Rorschach Week 1 - 5 (and coding stuff) Flashcards
What was the parlor game that inspired the Rorschach?
“Blotto” (Klecksographie)
Who created the Rorschach?
Hermann Rorschach
Who influenced/mentored Rorschach?
Konrad Gehrig - taught intermediate school when Hermann was in medical residency
Bleuler - created the concept “dementia praecox”
Syzmond - spurred Rorschach to investigate different responses with inkblots; compared responses of 100 children to 100 adults to 100 patients with psychosis
Hermann Rorschach did not think of the inkblots as a projective technique but rather as a
Cognitive Perceptive Test
(more concerned about perception and the characteristics it showed about the individual)
How many inkblots did Rorschach originally use?
40 inkblots
What were Rorschach’s original scoring codes?
- Part of blot used
- What features being used
- Content
Why did Rorschach bring down the amount of cards (40) to 10?
Publishers requested him to submit fewer cards; called it “form interpretation test”
What parts of the Rorschach are helpful and what reasons do we use it?
- Standardized sample of perceptual and verbal problem-solving behaviors
- Inkblots were carefully selected and pilot-tested
- Stimuli are structured to provide multiple suggestive perceptual likenesses that form competing visual images
Samuel Beck and Marguerite Hertz developed…
A major scoring system for the Rorschach after doing a standardized dissertation with different populations
Who developed a scoring system in conflict with Beck (empirical)?
Bruno Klopfer (psychoanalytic)
In 1950 _________ ____________ published his own approach to the test
Zygmunt Piatrowski
Overall, what were the 5 scoring systems in 1960?
- Samuel Beck (empirical)
- Bruno Klopfer (psychoanalytic)
- Marguerite Hertz (empirical)
- Zygmunt Piatrowski (psychoanalytic)
- David Rapaport/Merton Gill/Roy Schafer
What did John Exner do to set standards?
Compared and combined efficacy across 5 coding systems; used only empirically validated
What standards did the Rorschach have to meet?
Inter-rater reliability
- scoring was only included if it had a .85 interrater reliability
Requirements for validity
- required predictive and concurrent validity; indicators must be shown in 5 good studies to remain
Criticisms (and how they were addressed) of the Rorschach
- Lack of good norms (Shaffer introduced a large international sample)
- Overpathologizes (people are trained to prevent over pathologizing; SCZI was revised)
- Low Inter-rater reliability (improved training and Viglione book promotes greater precision in scoring)
- Lack of Relationship to Diagnoses (but that’s not the intention; replication is an issue, but not the focus)
- Lack of Incremental Validity (depends on assessment)
- The Problem of R (improve training, use Holtzman Inkblot Method, convert indicators to ratios, develop norm table, new admin system)
Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erdberg, and Erard developed….
A new system called Rorschach Performance Assessment System (RPAS)
What are the constants in the tester’s role during testing?
- Voyeuristic
- Autocratic aspect
- Oracular
- Saintly
What is the Voyeuristic Aspect of the tester’s role?
Peeps into the interior of many without committing themself
What is the Autocratic aspect?
Tester dominates, controls the situation, is the ringmaster
What is the Oracular aspect?
Tester given magical powers, omniscient; we must cope with constant stimulation of this longing
What is the Saintly aspect?
We are pulled to do good things for others; subdue own needs to save the other
What are the values and dangers of a tester with uncertain sense of personal identity?
- concerns is that this may cause anxiety, demand too much, or show favoritism
- values: increase perceptiveness, greater variety of solutions, foster tolerance, contribute to growth
What are the values and dangers of a socially inhibited and withdrawn tester?
- dangers is that they may become too personal and create anxiety
- values is that they are hypersensitive to emotional nuances
What are the values and dangers of a dependent tester?
- Dangers are they feed on the patient to meet their needs and fear displeasure from the patient
What are the values and dangers of a tester with rigid defenses against dependency needs?
- dangers are that they force patients into a passive role; too cold, too maternal, too saintly
- values are that they increase empathy for patient’s needs and increase tolerance of patients need-denying defenses
What are the values and dangers of a rigidly intellectual tester?
- dangers are they may become too detached, complicate unnecessarily, interpret everything in sight, and may be communicated to patients who will interpret it as narcissistic self-absorption
- the values are that they make it possible to deal with disturbing material, support reasonable skepticism, and oppose mechanical interpretations
What are the values and dangers of a sadistic tester?
- dangers: sadistic assault, may become a means of finding the weak, debasing, humiliating aspects of others
- values: need freedom to call it like you see it, easier to see sadism in patient, not easily taken in, not compelled to have to be gentle
What are the values and dangers of a tester with rigid defenses against hostility?
- blind to malignant implications; saintliness can be a powerful sadistic weapon
- enhances perceptiveness of strengths, potential, strivings
What are the values and dangers of a masochistic tester?
- exacerbate behavior; cause anxiety in patient
- makes it possible to spend time with the patient
What are some of the psychological positions for patients?
- Self-exposure in the absence of trust
- Loss of control in the interpersonal relationship
- Dangers of self-confrontation
- Regressive temptations
Projection versus performance
Performance-based tests are nomothetic; scored into meaningful categories
What is usually missed with self-report tests?
Maturity
Narcissism
Intelligence
Trauma
The Values of the Rorschach
- Applies meaning to stimuli
- Filters and organizes information
- Gives us an idea of how people perceive, logically think and communicate, and how they handle inconsistencies, contradictions, and ambiguity
Rorschach results do not correlate highly with…?
Self-report measures
Self-report measures tend to tape in….
Explicit aspects of a person (how they see themselves)
Performance based measures tend to tap in….
Implicit (underlying) aspects of a person
What are the true components of a stimulus field?
Critical Distal Bits (Distal properties like a chair has legs, seat, and back)
Critical distal bits create the parameters that limit range of possible objects
Performance based measures
- Rorschach
- Wartegg Drawing Completion Test
- Adult Attachment Projective
- Thurston-Cradock Test of Shame
Projective Tests
- Thematic Apperception Test
- Roberts Apperception Test
- Tell Me a Story
- House-Tree-Person Drawing
- Sentence Completion tests
What areas of the brain are memories and affect states connected with trauma located?
Right hemisphere to limbic areas
What part of the brain completes self-report tests?
Right and limbic areas
What are trauma memories and affect states tied to?
Anxiety or shame
If memories and affect states tied to trauma are activated by the right hemisphere and cannot be reached through self-report measures, what types of tests would be effective?
Projective/performance-based tests have shown to activate the right hemisphere and subcortical areas involved in emotional activation and regulation
What are the four principles of administration?
- Follow standardized procedures
- The examiner in non-directive
- Capture the client’s performance accurately
- Focus on what the client sees and how they see it
What materials do you need to administer?
10 Rorschach cards
2 location sheets (at least)
Paper/laptop (response sheet)
Two pens
Clipboard
For the setting, what should you do to prepare for the Rorschach?
- Have at least an hour for the test
- Quiet area with no distractions
- Establish rapport
- Ask what they know about the Rorschach
- Investigate their knowledge of the Rorschach
- Clarify any misunderstandings
- “I want you to tell me what they look like to you” - Move to side-by-side seating, slightly behind
- Have the cards face down in order with card 1 at the top
What should you do if there is possible coaching or motivated distortion?
Ask directly about preparation
If so, decide whether to proceed
If proceed, ask client if willing to be honest and spontaneous
Be familiar with public availability of materials
What are the two phases in administration?
- Response phase (RP) - what might this be?
- Clarification phase (CP) - carefully worded questions to resolve coding ambiguities
Name three possible issues during the administration
Not allowing long silence when needed
Your location sheets are visible
You’re feeling ill and unable to focus
What are some things you should not say or do?
Avoid saying “ambiguous” or “unstructured”
Avoid saying there is no right or wrong answer (can say “different people see different things”)
Avoid saying “most people…can or should say or do something”
Do not mislead the client into thinking that imagination or creativity is be tested
What are some “don’ts” during the CP?
●Don’t ask questions that don’t have a purpose.
○ Target one or more specific coding categories
●Don’t ask too many questions
●Don’t keep going after a score you “know” must be there
●Don’t ask leading questions (“is it moving?” “are you using color?”)
What is most often the reason for coding problems?
Clarification problems
What are some common coding problems?
- Code how client saw this cloud at the time (not clouds in general)
- Code what is articulated and sometimes gestures (rubbing the card)
- Code what is on the card, not something off the card (although it doesn’t have to be seen, as long as it resides on the card)
- Code categories independent of each other
- Code what was seen in the RP - ignore CP information that contradicts the RP
- The goal is to code accurately, not necessarily to see it the way they do
- The Reasonably Certain Standard - if “reasonably certain,” code it (practice)
- Coding competence is necessary to know what needs clarification
How many studies have been done on Reliability of Rorschach scoring/coding over the years?
Over 85
Which study has been the most thorough and meticulous related to the reliability of the Rorschach?
Acklin, McDowell, Verschell, & Chan (2000)
What is the most critical aspect of coding for the Rorschach?
Interrater agreement (Inter-rater reliability)
