Class 2

Question 1

Criticisms of the Rorschach

Answer 1

1. Lack of good norms
2. Overpathologizes
3. Low inter-rater reliability
4. Lack of relationship to diagnoses
5. Lack of incremental validity
6. The problem of R

Question 2

How do you address the critique of “Lack of relationship to diagnoses”

Answer 2

BUT Rorschach is not intended to diagnose

Must consider this indicator by indicator, not rule on the method as a whole

Replication is always an issue in research (but is not the focus of most research)

Better training

Question 3

How do you address the critique of “Low Inter-rater reliability”

Answer 3

Better graduate training

Question 4

How do you address the critique of “lack of incremental validity”

Answer 4

Depends on the assessment—add it to a protocol wisely

Better training

Incremental validity: Incremental validity is a type of validity that is used to determine whether a new psychometric assessment will increase the predictive ability beyond that provided by an existing method of assessment

Question 5

Role of intersubjectivity in the Ror.

Answer 5

Tester’s personality is part of the process

This insight was ahead of its time

Question 6

Projective Tests Traditionally are….

Answer 6

Projective traditionally refers to:

• ambiguous stimulus or activity
• test-taker generates a response with minimal external guidance
• in responding the test-taker projects or puts forward elements of her personality
• interpretation requires subjectivity

Question 7

What is projection

Answer 7

Things that aren’t there

Movement probably is a bit projective because blot does not move

Embellishment leaves the field too
- Bats classification answer
- Bat that just went through a storm and is all beat up

Minus responses may be projections (FQ minus?)

Special scores

Question 8

Projective vs Performance-based

Answer 8

Performance-based tests are nomothetic, that is, one’s performance can be scored into meaningful categories that can be compared to norms, resulting in reliable and valid implications that are totally separate from projective analysis.

AKA there are “right” and “wrong” answers, so you can compare to norms

Question 9

Performance-based Measures vs self-report

Answer 9

Value as a different method from Self-report tests

What do we miss with self-report tests?
- Maturity?
- Narcissism?
- Intelligence?
- Trauma?

Question 10

The value of the rorschach

Answer 10

The Rorschach is a standardized behavioral experiment that “provides a sample of how one:

• “filters and organizes information,
• applies meaning to stimuli and situations,
• how conventionally they perceive,
• how logically they think and communicate, and
• how they handle inconsistencies, contradictions, and ambiguity”

“Using normed information one can infer likely behavior in everyday life when the person is left to his or her own devices to understand, represent, and make meaning about complex environmental stimuli that validly can be seen from multiple perspectives”

Question 11

Rorscach correlation to self-report tests

Answer 11

Rorschach results do not correlate highly with self report measures (e.g., DEPI index with Scale 2 of the MMPI)

Some explain this as failure of the Rorschach. Others call it incremental validity allowed by a different method/level of investigation

Question 12

Explicit vs implicit and self-report vs performance based

Answer 12

Self-report measures tend to tap explicit aspects of a person (i.e., how a person sees themselves)

Performance-based measures tend to tap implicit or underlying aspects of a person

Similar to intelligence—self-report likely very different from WAIS-IV results (performance-based)

Question 13

The role of the ‘inkblot” in the rorschach

Answer 13

We cut out the possibility of a correct answer—an inkblot

Thus, we set into motion a complicated set of psychological operations
> Enter it into short term storage, scan it, cognitively identify it, dredge up long-term storage for comparison data, etc.

Question 14

Critical distal bits

Answer 14

The part of the card that they do intentionality because it gets an answer to be popular

Ex. On card 10: popular response is crab (blue part). When they changed the color to not blue, people didn’t see it. Even with brown they didn’t see crab.

AKA – the most potent properties of the field, they create the parameters that limit the range of possible objects

Distal features of the inkblots are not as precise and discrete as usual

BUT each contains distinctive features that could be identified as similar to objects in memory traces (Rorschach made them that way)

Thus, the blots fall far short of being ambiguous

THIS IS WHAT MAKES IT PERFORMANCE-BASED

The critical bits that limit the array of possible translations allow for rapid formation of potential answers

Popular responses (this is a scoring category)

Question 15

Popular responses

Answer 15

Each blot has high valence bits that tend to define classification

Question 16

The Big Picture of the Ror.– what are the different parts

Answer 16

Administration

Scoring

Interpretation (what do indicators mean?)

Integration (with other indicators, other tests, history, etc.)

Perspective (reliability, validity, strengths and weaknesses, cultural issues, etc.)

Question 17

Performance-Based test and brain areas it impacts

Answer 17

highly activating of the right hemisphere and of subcortical areas involved in emotional activation and regulation

Recent research shows that projective/performance-based tests like the Rorschach, which use primarily visual stimuli and are administered in relatively unstructured, interpersonal, and thus affect arousing situations, are highly activating of the right hemisphere and of subcortical areas involved in emotional activation and regulation

AKA activate right hemisphere and areas of emotional activation and regulation

SO ITS REALLY HELPFUL FINDING TRAUMA

Rorschach and other projective/
performance-based tests are irreplaceable in gaining access to the secrets hidden in the right hemisphere and limbic areas.

Without this information, the client remains victim of unseen influences.

Question 18

Rorscach and trauma/attatchment

Answer 18

Rorschach and similar projective/performance-based tests are..

extremely useful in picking up the effects of trauma and early insecure attachment experiences, and in showing functioning when clients are emotionally aroused.

Question 19

What area of the brain does Ror. impact

Answer 19

right hemisphere and limbic system (subcortical areas involved in emotional activation and regulation)

Question 20

What is the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System and how does it work? (AAP)

Answer 20

Validated measure of adult attachment representation (status)

Projective attachment scenes
Seven cards
Increasing activation of the attachment system

The respondent tells a story to each card

Each story is rigorously coded for attachment themes and defenses

Question 21

AAP in the fMRI Environment

Answer 21

16 healthy women take the AAP while in the fMRI

5 records eliminated due to excessive head movement

AAP stories checked for length and word rate (normal)

AAP stories coded (checked for reliability)

6 women: “resolved”
5 women: “unresolved”