Projective Techniques

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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