Class 4

Question 1

Administration Notes

Answer 1

Number consecutively through the test

Use location sheets

Record verbatim

Expect to be anxious - learn to manage it

Treat the TA like a client (take charge)

Be on time to meeting and be sure you have the materials

Start face to face but when you start the admin, sit side by side, slightly behind

Question 2

Helpful Rorschach Listserve Advice Administration

Answer 2

“When recording responses during the CP, I often struggle to divide my attention between hearing/typing responses and looking at the examinee/card for location info. If I’m too focused on recording accurate responses, I often neglect to (visually) capture accurate location, or vice versa. If the former, I tend to follow up with extra questions about location which then lead to unnecessary responses.” Bob Erard

Question 3

Bob Erard continued

Answer 3

“I don’t think there is any easy answer, but if you follow the principle of letting the respondent take the lead, you develop a mindset in which you expect the respondent to tell you if there are special location features that are important to the percept rather than chasing around for them. Most locations are Ws and Ds in conventional places, and even most Dd responses are those that experienced examiners have heard before. If the respondent hasn’t said something or gestured in some way to suggest otherwise, you can often safely assume that the location is what it appears to be.”

Question 4

Bob Erard continued

Answer 4

“Particularly if you begin the CP a recommended, telling the respondent that you want to know where it is seen on the card and what makes it look that way, and reinforce that a couple of times, the respondent will usually give you enough information about location without too much additional clarification.”

Question 5

Barry Ritzler

Answer 5

Don’y ask a person to run their finger around the response. It can result in more Dd 99 and fewer vague Developmental Quality scores.

Question 6

Synthesis Thresholds

Answer 6

Positive threshold examples for coding Sy:

“leaning on” or “leaning against,” “touching,” “looking at each other,” “standing behind (when one object obscures another),” “a bird on a branch,” “a person casting a shadow,” “a person on a rug,” “a fetus with its umbilical cord attached,” “flying above this object,” “lying next to,” “lying beside one another,” or one object “coming from” another, “trees on a pond.”

Negative threshold examples that are not coded for Sy: “a garden scene with yellow flowers, kind of like roses, daffodils, tomato horn worms,” “an underwater scene…. there’s fish, rocks, plants,” “a landscape with rocks, trees, and a pond,” “a sculpture of a bear and a fish”

Question 7

Pairs (2)

Answer 7

Two identical objects symmetrical on each side of the blot midline (not parts that come in pairs, like eyes, boots, hands of a whole person)

Must be identical in all respects
> If differentiated in any way, do not score pair

(Goes into summary calculations related to symmetry)

Often use “two” but sometimes use plural to convey this, or “a couple of”

Don’t score pair when reflection is scored

Example:
Card VII. 2 little Indian girls looking at each other. – Head here, face, nose, with bangs here. (WMTLL Indians?) Their feathers are going up behind them.

Question 8

Form Quality

Answer 8

o - Ordinary (form fit that is relatively frequent and accurate)

u - Unusual (form fit that is of intermediate frequency or accuracy)

• • Minus (form fit that is infrequent and inaccurate)

N - None (no object with definite form or outline, BUT refer to FQ Table for exception)

*Refer to Form Quality tables in Chapter 6 RPAS manual. If not included, use extrapolation.

If a response has multiple objects, code the FQ of the material objects (not an inconsequential part of the response) with the lowest FQ

FQ reflects conventional and accurate ways of processing information

Question 9

FQ Tables

Answer 9

FQ tables are based on accumulated FQ tables (Beck et al (1961), Hertz (1970), Exner (2003), and international sample

Based on:
- Fit (derived from multiple judges from 11 countries)

• Frequency (from the multiple data sources above)

Question 10

Extrapolation

Answer 10

FQ extrapolations must have the same shape, form features, and spatial orientation (not just content)

Question 11

Extrapolation for Single Objects

Answer 11

1. Search the FQ tables for responses with similar shapes. (if it is Dd99). If straightforward, assign the FQ.
2. Search like areas.
3. Search subcomponents of an object e.g., bird > wings; bull > horns
4. Consider results and make a determination.

Question 12

Extrapolation for Multiple Objects

Answer 12

Score the lowest form quality of important components

Question 13

Validity

Answer 13

Do indicators measure what we think they measure?

Question 14

Conclusions

Answer 14

Both Rorschach and MMPI have criterion-related validity effect sizes of substantial magnitude

Question 15

Additional Consideration

Answer 15

These studies do not address the pattern of scores within a test, much less a pattern among multi-method tests, which is the basis of good psychological assessment

Move beyond the question of global validity and focus on individual scales and indices
> NOT ‘is the Rorschach valid’, rather ‘is this or that indicator valid”

Question 16

Study of Validity of Individual Indicators

Answer 16

Published in Psychological Bulletin

A Review of the Validity Research on the Rorschach CS Variables

• A systematic meta-analysis for each of the individual CS indicators
• Goal: to estimate construct validity of Rorschach indicators

Question 17

Summary

Answer 17

Most variables in R-PAS have meta-analytic support

R-PAS variables have more construct validity meta-analyses documenting their validity than any other multiscale assessment measure

Question 18

Determinants

Answer 18

The most complex feature of scoring

Why something looks the way it does?

Information can be relayed in many ways:
- Directly - “The shading gives that impression,” “it is shaped that way”

• Indirectly - key words

Question 19

Determinants (cont.)

Answer 19

Movement
- Human movement (M)
- Animal movement (FM)
- Inanimate movement (m)

Color (FC, CF, C)

Shading
- Achromatic color (C’)
- Texture (T)
- Vista (V)
- Diffuse Shading (Y)

Form Dimension (FD)

Reflection (r)

Form (F)

Question 20

Three Suggestions of a Determinant

Answer 20

1. Communication
   > Consider all words and gestures (esp key words)
2. Prototypical Imagery
   > The real world attributes of an object
   – suggestive - require clarification a server cb dressed in black
   – prototypical or core characteristic blood (is red)
3. Permissive Card Location
   > Common determinant location table (p. 165)
   – Lists all areas that elicit at least 5% of determinants

Key words - suggest a possible determinant

Loaded word - do not suggest a specific possible determinant, but should be clarified
- An amazing…
- Weird-looking
- That’s creepy
- Mysterious

Question 21

Movement

M (Human movement)

Answer 21

Responses involving movement of a human

Experience, sensation or emotion, even if disembodied or abstract
- e.g., Card X: gloom, love, loud sound

Any animal in human-like activity or supernatural activity (this does not include an animal in any non-animal movement)

Question 22

Movement

FM (Animal movement)

Answer 22

Responses involving animal movement (even if the movement is not congruent with that animal)

E.g., a cat flying with wings out&raquo_space;> FM

Code FM unless human or supernatural elements are included
– FM - a fish suckling its young
– M - a fish sucking its baby at her breast

Question 23

Movement

m (Inanimate movemement)

Answer 23

Movement of inanimate objects (waterfall, sun rise, rotting apples)

Natural forces like gravity, wind, rigor mortis

Also used for unnatural states of tension (hair sticking up)

Sounds only if the act of hearing is not involved

Question 24

Movement

Answer 24

Movement must be occurring in the moment (not past action)

M, FM, and m are based on the nature of the movement not just the agent of action
- A bear bleeding = m
- A live animal falling from the sky = FM
- A dead animal falling from the sky = m
- A person being stretched = M
- A jack-o-lantern with a smile = M

Anticipatory movement (fixin’ to…)
> Score it as if already being produced

Question 25

Props

Answer 25

Props provide a rationale for a response but are not seen in the blot, so are not coded

E.g., the amoeba looks big because you are looking through a microscope

Question 26

Movement vs Positional Descriptors

Answer 26

Movement
- If tension exists (Wings spread, folded, extended; Arms up in the air)

No movement
- Positional (Two people facing each other)

Question 27

Active or Passive Movement

Answer 27

Every movement response will be designated with a superscript as:

• a (active)
• p (passive)
• a-p (both)

Benchmark is talking (which is always scored passive)

See page 101-102

Question 28

Context, Elaborations, Qualifications

Answer 28

Context can change a to p or p to a

Active = a leaf spinning out of control

Passive = a leaf falling slowly spinning to the ground

Movement within a painting, caricature, picture, or abstraction is always passive
*caution: “picture” can refer to the inkblot

Two possibilities if both a and p of one type of movement (M, FM, m) are involved in a single response:

1. When more than one object is involved, score both a and p with a dash in between (e.g., Card I: two people dancing around a person standing&raquo_space;> Ma-p)
2. When a single object is involved, only the active superscript is used (e.g., Card II: a dog sitting there howling&raquo_space;> FMa)

Question 29

Clarifying Movement

Answer 29

Often trying to understand what makes it look like it is moving is a pointless clarification.

Often the client is frustrated and says it just does

BUT there are times when movement is expressed in such a way to need a clarification:
- Vibrating
- Flaming, burning
- Streaking through space

Question 30

Chromatic Color

Answer 30

Use of color in articulating response.

Exact code depends on extent to which form is involved:

FC: Color contributes but form is dominant (e.g., it has that shape like liquid running down a wall - and it is red too)

CF: Color is dominant but form contributes (e.g., it is red and is running down here like bl would do)

C: Only color is involved (e.g., it is red like blood)

Question 31

Is Form or Color Predominant?

Answer 31

The goal of distinguishing FC from CF resolves around what is the predominant determinant for the response?

Are they using form more than color?

Or color more than form?

Consider the relative use of color in the entire response

Sometimes mention of color is only identifying a location, so no color is coded (e.g., the red could be a bowtie)

Color-convergence: Consider the importance of the color of the object in the real world
> The blue is a lake; the red is blood > color vs the red is a fish > locator, not color)

Page 104-105

Question 32

Is Form or Color Predominant? (Cont.)

Answer 32

In general, whenever a response contains elements that qualify for different categories of the same determinant, use the one with the least form

Color as locator
- The red could be a bowtie (no color convergence)

BUT something normally coded C that is only part of a larger response, part of which does have some form and is in positional relationship to the color, causes a step down from C to CF (I.e., consider the whole response)

E.g., colorful decorations on a Christmas tree

Question 33

Achromatic Color (C’)

Answer 33

Identifying gray, black, or white as a characteristic

Generally:
- A white jet, a gray bug, it has a white edge

• Gray, black, and white can denote location only, which is not coded
• Achromatic color-convergence

e.g., the black is coal > C’
the black is tweezers > not C’

• Light and dark are key words (they can be achromatic color or shading)

Question 34

Shading

Answer 34

When the perception of shading is part of the response it will be coded V, T, or Y

Shading involves contrasts or differences in shades of ink or mixing 2 colors , a varying intensity of ink or color will be perceived as texture, depth, or diffuseness

Communicated by words: shading, darker, lighter, contrast, varying pixels, or hinted at by designs, lines, marking, not solid, not the same, specks, splotches, or spots (hints require clarification)

Or by gestures – rubbing the card, putting hand behind the blot (be sure and document these actions)

Question 35

Shading that Creates Form Features

Answer 35

Using shading features to create contours in the blot - not scored shading

Card IX - the green part looks like a ghost’s head - using the shading to create a mouth shape

Card VI - using the shading to create round spots on the young deer/fawn

Question 36

Shading - Texture (T)

Answer 36

Used to code tactile impression
e.g., soft, rough, smooth, furry, wet, hot to touch, cold to touch

Must be based on variations of shading (doesn’t include “cold because it is blue” - the wouls a color determinate)

“Color” often must be inquired to see if actual color or if shading is being used (especially on non-color cards)

Question 37

Shading - Texture (T) (cont.)

Answer 37

“The shading makes it look soft””

Fur may or may not be texture - clarify

Children rubbing the card is sufficient to score texture

Card IV. it is a black slimy monster walking through the woods.

• Here is the head, body, feet. (WMILL slimy?) because the ink makes it l.l. wet and slippery. (WMILL walking thru woods?) Bec there is a tree.

Question 38

Shading - Vista (V)

Answer 38

Used when depth or dimensionality is perceived in shading

Determine if the response is based on shading (scored V) or on size or contours (scored FD)

Problem words include “bumpy,” “indented,” “rough”

Must articulate 3-D dimensionality
> Something is closer to you than other parts are based on shading

> Birds eye view, o looking at it from above, looking down on it from above. But “top view” is not 3D (not the distance)

Card VI. It l.l. a canyon you are looking down into.
– The coloring gets darker as you get deeper in the canyon, and there is a river running in the bottom.

Question 39

Shading - Diffuse (Y)

Answer 39

Use of shading that is not coded vista or texture or is a form feature (so Y is the default use of shading)

Dilemmas: C’ vs Y
> Unless you are convinced it is C’, use Y

Sometimes Y is found in color contrasts: e.g., different pinks make it look rotten; different grays like a storm; the way the coloring comes together it looks like dried blood

Card VI. It l.l. smoke rising up here. Just this part. The ink has a smoky quality - how the pixels are varying in color

Question 40

Convergence Principle

Answer 40

Response language, Prototypical imagery and Permissive location converge so that only one code is possible:
- Response: Color mentioned, “the red is blood”
- Prototypical imagery–blood is red
- Permissive location (Card II D2 or D3) - pulls for color

NO CLARIFICATION REQUIRED TO CODE C

Question 41

Convergence Principle (cont.)

Answer 41

Achromatic color convergence
- “The white part here is snow”
- “The black part is the night sky”

Texture convergence
- Unequivocal tactile communication (only soft, texture, or smooth are unequivocal)
-Prototypical object content (bearskin rug)
- Approximately shaded blot area (Card IV or VI)

FD convergence
- Card IV – Looking up toward a giant like I am below him. Feet, legs, body, nose, and tail

Question 42

Form Dimension (FD)

Answer 42

The artistic idea of foreshortening

Response in which the impression of depth, distance, or dimensionality is given by the relative size and/or shape of contours (no shading used)

e.g., it’s so small it must be way off
e.g., it l.l. it is in perspective

Question 43

Obscuring-Type FD

Answer 43

One object obscures another behind it

Scored when something is behind something (if based on form)
e.g., I can only see part of the arm so it must be behind him

Sometimes subtle: “a person standing with a hood on”
> If hood is 2dimensional, not FD
> If hood covers anything like a face (“can only see part of the face”), FD

Card IV. L.l. a big monster riding a motorcycle smoking a cigar
- Head, body, feed and here is the motorcycle. (WMILL Big?) bec its feet are big and its head is small. (WMILL smoking a cigar?) the way the colors are makes it l.l. smoke here

Question 44

Reflections

Answer 44

A reflection or mirror image based on the symmetry of the blot

Image must be identical

If you score a reflection, do not score pair (2)

e.g., > it looks like a mountain lake reflecting the trees and mountains; a woman looking at herself in the mirror, a steamboat and its reflection

Question 45

Form

Answer 45

F (Form)
- Responses based exclusively on “shape” or by POINTING OUT FORM FEATURES

• Only code F when it is the only determinant in a response (it is exclusionary) (never in a blend)
• The F in FM and FD can be confusing because they do not necessarily refer to form (F)

Question 46

Benchmarks for “Reasonably Certainty”

Answer 46

“…because of how it’s shaped.” = F

“it’s so small - it must be off in the distance.” = FD

“Different shades give the impression of depth.” = V

“That red looks like blood” = C

“…it’s climbing” = FMa or Ma

“…reflected on the other side.” = r

“…looks like a pink cat.” = FC

“The guy looks angry.” = Ma

Question 47

Blends

Answer 47

When more than one determinant is used in a response

When written, separate each determinant by a comma

E.g., C’, FD, Ma

More than three determinants
» Can happen but check your scoring

Cannot use two codes of the same category of determinant (CF, FC)
> use the one with the least form emphasis

Can get two shading scores in a blend

BUT do not code same word or phrase two ways

Question 48

Clarification

Answer 48

Clarification may be the biggest threat to reliability and validity (soft underbelly of the test, Exner)

Manual tries to standardize the guidelines for clarification as much as possible

Purpose: to “resolve uncertainties and ambiguities about coding” that the RP presented

Consistency across examiners in CP is the goal