Projective techniques
According to APA in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories, the process by
which one attributes one’s own individual positive or negative characteristics, affects, and
impulses to another person or group is called projection. This is often a defense mechanism in
which unpleasant or unacceptable impulses, stressors, ideas, affects, or responsibilities are
attributed to others. Projective Techniques are :
● Indirect and unstructured methods of investigation
● Use projection of respondents for inferring about underlying motives, urges or intentions
● A projective test provides the subject with an ambiguous or unclear stimulus situation
such as pictures, ink blots seeing which the person has to either make a story or describe
his or her perception about the stimulus figure.
● A projective test is intended to elicit responses that will reveal the individual’s
“personality structure”, feeling, values, motives, characteristic modes of adjustment etc.
● The results of a projective test are used to interpret and understand the personality as a
whole.
● Scoring the projective tests is relatively complicated and requires the test administrator to
be well trained in the pattern of scoring.
● The reliability and validity of projective tests are relatively low.
History Of Projective Techniques
Projective techniques were first developed in the 1960s for clinical psychology. They are
a form of personality test in psychology that exposes subjects to a succession of ambiguous
stimuli such as images or phrases. The goal of projective tests is to elicit emotional reactions
from participants so that their attitudes, attributes, and behavior may be studied. These tests are
supposed to uncover an individual’s hidden wants and fears.
A major distinguishing feature of projective techniques is to be found in their
assignment of a relatively unstructured task, that is, a task that permits an almost unlimited
variety of possible responses. To allow free play to the individual's fantasy, only brief, general
instructions are provided. For the same reason, the test stimuli are usually vague or ambiguous.
The underlying hypothesis is that the way in which the individual perceives and interprets the
test material or "structures" the situation will reflect fundamental aspects of her or his
psychological functioning. The test materials will serve as a sort of screen on which respondents
"project" their characteristic thought processes, needs, anxieties, and conflicts.
Typically, projective instruments also represent disguised testing procedures,
insofar as test takers are rarely aware of the type of psychological interpretation that will
be made of their responses. Projective techniques are likewise characterized by a global
approach to the appraisal of personality. Attention is focused on a composite picture of the
whole personality, rather than on the measurement of separate traits. Finally, projective
techniques are usually regarded by their exponents as especially effective in revealing
covert, latent, or unconscious aspects of personality. Moreover, the more unstructured the
test, it is argued, the more sensitive it is to such covert material. This follows from the
assumption that the more unstructured or ambiguous the stimuli, the less likely they are to
evoke defensive reactions on the part of the respondent.
Projective methods originated within a clinical setting and have remained predominantly
a tool for the clinician. Some have evolved from therapeutic procedures (such as art therapy)
employed with psychiatric patients. Projective techniques can be divided into different categories
based on the stimulus figures being used. They are –
● 1. Pictorial techniques,
● 2. Verbal techniques and
● 3. Performance techniques that are further classified into Drawing techniques and Play
techniques
● 4. Inkblot techniques
1. Pictorial Techniques - Tests that use pictures as stimulus figures
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
● Commonly referred as TAT this test was devised by Murray
● In this test, the subject is presented with a series of cards (about 10) with pictures on
them. For example, Card 1 of TAT depicts a boy staring in contemplation at a
violin.
● The subject is asked to make up a dramatic story for each of the cards.
● The stories are recorded verbatim, including pauses, questions and other remarks.
● The areas of interpretation are broken down into three categories: story content; story
structure; and behavior observations.
The assumption is that when presented with such ambiguous stimuli the subjects’ stories reflect
their personality and characteristic modes of interacting with the environment.
2. VERBAL Techniques - use words as stimulus figures
● Word Association Test
● Here a list of meaningful words are presented to the subject one after the other and the
subject is asked to respond with a word that comes to mind as soon as he/she heard the
stimulus word. Carl Jung used this test first.
● The best known of the word-association test is the Kent-Rosanoff test used
to differentiate between the mentally ill and the normal.
● They used words that are not intended to indicate personal emotional problems but were
neutral in character.
● They provided evidence on the basis of the proportion of common responses to the
uncommon.
● Sentence Completion Test
● Here the subject is presented with a series of incomplete sentences, generally open at the
end, to be completed by the subject in one or more words.
● One of the most frequently used sentence completion test is The Rotter Incomplete
Sentence Blank.
● This test is designed to estimate the subject’s degree and areas of maladjustment, if
any exist.
3. Performance Techniques - Tests that require the subject to perform certain activities
according to the given situations.
1. Drawing Techniques – Tests the require the subject to draw a given situation
● Draw-a-Person Test
● It is used with individuals above two years of age and requires the subject to “draw a
person” of both genders.
● The subject is then asked to tell a story about each person he has drawn and
his/her responses are interpreted and analyzed.
● Conflicting needs and tensions are expressed through details and organization of
the drawn figures
● Another popular example of drawing techniques is The House-Tree-Person Projective
Technique
2. Play Techniques – Tests that involve providing the subject with certain play tools and
interpreting his personality basing on his/her activities while playing like particular items
employed, how they are used, the organization and pattering of toys, attitudes toward each
toy, vocalizations and general behavior in the play situation
4. Ink Blot Techniques - Tests that use ink blots as stimulus figures
● The Rorschach Test
● The Rorschach Inkblot Test was developed in 1921 by a Swiss psychologist
named Hermann Rorschach. It is one of the most popular projective techniques.
● The test consists of ten bilaterally symmetrical ambiguous inkblots, i.e., the left side of
each card is essentially a mirror image of the right side.
■ Achromatic (five in black & white)
■ Partially Chromatic (two in black, white & color) and
■ Completely Chromatic (three in in different colors)
● A variety of interpretations are possible for each ink blot.
● While there are several different ways to administer the Rorschach and score, the vast
majority of psychologists today use the method developed by John Exner (Exner,
1974, 1976, 1986, 1993, 2003; Exner % Weiner, 1995).
Administration
Administration is conducted in 2 parts
● Response/ Free Association Phase
● Inquiry Phase
1. Response/ Free Association Phase
● Each card is handed to the patient with the question-
● “What might this be?”
This is the basic instruction and nothing should be added).
● If the subject responds by saying that “this is an ink-blot”, acknowledge it and further say
“that is right. This is an ink-blot test, and I want you to tell me what it might be.”
● The psychologist writes down everything the patient says verbatim.
● The psychologist does not question the patient in this phase.
Inquiry Phase
● After all 10 cards are administered; the psychologist shows the patient each card a second
time and asks-
● “Now I’d like to show you the cards once again and ask you several questions about each
card so that I can be sure that I see it as you do.”
● With each card, he or she asks a non-leading question such as
● "What about the card made it look like a- to you?".
● The psychologist looks for answers that will help him or her score the test in several
categories such as
● Location (i.e., the area of the blot being used),
● Content (i.e., the nature of the object being described, such as a person, animal, or
element of nature).
● Determinants (i.e., the parts of the blot that the patient used in the response, such as form,
color, shading, and movement), and
● Populars (i.e., the responses typically seen by others).
● Once the test is completed, scoring involves a highly complex system and analysis. Each
response is carefully scored based on the content, location, determinants, and quality of
the response.
COMPONENTS FOR SCORING
● DQ (deviant quality)
● Location
● Determinants
● FQ (form quality)
● Responses
● Reflection
● Content
● Popular responses
● Z score
● Special scores
● Interpretation of the information obtained in this way is thought to be a way of obtaining
access to the person's psychological make up.
● Various aspects of the Rorschach responses are associated with
psychological functioning.
● For example, the frequent use of shading is generally considered to be reflective of
anxiety and depression.
● The use of human movement and an adequate number of popular responses are usually
associated with adaptive and well- integrated psychological functioning.
● Numerous responses that attend to minor details of the blots often reflect obsessive
compulsive traits.
● Frequent use of the whitespace around the blot is generally associated with
oppositionality and/or avoidance.