Week 13- Projective Techniques

Question 1

What is the definition of projection?

Answer 1

Unconscious defense against unacceptable impulses in self by ascribing them to individuals or objects external to self (Freudian)

Normal process in which inner states influence perception and interpretation of the external world

Question 2

What is perception

Answer 2

What the person responds to

Question 3

What is interpretation

Answer 3

How the person responds

Question 4

What do projective techniques do?

Answer 4

Require the client to respond to ambiguous (rather than structured) stimuli

Question 5

What is the projective hypothesis?

Answer 5

The client will project his characteristic thoughts, feelings onto the material.
Go through perception and then interpretation.

Question 6

What are the two influences on projective techniques?

Answer 6

Theoretical development

Psychometric v clinical tradition

Question 7

What is theoretical development?

Answer 7

Makes up of psychoanalytic theory. Access to sub conscious.

Gestalt or holistic theories

Question 8

What is psychometric vs clinical traditional?

Answer 8

• Psychometric- Standardised measurement; reliability and validity; focus on normal characteristics; search for traits.
• Clinical- Careful, detailed study of the individual; focus on disturbed individuals; less interest in precise measurement; holistic approach. Individual as a whole rather than trait based.

Question 9

What do projective techniques have in common?

Answer 9

• Stimuli are vague or ambiguous
• Use of an unstructured task – a task that permits an unlimited variety of possible
responses
• Use disguised testing procedures
• Characterised by a global approach to the assessment of personality
• Regarded as effective in revealing covert or unconscious aspects of personality
• Primarily used as a clinical tool

Question 10

What are the advantages of projective techniques over self-reports?

Answer 10

• Capacity to bypass or circumvent the conscious defenses of respondents
• Capacity to allow clinicians privileged access to important psychological
information of which respondents are unaware

Question 11

What is the inkblot technique used and describe

Answer 11

Rorschach
An association technique- the stimulus triggers an association between it and concepts, memories etc
already held
10 symmetrical inkblots on separate cards: 5 black and white; 2 contain red; 3 combine pastel shades
• Two phases
• Association (Uses existing knowledge to help make sense)
• Inquiry

Question 12

How is the rorschach scored in common?

Answer 12

-Location- where the respondant got their response
• Determinants- why they came up with the response
• Content- humans, animals?
• Look at commonly used responses.

Question 13

What are the criticisms of the rorshach for norms, reliability and validity?

Answer 13

Norms- over pathologising of normal adults, insufficient representation of minorities
Reliability- scorer reliability fine. Test-retest reliability for 40%
Validity: Most problematic because of different systems of scoring and interpreting; and variety of uses. A recent meta-analysis (Mihura et al., 2013) found 40 variables had good to excellent support for
their validity (mean r = .27) while 13 variables had little or no support when compared against
externally assessed criteria (e.g., observer ratings, diagnoses)

Question 14

What is the Thematic Apperception test?

Answer 14

31 cards – 20 are used for testing
• 19 cards containing ambiguous pictures in black and white and one blank
card
• Two 1-hour sessions with 10 cards in each session
• Respondents construct a story: what lead up to the scene, what the characters
are thinking and feeling, what will be the outcome. A construction technique: story-telling; require complex cognitive activities

Question 15

How do you interpret the Tat?

Answer 15

Content analysis: Hero- who is the hero? who is the person the respondent has idenitified him or herself with in the scneario. Needs are forces which organise perception, thought and action to resolve unsatisfactory situations e.g. need for affiliation or achievation. Press

Question 16

What are the comments on the tat?

Answer 16

Non-personality variables can influence the stories told
• Personal variables: gender, social class (influence content and length of stories)
• Situational variables (likely to bleed into the stories.)
• Interpreting themes is confounded by fantasy and inhibition – Validity becomes
difficult to establish
• Interpreters tend to overpathologise

Question 17

On need based scoring schemes, how is reliability examined?

Answer 17

Scorer reliability around .8 to .9
• Internal consistency: rarely exceeds .3 to .4
• Test-retest reliability over intervals of several weeks: generally in the .30
range

Question 18

On need based scoring schemes for tat, how is validity examined?

Answer 18

Construct validity:
• metaanalysis of correlations from 36 studies of TAT vs. self-report achievement
indexes: mean correlation of .09 (sig.)
• Metaanalysis of correlations from 105 studies of TAT vs. behavioural outcomes:
mean correlations of .19 and .22

Question 19

What is the sentence completion tests?

Answer 19

Good for Attitudes, motives, and conflicts rather than the general structure of personality

Stems
• Allow a wide variety of possible completions
• Are usually formulated to elicit responses relevant to the personality domain of
interest

Question 20

What is the advantage of the sentence completion over the tat and the roar shark

Answer 20

Higher variety of items

Question 21

What is the rotter incomplete sentences blank?

Answer 21

Personal adjustment or emotional stability
• 40 sentence stems
• “Complete these sentences to express your real feelings. Try to do every one.
Be sure to make a complete sentence”
• Each completion rated on a 7-point scale – manual provides specimen
responses

Question 22

What are the comments on the RISB

Answer 22

• Reliability (GOOD)
• Test-retest
• .82 over a 1 -2 week period
• .70 over 6 months
• Scorer: .72 -.99
• Coefficient alpha: .69
• Validity
• little evidence available

Question 23

What is Draw a Person Test

Answer 23

• Have in common:
• Ask respondent to draw one or more people
• Administered and scored relatively quickly
• Machover, 1949: A sign approach- “draw a person”- “draw a person of the opposite sex”
• Qualitative interpretation: draws inferences from isolated features of the
drawings
• Koppitz, 1968: A global approach
• Children and adolescents- 30 “emotional indicators” that distinguish between children with and without emotional problems (n = 1856)
• Maladjustment score – a general indicator of emotional instability – not
diagnostic

Question 24

What are the comments on DAP

Answer 24

Norms
• Available for some techniques
• Reliability
• Scorer reliability: variable- not too bad
• Test-retest reliability: adequate for global features, problematic for specific features
• Internal consistency: moderate to acceptable
• Validity
• Conclusion is that indicators from D-A-P techniques have negligible validity
• e.g., no correlation between Machover’s signs of personality disturbance in D-A-P and other indicators of disturbance
• Some evidence for modest validity of global scoring approaches
• e.g., poor quality of overall drawing and psychopathology
• Responses open to influence of situational variables → construct validity?