Projective Methods in Assessment Flashcards
What is Projective method assessment?
The technique of personality assessment in which some judgment of the assessee’s personality is made based on performance on a task that involves supplying some sort of structure to unstructured or incomplete stimuli
Projective Methods (Frank, 1939)
a perspective that examined the unique way an individual projects onto an ambiguous stimulus
“his way of seeing life, his meanings, significances, patterns, and especially his feelings”
- “the most important things about an individual are what he cannot or will not say”
What is projective hypothesis?
individual supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a manner consistent with the individual’s own unique pattern of conscious and unconscious needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and ways of perceiving and responding
Projective Test
INDIRECT method of personality assessment
in psychology, it is a type of personality test that commonly employs ambiguous stimuli and images.
It intents to evoke responses that may reveal unconscious desires, fears and challenges that are hidden from conscious awareness.
What are the five categories of projective methods?
- association technique (e.g. Rorschach Inkblot Test)
- Choice/ordering or known as arrangement/selection (e.g., Szondi Test),
- completion (e.g., sentence completion test)
- construction (e.g. Thematic Apperception Test)
- expression (e.g., Draw-A-Person)
The Rorschach Inkblot Test
- association technique
- The test was introduced in 1921 by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach.
- Person is asked to describe what he or she sees in 10 inkblots, of which some are black or gray and others have patches of colour.
- From response scores, the psychologist attempts to describe the subject’s personality, often by comparing scores with established norms.
- Gained popularity in the 60s and it was widely used to assess cognition and personality and to diagnosis certain psychological conditions.
Word association
- association technique
- oral presentation of a series of disconnected words, one at a time, to which the subject is instructed to respond with the first word that occurs to him.
- Typically, both the subject’s association and reaction time to each word are recorded.
- Kent and Rosanoff (1910): designed as a psychiatric screening device
- scoring and interpretation may involve an analysis of the content of the associations
Szondi Test
- Choice/ordering or known as arrangement/selection
- This test was devised in the late 1930s by Szondi, a Hungarian psychiatrist (1947), and made popular in the United States through the efforts of Susan Deri (1949).
- The test materials consist of 48 photographs of individuals drawn from eight psychiatric diagnostic categories.
- subject expressions of preference for the different photographs.
- The test is based on the assumption that a person can be described in terms of eight “need systems” (presumably reflected in the photographs), with the subject’s selections and rejections indicating the degree of strength or tension in each.
Sentence Completion Test:
- completion
- (e.g., Rotter & Wilierman 1947)
- widely used by both clinicians and personality investigators
- Typically such a device consists of thirty to one hundred brief sentence stems which the subject is instructed to complete with the first words that come to mind.
- The technique is considered most efficient in assessing the content of personality (attitudes, motives, and conflicts) at a more conscious or manifest level than such instruments as the Rorschach or TAT.
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- construction
- (Murray 1943)
- The TAT consists of cards containing black-and-white pictures of vague scenes, and the instructions request the subject to compose a story to fit each picture, describing what the people are thinking and feeling, what led up to the scene depicted, and what the outcome will be.
- no objective scores for specific variables.
Draw-A-Person
- expression
- most publicised: Buck (1948) and Machover (1949).
- examiner usually notes the subject’s comments, the sequence of parts drawn, and other procedural details.
- importance of: figure’s stance, size, and position on the page, disproportions, shading, and erasures.
- Interpretation of both drawing and painting techniques is not precise
Third-person Techniques:
Third-person techniques are a set of techniques that involve projecting one’s own feelings onto someone else in order for them to see things from your perspective, such as “Don’t you wish these people would stop talking?,” or “Would you be afraid if your boss found out you were late today?”
What are the disadvantages of this type of tests?
- Bias of the participants
- they may not work well with certain personality types
- the participant may be confused by what they are experiencing
- Scoring projective tests is highly subjective
- Validity is sometimes questioned
When it comes to projective methods in assessment Robert Williams is known for…
he developed the first culturally specific projective test designed to reflect the everyday life experiences of African Americans
advantages of projective technique
- they allow people to express their thoughts and ideas without fear of censure or societal restraints.
- very effective in accessing the unconscious part of the human mind.
