rorschach. the main difficulty with the Holtmzman as a psychometric instrument is its - validity its hard to evaluate its validity with such rare studies on it Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) (textbook) - a projective test presented as an instrument for evaluating human personality characteristics, in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes Murray's Theory of Needs - distinguishes 28 human needs that motivate us, including the needs for sex, affiliation, and dominance Describe the TAT stimuli - more structured and less ambiguous stimuli consisting of pictures that depict a variety of scenes. there are 30 pictures and 1 blank card. Briefly describe TAT administration - Standardization of the administration and scoring of that TAT is about as poor as, if not worse than, those of the Rorschach Examiner records subject's responses verbatim and their reaction time to assess difficulty with the card. evaluating reaction time in the TAT - reaction time is the time interval between the initial presentation of a card and the subject's first response; an abnormally long reaction time may indicate a specific problem in an area there are by far more [blank] for the TAT than the Rorschach - interpretive and scoring systems examiners don't like using them, so they tend to use only non-quantitative methods of interpretation almost all methods of TAT interpretation take into account the - hero (the character in each picture with whom the subject seems to identify), needs (of the hero), press (the environmental forces that interfere with or facilitate satisfaction of the various needs), themes (e.g. depression), and outcomes (e.g. failures) hero (TAT) - the character in each picture with whom the subject seems to identify press (TAT) - the environmental forces that interfere with or facilitate satisfaction of the various needs Lindzey's primary assumption of the TAT - In completing an incomplete or unstructured situation, the individual may reveal his or her own characteristics (strivings, dispositions, conflicts). Identify the factors that should be considered in evaluating the TAT - a complete interview and a case history must accompany any attempt to interpret the TAT skill and experience of the examiner many experts consider the TAT to be - psychometrically unsound validity studies of TAT are unpromising, except for content validity for use to evaluate human personality the most pressing need with the TAT appears to be establishing - standardized administration and scoring procedures List some of the major differences between the Rorschach and the TAT - Stimuli: Rorschach uses inkblots, TAT uses scenes TAT is based on a theory of needs TAT's not oversold, or billed as a diagnostic instrument TAT's nonclinical uses are just as important as its clinical ones Conscious mind is the tip of the iceberg; what's most important to study is the rest of the iceberg you can't see, which is the unconscious freudian and Neo-freudian theories held emphasis on - the unconscious and the fluctuating forces of the mind Rorschach inkblot method - a projective assessment consisting of the evaluation of a subject's interpretation of 10 inkblots, initially developed by Hermann Rorschach in order to diagnose schizophrenia; fell into idiosyncratic usage where anybody could use and interpret the test until Exner's Comprehensive System and the R-PAS gave more standardized ways to administer and score the Rorschach idiosyncratic usage of the Rorschach - anybody could use the test and interpret the meanings however they wanted; two different psychologist could see the same results from the same subject and come up with different assessments because there were no rules John Exner's Comprehensive System - took all the ways people used the Rorschach and kept what worked and ditched what didn't work, resulting in this comprehensive system was attacked by Lilienfeld, who called it mid Scott Lilienfeld's attack on the Rorschach - Rorschach doesn't have zero reliability, but other tests have much greater reliability. It can be used for research purposes, but don't use it for patients. This critique almost killed the Rorschach Meyer and Archer's response to Lilienfeld's attack - We should keep the Rorschach; though some of the scales are weak, some are extremely strong. We should reevaluate it like Exner did Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) - The current standard for how the Rorschach should be used. Indices are Location, Form Quality, Content, Determinants, Cognitive Codes, and Thematic Codes. Location - What part of the inkblot was the subject looking at? Whole, common detail, uncommon detail, and white space Form quality - Did the response the subject gave make sense to what is being presented? Rated common, uncommon, or poor. If a subject say they see a face where no perceivable face can be seen, it may be coded as a poor response form quality example - If the subject says they see a face where no perceivable face can be seen, it might be coded as a poor response If a subject sees something uncommon but can explain where they are seeing it and can make the evaluator see it as well, then it may be coded as just uncommon Content - Content of the response Human, animal detail, fire, anatomy, art, clothing Determinants - What about the inkblot made the subject say what they saw? Form, color, shading example of Determinants - If an inkblot looked like a bat to a subject, what about the shape or color or form made that person think it looked like a bat? Cognitive codes - Deviant verbalizations and peculiar logic. Is the subject being contradictory, are they saying words that aren't real, are their explanations not making sense? cognitive codes are an effective way of - identifying people with psychosis or schizophrenia Deviant verbalizations - a type of cognitive code in which the subject uses words that don't make sense together to describe their perception of the inkblot. for example, if the subject sees a pig in an inkblot, but they describe it as a "vestigial ancillary" pig, you know something is wrong because these words mean nothing together Peculiar Logic - a type of cognitive code in which the subject's explanation of what they see doesn't make any sense. for example, saying an inkblot "looks like a liberty bell, but it could be 3 bells, but also the head of a bear, but head is cracked" Thematic Codes - Abstract and Aggressive Abstract: inkblot looks like anger Aggressive: subject says something violent in their description of the inkblot psychometric quality of the Rorschach - Poor when used idiosyncratically Better with the Comprehensive System Strong with the R-PAS Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - the second most commonly used constructive response test, based upon Murray's theory of needs, is administered using 10 ambiguous pictures and asking the subject to tell a story about the circumstances and the characters; themes that are repeatedly portrayed in the respondent's stories are said to reveal what needs a person is feeling themes that are repeatedly portrayed in the respondent's stories during the TAT are said to - reveal what needs a person is feeling contemporary use of the TAT - most people do not use Morgan and Murray's original theory of needs or way of scoring; there is no structure or systematic way of scoring instead, administrators try to understand the person's personality based on the story they tell psychometric quality of the TAT - Moderate when a systematic scoring system is used. (strong reliability, uncertain validity) Poor when just used to gain a general impression (without systematic scoring) Incomplete Sentence Methods - Rotter's Incomplete Sentences Blank Sentence Completion Series rotter's incomplete sentences blank - contains 40 sentence stems where the respondent must complete the sentence. Scoring ranges from -40 to 40, with a positive point given for positive responses, 0 given for neutral or contradictory responses, and a negative point given for negative responses scoring to the RISB - Scoring (ranges from -40 to 40) If answers give a negative mood or interaction, score -1 Ex: My father was never there for me 0 given when there is something contradictory or neutral Ex: my father was a doctor If answers give a positive mood or interaction, score +1