Clinical Assessment:

Projective tests
Zoltan Kovary PhD
ELTE PPK
Department of Clinical Psychology and Addictology
2015/16 Autumn Semester

The basic forms of personality

tests used in clinical work

Objective tests

Simple scales
Beck Depression
Inventory (BDI)
Spielbergers StateTraits Anxiety Inventory
(STAI)
More complex inventories
Minnesota Multiphase
Personality Inventory
(MMPI)
Young Schema
Questionnaire (YSQ)

Projective tests

Associative

Jungs word association

test

Rorschach
Based on Choice

Completion

Picture Frustration Test

Sentence completion
methods

Constructive

Szondi test

Thematic Association Test

Expressive

Projective Drawings

The development of
projective methods

Leonardo da Vinci

E. Kraepelin

Using pictures

W. Stern

Word association test

Binet, 1886

Cracks on the wall

Clouds as stimuli in assessment

H. Rorschach, 1921

Investigation of the entire

personality

The projective tests

Lawrence K. Frank, 1939:

projextive tests

Investigating the entire

personality, abilities are
subordianated to global
orientation
The stimuli are not equivocal

Jung, Murray, Rorschach

The projection of latent wishes

and feelings

Its not the freudian

projection, rather a reflecting
attribution

The basic typi of projective

tests

Associative

Based on Choice

Picture Frustration Test

Sentence completion methods

Constructive

Szondi test

Completion

Jungs word association test

Rorschach

Thematic Association Test

Expressive

Projective Drawings

Features of projective tests

I.

Answers are not accidental

Indirect methods

The examinees answers are

containing his/her needs,
emotions, conflicts, defenses
(unconscious)
Free from manipulation, the
examinee doesnt know what
the answers refer to

The possible number of the

answers are infinite

No right or wrong answers

Features of projective tests II

Examines the whole

personality
The clinician is interpreting
along several dimensions
Needs, adaptation, ego
defence, diagnostic
marks
The psychological
phenomena appear
indirectly
E.g.: Agression in
perceptual specificies

Jungs Word Association

Test

The method of word

association

Word association
method in the turn of
19th-20th century
C.G. Jung: 1904-05
Psychoanalysis
100 words as stimuli reactions
Theory of complexes

The usage of word association

test

100 words as stimuli

Words as answers
Rection time
Evocation
Reaction time of
evocation

The sign of complexes in the

test

Increased rection time

Answering more than one
words
Incorrect expression of the
association
Strange linguistic and
metacommunicative
manifestations

Strange answers (like yes

or no)
The answer is mot
connected to the stimulus
Answer on a foreign
language
Lack of reaction
Repetition of the stimulus
Zay, 2002

PFT
Picture Frustration Test

Saul Rosenzweig (19072004)

Harvard Psychology Clinic,

1929-1934
Some Implicit Common
Factors in Diverse Forms of
Psychotherapy , 1936
Explorations in personality,
1938 (ed. Henry Murray)
Clark University, Worcester,
1938 1943 Picture
Frustration Test
1950: Idiodynamics
Freud, Jung and Hall the
Kingmaker

Theoretical background

Frustration

Agression

Primary
Secondary
Dollard & Miller
The possible directions of
aggressive response

Tolerance of frustration

GCR: Group Conformity

Rating
Biological and
psychogenetic factors
Ego weekness

Reactions to frustration I.
The direction of agressive reactions

Extra-, intro- and inpunitive

Patognomic features

Emotions and judgements

Dynamic and genetic basis

Not a personality type

Instintcs
Attitudes of identification

Psychopathological aspects

Modes of defence
Mental disorders
Libidinal types by Freud

A frusztrcira adott reakci II.

A reakci tpusa

Obstacle-Dominance
Ego-Defence
Need-Persistence

Structure and usage of PFT

24 drawings about
frustrating situations
Ego-blocking

Superego-blocking

1,3,4,6,8,9,11,12,13,14,
15,18,20,23,24
2,5,7,10,16,17,19,21

Instructions
Documentation

The notion of respones

O D

E-D

N-P

Extrapunitive

E, (E)

Intrapunitive

I, (I)

Inpunit

Interpretation
1.

GCR index

2.

Reaction type

3.

O-D+ (>60T) or O-D (<40T)

E-D+ (>60T) or E-D (<40T)
N-P+ (>60T) or N-P (<40T)

The directionion of agression

4.

Normal zone (40-60 T) or GCR+ ill.

E total + (>60T) or E total - (<40T)

I total + (>60T) or I total - (<40T)
M total + (>60T) or M total - (<40T)

The interpretation of the particular notions

(E, I, M, etc>60T)

Henry
Murray &
T.A.T.

Henry Murray (1893-1988)

Life historical context

Harvard Psychological Clinic

Personology
Needs
Themes
Press
Thematic dispositions
(idiographic approach)
Assessment
Thematic Apperception Test

Christiana Morgan
C.G. Jung
Herman Melville

The themes
The basic units of psychological processes
The connectivity of special needs and
special presses into uniqe themes

Press
Press
Press

Need
Need
Need

THEME

The birth of TAT

Explorations in personality, 1938

Dinamyc personality theory

1935-1943
Murray and Christiana Morgan
Needs, motives, wishes
Anxiety
Defences

Compromise formation

Dreams
TAT stories

Taking TAT test

Instruction

First session

We dont speak about

continuation

Second session

Active encouragement

Contains a white plate

Post test

Some TAT pictures

The process of signification in TAT

PROJECTION

ELABORATION IN
FANTASY

IDENTIFICATION

Analysis and interpretation

of contets

Motives of the protagonist

Basic needs
Special needs

Environmental effects
Solutions
Investment rate
Standards

Wishfulfillment
Compromise
Frustration

Themes

Classification according to the

special content of the pictures

Every picture refers to a

special theme
Grouping of the pictures

Anxiety
Agression
Sexuality
Attachment
Self-actualization
Gulity feelings
Family
Feminity
Self-esteem

Interpretation

Deeper layers of
personality

Fantasy/inner world

Latent wishes
ttteles megjelens
Indirect manifestations

Manifest behavior

Resistance

The Rorschach-test

The Rorschach - test

Hermann Rorschach (1884 - 1922)

1921 - Psychodiagnostics
In structuring the unsettled material
Our cognitive, behavioral and
our attitudinal habits are
prevailing unconsciously
Zulliger, 1950
Simplified (3 pictures)
Harrower, 1945
Choosing among answer
Bagdy & al
Rorschach for couples

The protocol of Rorschach-examination

Clinical question!!!
Building personal
contact with the
examinee
Taking the test

Circumstances
Process
Post-test

Nomination of the
records

The five aspects of the

nomination

I. The size of the blots

G, D, Dd, zw
Localization
II. Determinants
Shape, clour, shade,
motion
III. Content
52 categories
IV. Commonness
V. Special reactions

Interpretation

By indicators

Summation of the I-IV

coloumns

Sequential interpretation

On a plate

Qualities
Succession

Between plate

Qualities

According to the special

content of the particular
plates

Psychological judgement

Thank you for your

attention!