Lec 14 Projective Tests

Most commonly used projective tests?

House-tree person

Human figures drawing test

Rorschach inkblot

Rotter incomplete sentences blank

Sentence completion test

Thematic apperception test

Kelly’s definition of objective vs projective tests?

Objective- subject is asked to guess what the examiner is thinking

Projective- examiner tries to guess what subject is thinking

The projective hypothesis

When ppl try to understand vague/ambiguous stimuli, the interpretation they produce reflects their needs, feelings, prior conditioning, thought processes

What do projective tests draw upon?

Imagined/real, conscious/unconscious, recent/old, import/trivial, revealing/obvious…never know which one you’re getting

Why are projective tests impossible to validate?

Lots of room for individual interpretation

How common is the Rorschach?

Most common projective test

4th most common psychometric instrument after WAIS, WISC, MMPI

Brief history of using inkblots as projective surfaces? (Kerner, Binet, Rorschach, Levy and Beck)

Kerner was first to use inkblots as projective surfaces and claim ppl make revealing interpretations

Binet said inkblot can be used to assess personality, not psychpathology

Rorschach was first to suggest they can be used as a diagnostic instrument → test was not popular

Levy brought it to the US

His student, Beck popularized its use in US

Many offered system of admin, scoring, interpretation but still issues in standardization

Current Rorschach test consists of?

10 hand-selected cards out of tons of ink blots

5 black/white, 2 red/grey, 3 colour

How to administer the Rorschach? What to record?

Little instruction

Ask “what might this be?” → no clues or restrictions

If only one response given, some hint to find more can be offered "some ppl see more than one thing”

Cards shown twice: inquiry then elaboration

Record orientation of card and reaction time

During elaboration, ask about where sibject sae each item and use location chart to mark

Mark common vs unusual detail, looking at whole or not

Mark perceieved mvmt, animate/inaminate, colour

Mark how well matched response is to blot

Mark content seen

Mark popularity vs originality

What might deviation from norms on Rorschach indicate?

Invalid protocol

Brain damage

Emotional issues

Low mental age

Just an original person

Exner norm book

Norm book available for interpreting the Rorschach, but not well-received in clinical settings.

System normed on 5 groups: nonpatient, outpatient nonpsychotic, inpatient character problem, inpatient depressive, inpatient schizo

Rorschach validity

Very low (.30)

Rorschach reliability

.10 to .90

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Issues w Rorschach aside from low validity and reliability?

Does not consistently measure depression, anxiety disorders etc

Overdiagnosed schizophrenia

May be cultural biases

Usually unreplicable

Time-consuming and difficult

Lot of effort for return of data in terms of admin and training

Thematic apperception test is based on what?

Murray’s theory of 28 social needs (sex, dominance, affiliation, achievement etc)

TAT

30 grayscale pics and one blank for elicitation of stories

Not all are used , usually 10-12

Patient is asked to describe what is happening

Thema

Interaction bw needs and environmental determinants

How is the TAT scored?

Takes into account:

roles, press (environmental forces), needs (forces from hero), themes (interaction of press/needs), and outcomes

Congruence of story with stimuli

Conformit with directions

Conflicts coming out

Literal content

In what way is the TAT useful?

Can help get an idea of person’s personality (ex. conform easily?)

Psychometric properties of TAT? (standardization, reliability, validity)

Deliberately not standardized

Reliability:

Low internal consistency: .80 to .50 test-retest (2 and 10 mo)

Low inter-rater rel: 0.3 to 0.9

Validity:

Low….avg correlations between TAT and other criteria .20

Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank measures what construct?

Overall emotional adjustment

RISB

Patients complete 40 short sentences in a way that expresses their true feelings

Ex: “I wish…”

RISB scoring

Has good norms so can easily score

Items scored on 7 point scale where higher numbers indicate more severe maladjustment

RISB is rooted in what?

Rotter’s Social Learning Theory- idea that personality represents an interaction of individual with their environment

Psychometrics properties of the RISB (reli, valid)

Good inter-rater rel (.90)

Good Cronbach’s a (.69)

Test-retest not the best overtime (.80 to 0.38)

Good validity in terms of truly measuring adjustment

Cons of RISB

Out of date

Easy to fake on

Overdiagnosed college students as maladjusted

House figures test

Client is asked to draw house, figures

Worse than Rorschach

House figures test scoring?

Based on absolute and relative size of elements

Sequence of elements

Omissions, details, emphasis of body parts

Verbalizations while drawing

Size

Systematization

Problems with drawing tests?

Often confused associations with correlations and therefore overdiagnosing

Empicially invalid relations like large eyes= paranoia

Main point of the Chapman & Chapman Paper?

Ppl overestimate the frequency of correlations they already believe in, aka. confuse correlation with semantic association

Confusion is very resistant to change

Illusory correlation and example?

Thinking 2 things are semantically associated must also be correlated

Ex. drawing large eyes → paranoia

Barnum effect

Thinking things that apply to most ppl apply to themselves too

Ex. thinking horoscope profile is all about them when it’s rly not and could apply to literally anyone

How are illusory correlations seen in real life?

We easily overweight events that are emotionally (usually negatively) marked → remember them more

Hermeneutics and psychometrics

Art of interpretation, esp texts

Idea here that thosr who interpret say as much about themselves in their act of interpreting as they do about the person they interpret

How might projective tests be better as non-psychometric tools?

Interview aid:

Allow ppl to say what they cannot say

Open up issues

Break the ice