Meaning
Projection – It is an unconscious process
where an individual: -
(i) attributes
his thoughts, ideas, conflicts, emotions or characteristics to another person or object,
(ii) attributes
his needs to others, and
(iii) draws
incorrect inferences from an experience.
Definition
A projective test is a psychological
assessment tool that provides an opportunity to an individual to freely express
himself in response to vague and unorganized stimuli.
Central
Theme
The lesser the clarity in stimuli
higher the differential perception.
User disciplines
(i) Psychology
(ii) Anthropology
(iii) Sociology
(iv) Education
(v) Psychiatry
Introduction
The projective tests (PT) provide the
subject with a stimulus situation upon which an individual can impose his own
needs and his particular perceptions and interpretations.
The central idea of PT is to uncover
the deep-seating feelings, hidden desires and conflicts that lie deeper into
the human mind. They are generally used for psychopathological perspective. The
subject identifies with stimulus and are typically unaware of what they are disclosing.
It is expected that individual project
the inner aspects of his personality through interpretations and creations,
thereby involuntarily revealing traits that are below the surface and incapable
of human exposure by means of the questionnaire type of personality test.
For projective tests instructions are
general and are kept at minimum to permit variety and flexibility of responses.
The responses are neither wrong nor right. They represent participant’s own responses
and interpretations.
Salient
Features/Characteristics of Projective Techniques
(i) The stimulus is vague, abstract, unstructured
and unorganized.
(ii) Works on the concept of projection.
(iii) Indirect method that taps both conscious and
unconscious traits.
(iv) Designed to assess the personality in subtle
and indirect ways.
(v) They are relatively less structured and involves
dual subjectivity.
(vi) Good at collecting comprehensive personal
information such as how people are likely to think, feel, and act which is
difficult through other objective tests.
Salient
Features/Characteristics of Projective Techniques
(i) The stimulus is vague, abstract, unstructured
and unorganized.
(ii) Works on the concept of projection.
(iii) Indirect method that taps both conscious and
unconscious traits.
(iv) Designed to assess the personality in subtle
and indirect ways.
(v) They are relatively less structured and involves
dual subjectivity.
(vi) Good at collecting comprehensive personal
information such as how people are likely to think, feel, and act which is
difficult through other objective tests.
Some
Widely Used Projective Tests
1. Rorschach Inkblot Test
2. Thematic Apperception Test
3. Word Association Test
4. Sentence Completion Test
Rorschach
Inkblot Test
This test is named after Hermann
Rorschach. He focused on the principle that every performance of a person is an
expression of his total personality (Freeman, 1965). It is a multidimensional
instrument designed to yield information on the structure of the personality.
It evaluates three dimensions i.e., conscious intellectual activity, externalized
emotions and internalized emotions. Designed to reveal the structure and
organization of personality of an individual.
Age
category for use – 3 years to adults.
Time
for administration – No fixed time (Generally 60 to 90
min)
No.
of Cards – 10 cards (Five black and white, Two red and black
and Three different colours)
Presentation
of cards – Sequence suggested by the author.
Stimuli
–
Each card is printed with different ambiguous inkblots or shades.
Data
collection – The test taker records all responses of the
subject verbatim.
Maximum
responses to 10 cards – Maximum 23.
Minimum
responses required for scoring – 14
Scoring
Coding of responses on the following
suggested dimensions is done and scores are tabulated: -
(i) Response location
(whether entire or specific area of card, W for Whole, D for large usual
details, d for small usual details, Dd for unusual details and S for white
space).
(ii) Determinants
– Characteristics of the inkblot as perceived by the subject that produced
responses.
(iii) Content – Responses are
classified into categories (plants, animals, human, landscapes, anatomy,
man-made objects, gender).
(iv) Originals and Popular –
Also known as popularity-originality. Responses are rated based on the newness,
originality or popularity.
Interpretation
After the tabulation the scores are
analyzed in context of existence of relationship among frequencies of various
categories. Few examples: -
(i) Location – This category
is used for evaluating intellectual aspect of personality; approach to a
problem or preferred mode of apperception.
(ii) Form – Intact form
perception indicates firm control over intellectual
processes
and behaviour.
(iii) Colour – Responses to colours
found in the inkblots represents the subject’s impulsive life and emotional
relationships to his environment.
(iv) Movement – It is the
indicator of richness of associative and imaginative life. Higher score indicates
that individual is high on these traits.
(v) Content – The quantity
and different types of things expressed in the responses indicates fantasy,
symbolic meaning, maturity or otherwise.
(vi) Original and popular –
The number of original and popular responses are the indicators of individual's
intelligence level.
(vii) Interrelationships –
Helpful in inferring the personality structure of the client.
Thematic
Apperception Test
Designed
and development – Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan in 1930s.
Idea
of the test – The idea emerged from a question
asked by one of Murray's undergraduate students, Cecilia Roberts. She said that
when her son was ill, he spent the day making up stories about images in magazines
and she asked Murray if pictures could be employed in a clinical setting to
explore the underlying dynamics of personality (Wikipedia).
Principle
– The interpretation of ambiguous stimulus leads to unintentional revealing of aspects
of one’s own personality. The interpretation involves construction of stimulus
specific story that demands trance like state generally known as deep
absorption. This state temporarily diverts attention from the ‘conscious self’
resulting in situation where an individual becomes unaware of himself where he
organizes contents of his own experiences and consequently projects.
Purpose
– To reveal the contents of personality such as the drives, needs, sentiments,
conflicts, complexes and fantasies.
No.
of cards used on one subject – 20
No.
of cards used at one session – 10 (one at a time)
Cards
usage criteria – Gender and age (Used in various
combinations)
Cards
Specifications – Some cards can be used with all
subjects some are used with only one gender and some are used with age.
Time
limit – No time limit (but subject is encouraged to spend
at least 5 minutes
on
each card).
Specific
Instructions to subject
(i) Test of imagination.
(ii) Make stories in response of cards.
(iii) There is no right or wrong answers.
(iv) Tell what he thinks led up to the scene.
(v) Explain what is happening in the scene.
(vi) Explain the feelings of the characters in
the picture.
(vii) Tell what the outcome will be.
Analysis
of stories
The
analysis is done into
(i) The forces emanating from the hero and
(ii) The forces emanating from the environment.
These
are analyzed under six categories: -
(i) Hero – Character in
each picture with whom client identifies.
(ii) Motives, needs and
feelings of the hero (scale of 1 to 5 according to intensity, duration,
frequency, and importance).
(iii) Forces in the hero’s
environment (nature and details of the situation and objects explained by the
client that are not in the picture).
(iv) Outcomes (Strengths of
hero, hardships, frustration, degree of success and failure, happy or otherwise
endings).
(v) Themas – Interaction of hero’s
needs with environmental forces, together with the successful or unsuccessful
outcome for the hero is a kind of thema.
(vi) Interests and sentiments –
Choices and direction of appeal (positive or
negative)
towards pictures in the cards.
Important
Note (TAT)
The conclusion reached through
analysis of the stories should be used as an hypothesis to be checked against
other sources of information and as starting point for further psychological
interview, counseling, or treatment (Freeman, 1965).
Word
Association test
History
– Started by Galton (1879), studied in psychological laboratory. Carl Jung
utilized this concept extensively for detecting complexes.
Contents
– 100 English words that represent emotional complexes.
Instructions
(i) Respond to each word as quickly as
possible.
(ii) There is no right or wrong answer.
Procedure
The examiner will speak a series of
words, one at a time. In response of each word the client needs to reply the
first word that comes to his mind.
Action
by Examiner
(i) Speaking stimulus words
(ii) Recording of responses.
(iii) Recording of Reaction time
(iv) Any unusual speech or behaviour.
Analysis
–
According to the responses of the client.
Sentence
Completion test
Originator
–
Hermann Ebbinghaus is credited with developing the first sentence completion
test in 1897.
Testing
Material – A series of incomplete sentences.
Salient
Feature – Incomplete sentences vary with the type of trait
assessed.
More
often used SCTs are
(i) Rhode’s SCT
(ii) The Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank
Purpose
– To explore personality material that is closer to the level of consciousness or
awareness. Provides base for counselling and interviews.
Few
more projective tests
(i) Children’s Apperception test (Children 3
to 10 years)
(ii) Symonds Picture Study test (Adolescent
boys and girls)
(iii) The blacky pictures (From age 5 and above)
(iv) Make-a-picture story (For adolescents and
adults)
(v) Michigan Picture Test (8 to 14 years)
(vi) Rosenzweig Picture - Frustration Study (Two
forms one for 4 to 14 years and other above 14 years)
(vii) The Szondi Test (Adults)
(viii) Projective Questionnaire
(ix) Story telling and Story completion test
(x) Drawing and painting
(xi) Four-picture test
(xii) The Lowenfield Mosaic Test
(xii) Raven’s Controlled Projection for children
(6 to 12 years)
(xiv) Tomkins-Horn Picture Arrangement Test
(xv) House-Tree-Person Projective Technique ( 5
years and above)
(xvi) Holtzman Inkblot Test
References:
1. Freeman, F. S. (1965). Theory and
practice of psychological testing. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_completion_tests.
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