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Projective Tests
Course instructor: AASMA YOUSAF
Assistant Professor
Centre for Clinical Psychology
Projective Tests
 The term projective test goes back to Sigmund Freud’s (1900) conception of Projection: psychological mechanism by which an
individual “projects” inner feelings onto the external world, then imagines these feelings are being expressed by the outside
world towards oneself.
Tradition/Nature of Projective test
 Projective tests don’t have correct answers
 This is less structured
 This is more open ended
 More creative
 The more unstructured and more ambiguous the stimulus, the more an individual may express her or his deepest inner wishes,
anxieties and conflicts.
Types of Protective tests
 Rorschach inkblot test

 Thematic Apperception Test

 Draw-A-Person Test

 Sentence completion test

 House-Tree-Person
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 Free Association
 Dream Analysis
 Word Association
Thematic Apperception Test
 The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a projective psychological test.

 TAT taps a subject's unconscious to reveal repressed aspects of personality, inner derives, motives, needs and underline
conflicts and themes.
Henray Alexander Murray
 Was an American psychologist, born in 1893
 1938, he published “Explorations in personality”
 Established psychological clinic in 1949
 Received Gold Medal Award for life time achievement award from American Psychological Foundation
 Received Scientific Contribution Award from American Psychological Association
 Died from Pneumonia at the age of 95 in 1988
History of the TAT
 TAT was developed by the American psychologists Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan and their colleagues at the
Harvard Psychological Clinic in 1936.
 The early versions of the TAT listed Morgan as the first author, but later versions dropped her name due to personal conflict
between them.
 It is generally agreed, that the basic idea behind the TAT came from one of Murray's undergraduate student. The student
mentioned that her son had spent his time recuperating from an illness by cutting pictures out of magazines and making up
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stories about them. The student wondered whether similar pictures could be used in therapy to tap into the nature of a patient's
fantasies.
 After World War II, the TAT was adopted more broadly by psychoanalysts and clinicians to evaluate emotionally disturbed
patients.
 Later, in the 1970s, the Human Potential Movement encouraged psychologists to use the TAT to help their clients understand
themselves better and stimulate personal growth.
Murray’s Theory of Personality (Personology)
 Personality integrates and directs the person’s behavior.
 He emphasized biological basis as well as social environmental determinant of behavior.
 Interaction with the environment includes how people are affected by external forces and how their unique set of needs,
attitudes and values influences their reaction to the world around them.
Personology (Principles of Personology)
Study of human life and individual differences

Principles Description

First Personality is rooted in the brain. The individual’s cerebral physiology guides and governs every aspect of the
personality. Certain drugs can alter the functioning of the brain, and so the personality. Everything on which personality
depends exists in the brain, including feeling states, conscious and unconscious memories, beliefs, attitudes, fears, and
values.

Second The idea of tension reduction. Murray believed that a tension-free existence is itself a source of distress. We need
excitement, activity, and movement, all of which involve increasing, not decreasing, tension. We generate tension in
order to have the satisfaction of reducing it.

Third An individual’s personality continues to develop over time and is constructed of all the events that occur during the
course of that person’s life. Therefore, the study of a person’s past is of great importance.
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Fourth Personality changes and progresses; it is not fixed or static

Fifth Emphasized the uniqueness of each person while recognizing

similarities among all people. As he saw it, an individual human being is like no other person, like some other people,
and like every other person.

Theory of NEED and PRESS (separate handouts)

NEED PRESS
 Significant determinants of behavior  Environmental determinants/pressure
which reside in an individual. which elicit specific behavior from an
 Can provoke by internal processes or individual.
can be the result of specific  Alpha press (Reality)
environment.  Beta (Perception)
 Primary needs (Physical)
 Secondary needs (Psychological)
Need Theory: Types of Need
Primary Needs Secondary Needs
(viscerogenic needs) arise from internal bodily (psychogenic needs) arise indirectly from primary needs, but they
states and include those needs required for have no specifiable origin within the body.
survival (such as food, water, air, and harm
They are called secondary not because they are less important but
avoidance), as well as such needs as sex and
because they develop after the primary needs.
sentience.
Are concerned with emotional satisfaction

Need Theory: Types of Need

Primary Needs Secondary Needs
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(viscerogenic needs) arise from internal bodily states and (psychogenic needs) arise indirectly from primary needs, but they
include those needs required for survival (such as food, have no specifiable origin within the body.
water, air, and harm avoidance), as well as such needs as sex
They are called secondary not because they are less important but
and sentience.
because they develop after the primary needs.
Are concerned with emotional satisfaction
Personality Development in Childhood (Complexes)
Each stage leaves its mark on our personality in the form of an unconscious complex that directs our later development.
1. The claustral stage:
The fetus in the womb is secure, serene (peaceful), and dependent, conditions we may all occasionally wish to reinstate (restore).

Simple claustral complex Insupport Anticlaustral or egression

A desire to be in small, warm, dark places The form of the claustral complex centers on The form of the claustral complex is based
that are safe and secluded (isolated). People feelings of insecurity and helplessness that on a need to escape from restraining
with this complex tend to be dependent on cause womblike conditions. It includes a fear of
others, passive, and oriented toward safe, suffocation and confinement and manifests
the person to fear open spaces, falling,
familiar behaviors that worked in the past. itself in a preference for open spaces, fresh
drowning, fires, earthquakes, or simply any
Need for passivity and need for succorance air, travel, movement, change, and novelty.
situation involving novelty and change.
are prominent. Need for autonomy is prominent.

2. The Oral Stage

Simple claustral complex Insupport Anticlaustral or egression

A desire to be in small, warm, dark places The form of the claustral complex centers on The form of the claustral complex is based
that are safe and secluded (isolated). People feelings of insecurity and helplessness that on a need to escape from restraining
with this complex tend to be dependent on cause womblike conditions. It includes a fear of
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others, passive, and oriented toward safe, the person to fear open spaces, falling, suffocation and confinement and manifests
familiar behaviors that worked in the past. drowning, fires, earthquakes, or simply any itself in a preference for open spaces, fresh
Need for passivity and need for succorance situation involving novelty and change. air, travel, movement, change, and novelty.
are prominent. Need for autonomy is prominent.

3. The Anal Stage

Anal rejection complex Anal retention complex

There is a preoccupation with defecation (elimination), anal Is manifested in accumulating, saving, and collecting things, and
humor, and feces-like material such as dirt, mud, plaster, and in cleanliness, neatness, and orderliness.
clay. Aggression is often part of this complex and is shown in
Need for autonomy and retaining possession
dropping and throwing things, firing guns, and setting off
explosives. Persons with this complex may be dirty and
disorganized.

4. The Urethral Stage

Associated with excessive ambition, a distorted sense of self-esteem, exhibitionism, bedwetting, sexual cravings, and self-love. It is
sometimes called the Icarus complex, after the mythical Greek figure who flew so close to the sun that the wax holding his wings
melted. Like Icarus, persons with this complex aim too high, and their dreams are shattered by failure. Immorality and strong
narcissism.
5. The Genital or Castration Stage
Murray disagreed with Freud’s contention that fear of castration is the core of anxiety in adult males. He interpreted the castration
complex in narrower and more literal fashion as a boy’s fantasy that his penis might be cut off. Murray believed such a fear grows out
of childhood masturbation and the parental punishment that may have accompanied it.
The Division of Personality by Murray

ID Superego Ego
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Id contains the primitive, amoral, and The superego is shaped not only by The conscious organizer of behavior; this
lustful impulses described by Freud, but parents and authority figures, but also is a broader conception than Freud’s.
it also contains desirable impulses, such by the peer group and culture. Rational governor of the personality.
as empathy and love. The ego is more active in determining
Ego-ideal: A component of the superego
behavior than Freud believed.
that contains the moral or ideal
behaviors for which a person should
strive.

Purpose/Rationale of TAT
 Revealed some dominant drives, emotions, sentiments, complexes, imaginative process, cognitive style, family dynamic, inner
adjustment, general intelligence, sexual adjustment and conflicts of personality.
 Expose underlying inhibited tendencies.
Utility of TAT
 Comprehensive study of personality
 Interpretation of behavior disorders
 Psychosomatic illnesses
 Neurosis
 Psychosis
 Preface to a psychotherapeutic interviews or to a short psychoanalysis
 Individual assessments as well as group administration, the TAT is frequently used for research into specific aspects of human
personality, most often needs for achievement, fears of failure, hostility and aggression, and interpersonal object relations.
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 Although the TAT should not be used in the differential diagnosis of mental disorders, it is often administered to individuals
who have already received a diagnosis in order to match them with the type of psychotherapy best suited to their
personalities.
 The TAT can be given repeatedly to an individual as a way of measuring progress in psychotherapy or, in some cases, to help
the therapist understand why the treatment seems to be blocked.
Contemporary Applications of TAT
 Despite criticisms, the TAT remains widely used as a tool for research into areas of psychology such as dreams, fantasies, and
motivates people to choose their occupation. Sometimes it is used in a psychiatric or psychological context to assess
emotionally disturbed patients, personality disorders, thought disorders, in forensic examinations to evaluate crime suspects, or
to screen candidates for high-stress occupations. It is also commonly used in routine psychological evaluations, typically
without a formal scoring system, as a way to explore emotional conflicts and object relations.
 TAT is widely used in France and Argentina using a psychodynamic approach.

 The Israeli army uses the test for evaluating potential officers.

 It is also used by the Services Selection Board of India.

Test Material
 31 Cards/ Pictures
 Pictures in first series are simple
 Pictures in second series are more usual, dramatic and bizarre than those of the first.
 11 of the pictures (including blank card) have been found suitable for both sexes.
Age Range
 Between 14 and 40 years
 Some pictures are appropriate for ages 7-14 years.
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Time:
 1 hour to one series (2 sessions for administration of 20 or 21 cards)
 2nd session being separated by a day or more
Atmosphere of the testing situations
 Air of friendliness
 Aesthetic tone of the office and its furnishings
 Sex, age, manner, sympathies, appreciation
 Personality of the examiner
 Willingness
 Momentary creativity
 Motivation of the subject
Precautions in Administration
 Detailed instructions
 Subjects who are dull-witted, unresponsive, resistant or suspicious, who have never taken an educational or psychological test
had better be given a less imposing task (Intelligence Test, Mechanical Aptitude, Rorschach) before giving TAT.
 Children usually do better after several sessions spent in making up spoken fantasies with clay or toys.
 To be conservative in their interpretations, and "on the side of health" rather than of psychopathology when evaluating a
subject's responses.
 1992 Code of Ethics of the American Psychological Association requires examiners to be knowledgeable about cultural and
social differences.
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 Experts in the use of the TAT recommend obtaining a personal and medical history from the subject before giving the TAT.
For example, frequent references to death or grief in the stories would not be particularly surprising from a subject who had
recently been bereaved.
Administration
 Quiet room free from interruptions or distractions.
 The subject sits at the edge of a table or desk next to the examiner.
 The subject is seated in a comfortable chair or stretched out on a couch, preferably (except in the case of a child or psychotic
patients) with his back to the experimenter.
 The examiner shows the subject a series of story cards taken from the full set of 31 TAT cards.
 The original 31 cards were divided into three categories, for use with men only, with women only, or for use with subjects of
either sex. One card is completely blank.
 The first 10 cards are to be given one day, the second 10 on the subsequent day.
 The first 10 are more everyday-type scenes, whereas other 10 are more bizarre, strange and extraordinary.
 The subject is then instructed to tell a story about the picture on each card.
 The examiner keeps the cards in a pile face down in front of him or her, gives them to the subject one at a time, and asks the
subject to place each card face down as its story is completed.
 Administration of the TAT usually takes about an hour.
 If elements are omitted, particularly for children or individuals of low cognitive abilities, the evaluator may ask the subject
about them directly.
 The exact words of these instructions may be altered to suit the age, intelligence,. Personality and circumstances of the subject.
But it is better not to say at start.
 After finishing the first story the subject is commanded and then reminded of the instructions.
Card Pull
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 Card that seem to feature themes and issues more typical of the particular types of personality.
Instructions for the examiner
 Inform the subject when he/she is much ahead or behind the schedule.
 Encourage him with little praise
 It the subject omit some crucial details or circumstances, prompt him.
 Examiner may cut the story if that is too long.
 Subject should not be allowed to tell several short stories for a single pictures.
 Young children, people from other cultures and psychotics often need a good deal of encouragement before speaking.
 Administering test with extremely reticent children it is permissible to offer reward.
 For 2nd session the subject should not be told that he/she will again be asked to make up stories.

Instructions
 This is a test of imagination, one form of intelligence. I am going to show you some pictures, one at a time; and your task will
be to make up as dramatic a story as you can for each. Tell what has led up to the event shown in the picture, describe what is
happening at the moment, what the characters are feeling and thinking, and then give the outcome. Write your thoughts as they
come to your mind. You can write 250-300 words for each story.
 Length of the story
 Adults ____________________300 words
 10 year old children__________150 words
Scoring Systems
 The TAT is a projective test in that, like the Rorschach test, its assessment of the subject is based on what he or she projects
onto the ambiguous images.
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 To complete the assessment, each narrative created by a subject must be carefully recorded and analyzed to uncover
underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of reaction.
 Although most clinical practitioners do not use formal scoring systems, several formal scoring systems have been developed
for analyzing TAT stories systematically and consistently. Two common methods that are currently used in research are the:
 There are two basic approaches to interpreting responses to the TAT, called nomothetic and idiographic respectively.
 Nomothetic interpretation refers to the practice of establishing norms for answers from subjects in specific age, gender, racial,
or educational level groups and then measuring a given subject's responses against those norms.
 Idiographic interpretation refers to evaluating the unique features of the subject's view of the world and relationships.
 Most psychologists would classify the TAT as better suited to idiographic than nomothetic interpretation.
 In interpreting responses to the TAT, examiners typically focus their attention on one of three areas: the content of the stories
that the subject tells; the feeling or tone of the stories; or the subject's behaviors apart from responses. These behaviors may
include verbal remarks (for example, comments about feeling stressed by the situation or not being a good storyteller) as well
as nonverbal actions or signs (blushing, stammering, fidgeting in the chair, difficulties making eye contact with the examiner,
etc.) The story content usually reveals the subject's attitudes, fantasies, wishes, inner conflicts, and view of the outside world.
The story structure typically reflects the subject's feelings, assumptions about the world, and an underlying attitude of
optimism or pessimism.
Scoring Categories (10 variables)
1. Main Theme (Interpretative, descriptive, diagnostic, symbolic, elaborative)
2. Main hero
 Age
 Gender
 Occupation
 Ability
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 Skills
 Adequacy
 Self image/body image
3. Main needs and Drives of the Hero
 Behavioral needs
 Dynamic inference
 Figures, objects and environment introduced
o Dynamic inference
 Figures, objects and environment omitted
o Dynamic inference
4. Conception of the environment
5. Parental figure
6. Significant conflicts
7. Nature of anxieties (guilt, worry, fears etc.)
8. Main defenses against conflicts and fears (sublimation, displacement, denial, regression, suppression etc)
9. Severity of superego as manifested by punishment for crime being
 Severe
 Too Lenient
Manifestation of superego:
 Stammering
 Pauses
 Delay
10. Integration of the Ego, manifesting itself
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11. Thought process

 Structured
 Unstructured
 Complete
 incomplete
 Stereotype
 Consistent
 Flexible
 Logical
 Illogical
 Intelligence
o Defective
o Below average
o Average
o Above average
o Superior

Advantages of TAT
 It offers access to the covert and deeper structure of an individual’s personality.
 Less chances of faking
 The purpose is disguised and the subject often slackens his conscious defenses while releasing unconscious material.
 The focus is on the global nature of the personality, rather than on the objective measurement of specific trait and attitudes.
These includes not only emotional, motivational and interpersonal characteristics, but also general intellectual level, originality
and problem solving style.
 Ease of rapport. Most projective tests are regarded as intrinsically interesting and non threatening to the persona’s prestige
since there are no wrong answers.
Interpretation of TAT
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 The T.A.T. facilitates assessing the 10 different categories of personality functioning of Bellak's Scoring System, as well as
contributing to the assessment of verbal language, neuropsychological, and other dimensions.
 One assumption is that the less structured and more ambiguous the test stimuli, such as the Rorschach inkblots, the more
people are able to let go and reveal their deepest levels of psychopathology.
 Contrary to findings by Rapaport (1946), and in partial agreement with Eron's report (1948), schizophrenia does not appear to
be easily diagnosed as such from the T.A.T.
 If a patient is schizophrenic, the assumption is that the more structured stimulus of the T.A.T. will tend to show more ego
structure. An absence of facial features is another schizophrenic sign.
 The utter cruelty and bizarreness are again very suggestive and a strong indication of a schizophrenic process.
 In the T.A.T. stories of psychopaths, one usually finds little punishment for any aggressive act engaged in by the hero in the
story, evidence of a weakly integrated.
 Several other studies have noted similar T.A.T. characteristics of psychopathic defective criminals (Kutash, 1943) and of
juvenile delinquents
 It may be that the mechanism of denial is particularly the of choice in manic.
 In hysterics and hypomanic, on the other hand, we find a great deal of affect and a lively identification with the hero.
 Manic will often indicate strong tendencies of oral incorporation; very many references to food and getting things may appear
(although this is, of course, not pathognomonic at all).
 When the mechanism of avoidance is used, the T.A.T. material may be long and apparently very rich, yet it will defy analysis.
This is the experience with any form of output of manic or hypomanic.
 With manic and other predominantly oral character disorders, a most useful story may be one told to picture 11.
 Not infrequently, one will notice that obsessive-compulsives give their attention to small details in the pictures, and they will
often respond with more than one story to a picture.
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 Obsessive-compulsives give their attention to small details in the pictures, and they will often respond with more than one story
to a picture. We may also find that the storyteller stays distant and expresses sarcastic attitudes toward the hero, remaining
emotionally isolated himself or her- self.
 In depressed patients, suicidal themes, a depressed overall mood, and self-depreciation, along with other signs of a very strong
super- ego, may be apparent.
 Particularly of the C.A.T., where one may successfully predict anorexia as a clinical syndrome, although at times only a
detailed consideration of the defences permit us to differentiate between overeating and anorexia.
 In a study of psychoneurotics, Foulds (1953) found that hysterics started stories more quickly than depressives and told longer
stories at a quicker pace. Depressives produced more illness themes to picture 3GF than hysterics, who produced more themes
involving quarrels.
 He concluded that anxiety reactive produced a significantly greater number of themes of "man moving toward man, the
depressive reactive of man moving toward woman, the hebephrenic schizophrenics of man moving against man, and the
catatonic schizophrenics of no relationship between man and woman.
 There have been only a few studies of thematic test characteristics of individuals who are mentally retarded . They mostly
focus on the tendency to use concrete description of the picture stimulus, inflexible stereotyped narratives, and a paucity of
words.
 Paranoids' stories contained significantly more power imagery than those of the nonparanoids.
 Thought disturbances may become apparent in T.A.T. stories, when they are not discernible in conversation or in interviews.
Certain signs may also be considered as suggestive, but not conclusive, indicators-- for instance, reference to deadness .
 This type of response suggests a reflection of intrapsychic consciousness of lack of affect severe enough to be consistent with
the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Other studies of T.A.T. characteristics of schizophrenics is the tendency to avoid the nuclear
family.
 Finding these signs or criteria in the records of adolescents or artists who are not schizophrenic insofar as one can determine.
 The T.A.T. stories of adolescents deal with stage-related developmental conflicts of separation versus individuation,
dependency versus independence needs, loyalty to the peer group versus the desire to be unique, and the struggle with
emerging feelings of sexuality.
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 The majority of the adolescent T.A.T. studies stress the typical re-emergence of the preschool conflict of
separation/individuation and oedipal conflicts.
 It was R. N. Sanford who pointed out some important rules concerning the re- lationship between fantasy needs and behavioral
needs. There are certain needs that are usually high in fantasy and low in behavior--namely, those needs that are usually
prohibited and inhibited by cultural pressure from overt manifestation. These are mainly the needs of acquisition, aggression,
autonomy, and sexual activity; the wish to be taken care of; and the need for harm avoidance-- the last two suffering more
cultural repression in men. On the other hand, some needs may find little manifest expression in fantasy but much expression
in manifest behavior because of reality demands, such as the need for order, for avoiding social blame, for learning. Again,
there is a class of needs that may be high both in fantasy and in behavior, indicating that, while these needs are permitted and
encouraged socially, they may yet be sufficiently frustrated to need particular gratification of the fantasy level.
 Asthmatics showed significantly more hostility than normal on a measure of hostility relating to card 3; asthmatics showed
significantly more disturbance with the parent of the opposite sex than did normal, but none with the parent of the same sex;
and asthmatics and allergic both indicated general feelings of loneliness and rejection by the parents significantly more than
did normal.
Criticism
 Declining adherence to the Freudian principle of repression on which the test is based has caused the TAT to be criticized by
some professional psychologists.
 Their criticisms are that the TAT is unscientific because it cannot be proved to be valid (that it actually measures what it claims
to measure), or reliable (that it gives consistent results over time, due to the challenge of standardizing interpretations of the
narratives provided by subjects).
 Some critics of the TAT cards have observed that the characters and environments are out dated, even ‘old-fashioned,’ creating
a ‘cultural or psycho-social distance’ between the patients and the stimuli that makes identifying with them less likely.
 Also, in researching the responses of subjects given photographs versus the TAT, researchers found that the TAT cards evoked
more ‘deviant’ stories (i.e., more negative) than photographs, leading researchers to conclude that the difference was due to the
differences in the characteristics of the images used as stimuli.
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 In a 2005 dissertation, Matthew Narron, Psy.D. attempted to address these issues by reproducing a Leopold Bellak 10 card set
photographically and performing an outcome study. The results concluded that the old TAT elicited answers that included
many more specific time references than the new TAT.
Standard sequence of 10 cards (1,2,3BM,4,6BM,7GF,8BM,9GF,10,13MF)
Card 1

Card 2
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Card 3 (BM)
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Card 4
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Card 5 (6BM)
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Card 6 (GF)
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Card 7 (8BM)
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Card 8 (9GF)
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Card 9 (10)
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10 (13MF)
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Children's Apperception Test

• Developed in 1949 by Leopold Bellak and Bellak Specifically for children

• Most recent version of CAT was published in 1993.
• Today this version is known as CTA or CAT-A (for Animal)
• Consists of 10 pictures depicting animals, used for ages 3 to 10 years.
• 2nd version of CAT, CAT-H was developed in 1965 by Bellak and Bellak.
• CAT-H includes 10 pictures of human beings for same age group. But appeals especially to children aged 7-10 who may prefer
pictures of human to pictures of animals.
• Older children between the ages of 7 and 10 years may respond better to the pictures of human beings available in the
Children's Apperception Test-Human Figures (CAT-H).
• The test is always administered to an individual child; it should never be given in group form.
• The test is not timed but normally takes 20–30 minutes.
• Intended to measure the personality traits, attitudes and psychodynamic processes evident in pubertal children.
• The pictures are designed to illustrate the responses such as feeding problem more specifically, oral problems and problem of
siblings rivalry.
• To illuminate the attitude toward parental figure and the way on which these figures are apperceived (oedipal and Electra
complex).
• Child’s structure and his dynamic method of reaction to or handling of its problem of growth.
• Pictures are meant to encourage the children to tell stories related to competition, illness, injuries, body images and school
situations.
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• Pictures also draw out a child’s anxieties, fears and psychological defenses.
• It measures the dimensions of personality which include level of reality testing and judgment, control and regulation of drives,
defenses, conflicts, and level of autonomy.
Animal Figures as Stimuli
• Gender identity is more ambiguous. This ambiguity can allow for children to relate to all the child animals in the pictures
rather than just the human beings of their own sex.
• Animals play a large role in phobias, dreams and as children’s friends.
• Emotional relationships easier to handle and describe.
Difference between CAT and TAT Responses
CAT TAT
• Stimuli are animal and human figures • Stimuli are Human characters
• Stories are shorter and less complex • Long stories with complex illustration
• Structure of stories is poorer. • Bizarre content of stories is considered
• Stories reflect transitory problems, disturbed thought processes such as
developmental stages, phases of schizophrenia.
socialization & internalization of • Stories reflect complex interpersonal
superego. and intrapersonal conflicts,
• Children often express a moral in internalization of superego and
stories at 6 years of age. externalization of inner drives.
• Adult stories reflect either reaction
formation, undoing or punishment as
function of superego.
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