Projective Assessment of Personality IPertemuan 3

Matakuliah : Psikologi DiagnostikTahun : 2010

Projective Assessment of Personality

• Frank (1939) initiated this approach, stressing that projective tests had two principal features: – the use of media that were variously described as ambiguous,

unstructured– plastic and tasks in which there were a wide range of possible

responses that were relatively free from social prescriptions, thus allowing for maximum expression of individual differences.

• An individual’s response(s) to these stimuli can reflect internal needs, emotions, past experiences, thought processes, relational patterns, and various aspects of behavior

• Subject’s lack of awareness of the intent of the examiner

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Projective Assessment of Personality

Subtypes of Projective tests: • Association techniques (e.g., the Rorschach, word

association) in which a word or image is associated with stimuli

• Completion techniques (e.g., the Sentence Completion Test)

• Construction techniques (e.g., the TAT) involving the creation of an art form such as a story or picture

• Expressive techniques such as play or psychodrama.

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Projective Assessment• Projection Coined in the 1930s, the term projective tests was

derived from psychoanalytic concepts• In contrast to questionnaires, inventories, and other assessment

instruments of the time, such methods were intended as techniques for making unconscious aspects of personality manifest.

• Freud’s concept of projection as a defensive operation, nonetheless used the term to characterize ways subjects attributed their own desires, feelings, and behaviors to others or at least ways in which needs and motives influenced perception

• Apperception - organizational scheme shaped by the individual’s past experience.

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Rorschach• First introduced by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann

Rorschach in 1920’s.• Consists of 10 inkblots. • Test was criticized in the 1950’ and 1960’s

because of the lack of norms and standardized procedures.

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Rorschach• The central assumption of the Rorschach is that stimuli from the

environment are organized by a person’s specific needs, motives, and conflicts, and by certain perceptual “sets.”

• Rorschach responses provide three types of data, which are commonly referred to as the structural, the thematic, and the behavioral components of the test protocol

• Generate comprehensive descriptions of a respondent’s personality functioning incl. adaptive strengths and weaknesses in how people manage stress, attend to and perceive their surroundings, form concepts and ideas, experience and express affect, view themselves, and regard other people.

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Administration• Step 1: Introducing the Respondent to the

Technique Step 2: Giving the Testing Instructions– Exner (1993) recommends that the examiner hand the subject the

first card and ask, “What might this be?”

• Step 3: The Response (Association) Phase– Record the time and all responses in verbatim

• Step 4: Inquiry– collect the additional information required for an accurate scoring

of the responses. It is intended to clarify the responses that have already been given, not to obtain new responses

• Step 5: Scoring

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Scoring• Code the different categories and calculate the different

quantitative formulas in the structural summary. There is general agreement throughout the different Rorschach systems that these categories include (a) The location, or the area of the inkblot that is used. This can vary from

the use of the entire blot (whole response) to the use of an unusual detail (Dd).

(b) The determinants, or specific properties of the blot they used in making their responses (color, shape, and so on); and

(c) The content, or general class of objects to which the response belongs (human, architecture, anatomy, etc.).

• Popular Responses refers to the presence of frequently perceived responses.

• Special Scores incl. unusual characteristics of the response such as unusual verbalizations or inappropriate logic.

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Thematic Apperception Test

• Developed by Henry Murray (1938)• 31 TAT cards depicting people in a variety of

ambiguous situations (one blank card)• The examinee is instructed to make up a story

that includes what is occurring in the picture: the thoughts and feelings of the characters, the events that led up to the situation, and the outcome of the story.

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Thematic Apperception Test

• The basic assumption was that unconscious fantasies could be revealed by interpreting the stories subjects told regarding ambiguous pictures—access to things that a client was either unwilling to tell or unconscious of.

• Murray’s needs-press theory• Thema – units of behavior that result from the

interaction between needs and press

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Thematic Apperception Test• Murray (1943) describes the TAT as a “method of

revealing to the trained interpreter some of the dominant drives, emotions, sentiments, complexes, and conflicts of personality

• Imore structured stimuli and require more organized and complex verbal responses

• Assesses the “here and now” features of an individual’s life situation rather than the basic underlying structure of personality.

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Assets and Limitations• Less susceptibility to faking • Focus on the global nature of personality• Ease of rapport• can be approached from, and interpreted by,

a number of different theoretical orientations.

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• Greater potential for the subject to bias and distort his or her responses

• Inadequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and standardization in administration and scoring

• Confounded by verbal abilities, age, sex, intelligence, and reading ability (Klein, 1986).

• Quite sensitive to situational variables

TAT - Administration

• Variations on the instructions should also emphasize the four requirements of the story structure:1. Current situation2. Thoughts and feelings of the characters 3. Preceding events 4. Outcome

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TAT - Procedure

• Time• Record responses, behavioral observations• Questioning and Inquiry• Order of presentation• Use of the TAT (or CAT) with children

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TAT - Scoring Systems

• The Bellak scoring system (Bellak & Abrams, 1997)• Cramer’s (1996) scoring system• Weston’s coding system (1995)

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Children Apperception Test• Developed by psychiatrist and psychologist Leopold Bellak and Sonya

Sorel Bellak and first published in 1949• CAT is an individually administered projective personality test appropriate

for children aged three to 10 years. • Presenting a series of pictures and asking a child to describe the

situations and make up stories about the people or animals in the pictures

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Children Apperception Test• Assess conflicts related to certain stages of a

child's development include relationship issues, sibling rivalry, and aggression.

• Animals were chosen for the pictures because it was believed that young children relate better to animals than humans.

• Theoretical basis – Murray’s theory of personality

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CAT - Administration• The CAT takes 20–45 minutes to administer • The test may be used directly in therapy or as a play

technique in other settings.• After carefully establishing rapport with the child, the

examiner shows the child one card after another and encourages the child to tell a story about the characters.

• The examiner may ask the child to describe, for example, what led up to the scene depicted, the emotions of the characters, and what might happen in the future.

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CAT - InterpretationThe scorer's interpretation should take into account the following variables: • the story's primary theme • the story's hero or heroine • the needs or drives of the hero or heroine• the environment in which the story takes place• the child's perception of the figures in the picture• the main conflicts in the story• the anxieties and defenses expressed in the story• the function of the child's superego and the integration of

the child's ego.

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