Which personality theory is associated with the use of projective tests such as the Rorschach test?

Not all personality tests involve answering statements with “strongly disagree” or “strongly agree.” Some personality tests don’t even use words to reveal what you are thinking. In this video, I’m going to talk about two of the most well-known projective tests: the Rorschach test and the TAT (aka, the Thematic Apperception Test.) These are more abstract tests that are still used today to dig deeper into our personalities and reveal some more serious conditions.

What Are Projective Tests?

Projective tests are personality tests that aim to look at what is happening beyond the conscious mind. Tests that ask us to evaluate ourselves require a lot of conscious thought, and these thoughts may be biased by how we want to perceive ourselves or what we might be ashamed to admit.

The answers to projective tests often seem silly or unrelated, but only because it is revealing a deeper, unconscious thought process that you are not aware of. If you complete a projective test yourself, you may not be able to directly pin the results to our personality or symptoms of a mental disorder; that is a therapist’s job.

While projective tests face criticism, they are still widely used by psychologists and experts, even in the criminal justice field. Let’s take a look at the two most well-known projective tests and what they can reveal about your personality.

Let’s start with the Rorschach Test.

The Rorschach Test

What do you see in this inkblot?

The Rorschach Test has been around since the 1920s. It’s named after its creator, a Swiss psychiatrist named Hermann Rorschach. He originally created the test to diagnose people with schizophrenia. The test didn’t really gain the widespread popularity it has now until the 1960s when the movement toward uncovering the unconscious took off.

At first, these ink blots were completely random. The therapist had ten cards, showed each individual card to a patient, and then asked for their response to the card. What did the patient see? How long did it take the patient to share their interpretation of the card? If the patient saw a dog or an explosion or a friend in the inkblots, the therapist would have to decipher what those interpretations meant.

Are Rorschach Tests Still Used?

The inkblots that professionals use today were created with more intention than Rorschach’s original ten. In 1961, a psychologist named Wayne H. Holtzman and his colleagues created a second set of inkblot tests. These contain 45 cards and offer therapists 22 elements to consider when scoring the test. These elements include the time it took to respond, the amount of sexual content in the patient’s answer, and any amount of bizarre thinking behind the response.

You are unlikely to see inkblot tests used in most psychology practices. If you are seeking out Rorschach tests, set up a consultation with local mental health professionals. Ask them directly if they use this method, or if they can refer you to someone who does!

Who Can Administer Rorschach Tests?

Patients who do not have a license to administer Rorschach tests may have a hard time deciphering the answers to the test, but a local professional may be able to help you through an inkblot test and tell you what your answers say about your personality.

How to Pronounce Rorschach Test

“Rorschach” is a German word. English speakers may pronounce it like “Roar-shah” with a slight “k” sound at the end.

Thematic Apperception Test

The thematic apperception test is the second type of projective test that is still used today. This test is almost as old as the Rorschach test; it was developed in 1930 by psychologist Henry A. Murray and psychoanalyst Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard University. The test was developed as one of the psychologists was studying Moby Dick. In the novel, two characters look at the image of a doubloon and see two different things. The author uses the interpretations to reveal information about each character.

The Thematic Apperception Test works in a similar way. Therapists pick a selection of black and white cards with ambiguous scenes on them. They show one card to the patient and ask them to create a story around the card. Patients must create a backstory, talk about the feelings of each character in the story, and come up with a resolution. All of this can reveal quite a bit about what the patient is thinking.

After the test was originally created, professionals used the TAT to help veterans and other patients recover after traumatic events. A few decades later, business leaders and personal development experts started to use the TAT to evaluate a person’s career aptitude and potential skills for the workplace.

Projective Tests vs Other Personality Tests

Unlike the Myers-Briggs assessment or other types of personality tests, projective tests can be hard to complete online. It would be hard to type an entire story online and automatically get back an accurate response about your personality or potential mental disorders. There is no algorithm that connects every potential response to an interpretation.

Rorschach tests may illicit common responses, but TAT tests have an infinite amount of answers. When Murray originally created the TAT, he would use a scoring system that would look at every specific sentence in the patient’s story. He had a list of 48 elements that he would identify and score based on their role in the story. Since he created this scoring method, seven other scoring methods have been created for the TAT.

What I’m trying to say is, that there is no magic deck of Rorschach or TAT cards that you and your friends can use to assess each others’ personalities…at least, not accurately. If you are interested in taking projective tests, reach out to a therapist in your area for an appointment. This is the best way to guarantee that you get accurate results from a certified professional who can explain why your answers reveal certain elements of your personality.

What do the Rorschach inkblot test and the thematic apperception test have in common?

Both of these personality tests are different for everyone. Every person who takes these subjective tests should have different answers, they all depend on the patient’s experiences, opinions, and life events.

What is the difference between the inkblot test and the TAT test?

The main difference is that the inkblot test requires the participant to explain what they see from a series of images, while the TAT test requires an entire story from a few images.

​Also, if you’re trying to compare and contrast the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test, you should know that the Rorschach test usually has ambiguous nonsense images, while the Thematic Apperception Test has pictures containing detailed scenes or characters.

Other Types of Projective Tests vs. Inkblot Rorschach Tests

The Rorschach Test and the TAT are only two types of projective tests that therapists and people can use to assess personalities. Other examples of projective tests include:

House-Tree-Person test

The concept of the house-tree-person test is simple. Ask a patient to draw a house, a tree, and a person. Once the task is done, however, things get more complicated. The idea of the house-tree-person test is to evaluate a person’s cognitive, social, and emotional functioning based on the ideas they project onto their house, person, and tree. This test has gone through many evolutions since it was first introduced to psychology in 1926.

Free association and word association

Asking the question, “what is your relationship like with your mother?” may yield different responses than simply saying the word “mother.” Sigmund Freud believed that certain questions and structures may censor a person’s true thoughts. He wrote frequently on the benefits of word association and free association.

Word association is like what you see in movies: the professional says a word, and the patient says the first word that comes to mind. Free association is a method in which the patient is encouraged to speak freely. They can just follow their stream of consciousness and see where it takes them.

Freud initially wrote about these ideas as an alternative to hypnosis. Through free association, the patient may still access their unconscious. The goal of free association is to unlock any memories or feelings that might be holding the patient back. Many of Freud’s theories centered around the idea that we may repress memories or be behaving in part due to our unconscious minds.

Try it right now. Say the following words out loud, one at a time, followed by the first word that comes to your mind. Does the word association bring up any interesting insights?

• Parent
• Career
• Future
• Past
• Me

You can also use this website to play around with word association!

Dream analysis

Sigmund Freud also believed he could access a patient’s unconscious through dream analysis and interpretation. All those dreams that you have had about your teeth falling out or being nude in your high school classroom? Freud thinks they are key pieces of information. A lot of his interpretation relied on symbols. Do you see the number 3 in your dream? That symbolizes the male genitalia. What about an umbrella? Also male genitalia. To be honest, most of the symbols in his dreams pointed in a phallic direction. Strange? Many people think so, too.

Modern psychologists don’t believe that dream interpretation reveals everything that Freud said it revealed. Other factors, including your diet and sleep position, may actually be influencing the content of your dreams. Still, dream analysis has become a part of pop culture. People like to interpret their dreams, and maybe they could shed some light on the stress that you’re feeling or worries you may be experiencing!

Filling in incomplete sentences

Julian Rotter and Janet E. Rafferty developed the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank test in 1950 to gain insight into a person’s personality. Subjects must complete 40 sentences in 20 minutes. This timed element of the test produces a similar result to quick word association. The subject must record the first thing that comes to mind, without censoring themselves.

Subjects cannot get a “score” on their test, but may certainly learn something new about themselves. If you are interested in trying out this test for yourself, you can download it!

Ready, Set, Take Some Projective Tests!

The process of taking projective tests can be more fun and exciting than taking a standard personality test where you can only agree or disagree with certain statements. Projective tests definitely open up doors that you might have been unaware of before. Different tests may also yield different answers. Most of these tests are not widely used in psychology today, so be sure to just have fun with your results. If you have serious concerns about your mental health, reach out to a professional.

Whether you take an inkblot Rorschach test or try something new, have fun!

Which personality theory is associated with the use of projective tests such as the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test?

What are projective tests such as the Rorschach test designed to assess?

What is projective test of personality?

What type of personality test is the Rorschach inkblot test quizlet?