PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUE -a way of revealing a person’s unconscious thoughts

Projective techniques are psychological assessment tools used to uncover the hidden thoughts,
emotions, and desires of individuals by presenting them with ambiguous stimuli.

Origins in Psychoanalysis (Late 19th - Early 20th Century)

 Sigmund Freud's Influence: The concept of projection, where individuals attribute their
unacceptable thoughts and feelings onto others, is rooted in Freudian psychoanalysis.
Freud's work on the unconscious mind laid the foundation for projective techniques.
 Early Use: Before formal projective tests were developed, techniques like dream analysis
and free association in psychoanalysis were used to explore the unconscious.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A projective technique in which the participant is presented with 10 unstructured inkblots (half in
black and gray and half including color) and is asked “What might this be?”

CARDS AND CARD DETAILS:

There are 10 official ink-blots, each printed on a separate whit card, approximately 18 by 24 cm
in size Each of ink-blots has near perfect Bilateral symmetry.

Five ink-blots are of Black ink

Two are of Black and Red ink

Three are Multi-coloured, on the white background.

This method is useful in revealing markedly deviant personality.

A record of the responses, and exact details of the time elapsed between the presentation of each
card and the first responses to it, length of time in long pauses between responses, total time
required for each card

HISTORY :Hermann Rorschach

 Hermann Rorschach, a German psychologist, developed a method for assessing
mental disorders using inkblots.
 He discovered that patients with schizophrenia responded differently to the blots,
leading him to investigate using them to create profiles for different mental disorders.
 He experimented with a large number of blots and administered them to 288 mental
hospital patients and 117 nonpatients.
His findings were published in a 1921 monograph called Psychodiagnostics, which laid the
foundation for the current practice of Rorschach assessment.
 Thematic Apperception Test

projective test, developed by Henry Alexander Murray and his associates, in which participants
are held to reveal their attitudes, feelings, conflicts, and personality characteristics in the oral or
written stories they make up about a series of ambiguous black-and-white pictures. Prior to
administering the test, the examiner assures the participant that there are no right or wrong
answers and indicates that the narratives should have a beginning, middle, and ending. At the
end, the stories are discussed to elucidate themes and patterns. Systematic coding schemes, with
demonstrated reliability and validity, have been developed to assess different aspects of
personality functioning derived from TAT stories, including motivation for achievement, power,
affiliation, and intimacy; gender identity; defense mechanisms; and mental processes influencing
interpersonal relations. The TAT is one of the most frequently used and researched tests in
psychology, particularly in clinical settings for diagnosing disorders, describing personality, and
assessing strengths and weaknesses in personality functioning.

Card details :

The selection of cards may be idiosyncratic to the patient's presenting problem or based on
previous information derived from relevant history or other test data.

For example, if depression and suicide are significant issues for the client, the examiner might
administer cards 3BM, 13B, and 14

The TAT was intended to be administered in an interpersonal setting in which subjects verbally
respond to pictures presented to them.

The TAT materials consist of 20 cards on which ambiguous pictures are printed.

The cards are numbered so that 20 cards can be presented to four different groups: adult males,
adult females, boys, and girls.

The back of each card is coded with a number and/or letters to designate which sex and/or age
group the card is intended for.

A number without a letter indicates the card is to be administered to all subjects regardless of age
or sex.

A number with "M" or "F" designates that the card is intended for males or females, and "B" or
"G" designates boys or girls, respectively.
There may also be a number and either BM or GF, indicating the card is to be given to
boys/males or girls/ femal

Key note Description

• M Males
• F Females
• B Boys
• G Girls
• BM Boys/Males
• GF Girls/Females

HISTORY

it was developed by American psychologists Henry A. Murray and Christina D. Morgan at

Harvard University in the 1930s.1 The TAT is one of the most widely researched and clinically
used personality tests.

Figure Drawing Method

Any test in which the participant draws a human figure, used as a measure of intellectual
development or as a projective technique

A HISTORICAL JOURNEY:

The exact origin of using figure drawings for psychological assessment remains

unknown

Scoring:

Structural data : Focuses on objective features of the drawings, such

as,

Line quality : Heavy or light, continuous or broken.

Size of figures : Large or small.

Placement of figures on the page: Middle, top, bottom, side.

EMPHASIS OR OMISSION OF BASIC PARTS: Missing hands, disproportionately small

head, etc.
THEMATIC IMAGERY : Emerges when individuals describe their drawings. This can reveal:
EMOTIONAL STATE : Describing a figure as "sad" might indicate depressive symptoms.
SELF-ESTEEM : A comment like "not growing as tall as most trees"
might suggest low self-esteem.
OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS : Anxiety, insecurity, etc.
BEHAVIORAL DATA : Analyzes how individuals approach the task
and interact with the examiner:
Drawing speed : Slow or rapid.
Carefulness : Meticulous or careless.
Attitude : Eager or reluctant.
Comments : Compliant, deprecatory, etc.

DRAW- A- PERSON TEST

The Draw-A-Person (DAP) test is a projective psychological assessment tool used to gain
insights into an individual’s cognitive, emotional, and developmental functioning. It involves
asking the person to draw a human figure, typically without any specific instructions or
guidelines, and then analyzing the resulting drawing.
Individual’s perception of self and others, body image, cognitive abilities, emotional expression,
and developmental level

THE HOUSE TREE PERSON TEST

The House-Tree-Person (HTP) test is a projective psychological assessment tool used to gain
insights into an individual's personality, emotions, and cognitive functioning. It involves asking
the person to draw a house, a tree, and a person, and then analyzing the resulting drawings. The
HTP test aims to gather information about the individual's self-perception, emotional
experiences, interpersonal relationships, and cognitive organization

THE KINETIC FAMILY DRAWING TEST

The Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) test is a projective psychological assessment tool that allows
individuals, typically children, to express their perceptions and dynamics within their family
through drawing. understanding the child's perceptions and experiences related to their family
system. It provides a means for the child to express their thoughts, emotions, and observations
regarding family relationships and dynamics.

SENTENCE COMPLETION TEST

According to APA:

A test in which the participant must complete an unfinished sentence by filling in the
specific missing word or phrase. The test is typically used to evaluate personality. The
participant is presented with an introductory phrase to which they may respond in any way. An
example might be “Today I am in a __ mood.” As a projective test, the sentence-completion test
is an extension of the word-association test in that responses are free and believed to contain
psychologically meaningful material. Also called incomplete-sentence test.
 HISTORY
• Developed initially in the context of constructing intelligence measures for children. -
Hermann Ebbinghaus created early sentence completion tasks, later included by Binet
and Simon in their intelligence scale.
• Expansion to Personality Assessment: Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung proposed using
word associations to assess personality. - Grace Kent and Aaron Rosanoff formalized the
association method in the United States with a Free Association Test.-
• Evolution into Sentence Completion Methods: Early sentence completion tests were
developed by Arthur Payne, Alexander Tendler, and Amanda Rohde in the late 1920s to
early 1940s. - Rohde's Sentence Completion Test was the first validated measure for
general personality assessment.
• Prominent Early Tests: Sacks Sentence Completion Test, Forer Structured Sentence
Completion Test, and Miale-Holsopple Sentence Completion Test helped shape the
format of sentence completion methods.
• Contemporary Usage: Sentence completion methods remain relevant, RISB and
WUSCT being notable examples. Widely used in clinical psychology, especially in
evaluations of young people and forensic assessments.
• Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB): Developed by Julian Rotter
primarily for screening purposes, initially for army convalescent hospital patients.
Later adapted for college, adult, and high school populations.
Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT): Designed by Jane Loevinger
for research purposes to operationalize elements of her stage theory of ego development. Used to
assess psychosocial maturity and has been utilized in personality research