Color blindness and Rorschach color responsivity

Color vision deficits occur in 10% of the American white male population. Thus, color blindness may invalidate diagnostic hypotheses generated from Rorschach data. The Rorschach protocols of 43 white, college male color-blind subjects were compared to the protocols of normally sighted controls. The color-blind group manifested fewer pure "C" responses. No significant between group differences emerged for any of the other primary Rorschach color variables. Pure "C" responses rarely figure prominently in Rorschach evaluations, and the apparent lowered frequency of these responses by the color-blind is insufficient to warrant modification of current Rorschach practice. The data suggest that color blindness is unlikely to confound Rorschach assessment.     

颜色偏好的性别差异研究进展

颜色偏好是人在心理上所喜爱或偏好的颜色,性别是影响颜色偏好的重要因素之一。本文区分一般人群和特殊人群,结合不同的心理发展阶段,评述对抽象颜色和具体物色的偏好的性别差异研究进展,具体比较了打猎者-采摘者理论、视锥-对立对比成分理论、性别图式理论以及生态效价理论等,并且讨论分析了以往研究者在内容和理论解释等方面存在的不足。未来研究者应采用多元化的方法,深入探索颜色偏好性别差异的机制,期望整合得到解释力更强的理论观点。     

A Semantic Differential Investigation of Color on the Holtzman

This study was an attempt to find evidence of subjective color disturbance on the Holtzman Inkblot Test. Two tests of anxiety and one of neuroticism were administered to 129 male undergraduates. Those Ss scoring in the extreme ranges on each instrument were classified as high and low groups.

Eight entirely chromatic cards from the Holtzman and their achromatic photographic reproductions served as experimental stimuli while 15 cards (15 mixed chromatic-achromatic cards) served as buffers. The degree of subjective disturbance elicited by each card was determined by means of a semantic differential composed of 16 pairs of bi-polar adjectives.

It was found by means of X² analyses that no significant differences appeared between the two groups of Ss when either the chromatic or achromatic stimuli were rated separately. When a difference measure between the two types of stimuli was employed, both groups rated the chromatic cards in more favorable terms. In the discussion, it was suggested that “novelty shock” might be a more appropriate term than color shock and that traditional color shock indices may be artifacts inherent in Rorschach stimuli and administration. Some suggestions for clarifying the possible interrelationship between neurotic symptomatology and emotional reactions to chromatic stimuli through empirical approaches were advanced.     

Effects of university affiliation and “school spirit” on color preferences: Berkeley versus Stanford

The ecological valence theory (EVT) posits that preference for a color is determined by people’s average affective response to everything associated with it (Palmer & Schloss, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 8877–8882, 2010). The EVT thus implies the existence of sociocultural effects: Color preference should increase with positive feelings (or decrease with negative feelings) toward an institution strongly associated with a color. We tested this prediction by measuring undergraduates’ color preferences at two rival universities, Berkeley and Stanford, to determine whether students liked their university’s colors better than their rivals did. Students not only preferred their own colors more than their rivals did, but the degree of their preference increased with self-rated positive affect (“school spirit”) for their university. These results support the EVT’s claim that color preference is caused by learned affective responses to associated objects and institutions, because it is unlikely that students choose their university or develop their degree of school spirit on the basis of preexisting color preferences.     

The Effect of Color on the Production of Responses to Rorschach Cards VIII,IX, and X in Age Groups of 11–12 and 15–16 Years

The effect of color on the production of responses to the Rorschach task has been considered by investigators from 2 different positions: (a) that color has little effect on the production of responses, and (b) that color increases the number of responses. Some previous results found by the current investigators have supported the first position for the last 3 fully colored Rorschach cards (VIII, IX, and X), in children from 5 to 12 years old. Other studies of ours, however, have confirmed the second position for these same cards with a group of young adults 17 to 23 years old. As there was no increase of responses up to age 12, for this study we hypothesized a developmental effect in adolescence such that there would be an increase in the production of responses to the colored Rorschach cards at the age of 15 to 16 years, and this is what the results indicate. From a pragmatic standpoint, these results imply a revision of interpretive meaning for the Color and Affective Ratio variables in children's protocols. Our results also indicate that color cannot be regarded as a means of expression of affect at age 11 to 12 like it will be from age 15 to 16 and on.     

A Thematic Test and the Rorschach in Predicting Marital Choice

Nineteen upper-middle class college couples who were engaged or going “steady” received a specially constructed thematic test as well as the Baughman modification of the Rorschach. Sixteen thematic and 47 Rorschach variables were scored. It was predicted that actual couples would show significantly smaller discrepancies from each other than randomly paired men and women. Eight significant values resulted relating to emotional tone and adequacy on the thematic test and color and form on the Rorschach. Based on these findings and on the constricted scores for many variables, the modest statistical significance is believed to be an underestimate of the true significance. Perception scores may be a valuable adjunct to questionnaires and inventories in predicting marital choice.     

Projection,Play and Poetry

Ninety-two elderly Ss ranging in age from 57 to 92 were examined in an effort to find a battery of psychological tests which would effectively measure their level of intactness or deterioration of function. Five tests were used: the Rorschach, Gesell Incomplete Man Test, Bender Gestalt, Monroe's Visual Three, and the Color Tree Test. Ss were identified as normal adult, intact presenile, medium presenile and deteriorated on the basis of their Rorschach response. To check on the adequacy of this sorting, responses of each group were averaged for each of the other four tests. Differences between the several groups, on every test, were significant at the .001 level as measured by the median test.     

颜色词与颜色认知的关系:相互作用理论及其证据

颜色词与颜色认知的关系是探讨语言与认知关系的重要领域.对颜色词与颜色认知的关系,普遍进化理论认为,颜色词与颜色认知相互独立;语言关联性假设认为,颜色词对颜色认知有重要影响;折衷的理论认为,颜色认知既受光波的物理属性影响,又受人眼的生物特性影响,还受语言和文化影响.在国内外研究基础上,作者提出了颜色词与颜色认知关系的相互作用理论,认为颜色认知包括物理-生理、认知-智力、社会-文化三个水平,涉及物理、生理、认知、智力、语言和文化六个因素;三个层次、六个因素的相互作用,为人们提供了丰富多彩的颜色世界.     

Color measurement and color theory: I. Representation theorem for Grassmann structures

For trichromatic color measurement, the empirically based structure consists of the set of colored lights, with its operations of additive mixture and scalar multiplication, and the binary relation of metameric matching. The representing numerical structure is a vector space. The important axioms are Grassmann's laws. The vector representation is constructed in a canonical or coordinate-free manner, mainly using Grassmann's additivity law. Trichromacy is used only to fix the dimensionality.Color theories attempt to get a more unique homomorphism by enriching the basic empirical structure with new empirical relations, subject to new axioms. Examples of such enriching relations include: discriminability or dissimilarity ordering of color pairs; dichromatic matching relations; and unidimensional matching relations, or codes. Representation theorems for the latter two examples are based on Grassmann-type laws also. The relationship between a Grassmann structure and its unidimensional Grassmann codes is modeled by the relationship between a vector space and its dual space of linear functionals. Dual spaces are used to clarify theorems relating to the three-pigment hypothesis and to reduction dichromacy.     

Short-term and long-term attentional biases to frequently encountered target features

It has long been known that frequently occurring targets are attended better than infrequent ones in visual search. But does this frequency-based attentional prioritization reflect momentary or durable changes in attention? Here we observed both short-term and long-term attentional biases for visual features as a function of different types of statistical associations between the targets, distractors, and features. Participants searched for a target, a line oriented horizontally or vertically among diagonal distractors, and reported its length. In one set of experiments we manipulated the target’s color probability: Targets were more often in Color 1 than in Color 2. The distractors were in other colors. Participants found Color 1 targets more quickly than Color 2 targets, but this preference disappeared immediately when the target’s color became random in the subsequent testing phase. In the other set of experiments, we manipulated the diagnostic values of the two colors: Color 1 was more often a target than a distractor; Color 2 was more often a distractor than a target. Participants found Color 1 targets more quickly than Color 2 targets. Importantly, and in contrast to the first set of experiments, the featural preference was sustained in the testing phase. These results suggest that short-term and long-term attentional biases are products of different statistical information. Finding a target momentarily activates its features, inducing short-term repetition priming. Long-term changes in attention, on the other hand, may rely on learning diagnostic features of the targets.     

Prognostic validity of the Rorschach

Fifty adult stutterers entering therapy at the UCLA Psychology Clinic were administered the Rorschach, with a Klopfer method inquiry, scoring, form level rating, and calculation of scores on the Rorschach Prognostic Rating Scale (RPRS). On the basis of independent clinician ratings of attitudinal or psychotherapeutic improvement, subjects were divided into groups of Improved Most (n = 21) and Improved Least (n = 29). Subjects were also divided into Continued (n = 43) and Dropped (n = 7). Logistic regression was employed to compare groups on the following Rorschach dimensions: Prognostic Score (RPRS); Human Movement; Animal Movement; Inanimate Movement; Shading; Color; Form Level. The Improved Most group was significantly higher in M, FM, Shading, and Productivity. The finding that M and FM discriminates between improvement groups corroborates results obtained in a previous study (Sheehan et al., 1954). The Rorschach movement variables, particularly M and FM, seem to be stable indicators of capacity for improvement in psychotherapy.     

A Psychophysiological Investigation of the Rorschach Colour and Form Determinants

The Rorschach colour-emotion and form-control hypotheses were investigated by determining whether subjects would react differently psychophysiologically while giving colour dominant or form responses. Slides of the Rorschach plates no. II, III, V, VIII, IX and X were presented to 42 subjects while respiration (as control only) vasomotor changes, skin resistance and heart rate were recorded. All physiological changes (except respiration) found in conjunction with Rorschach C, CF, FC, and F responses were transformed to Lacey's autonomic lability scores. Some indications of different physiological reactions to colour and form were found. The results indicated the possible existence of “emotional” and “controlled” groups of subjects who tended to react differently, verbally and physiologically, to the Rorschach stimuli.     

Scoring accuracy using the comprehensive system for the Rorschach.

The Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1974, 1978) for scoring Rorschach responses is the most widely taught and most widely accepted system in use today. The complexity and labor- intensive nature of the CS makes the issue of scoring accuracy a central concern. Twenty-one graduate psychology students and 12 professionals scored 20 Rorschach responses drawn from normal and clinical protocols. In general. accuracy scores for both students and professionals were below acceptable levels. Accuracy scores were clearly better for the code categories of Location, DQ, Pairs, Popular, and Z than for Determinants, FQ, Content, and Special Scores. Responses from clinical protocols were subject to more error. The results suggest that high levels of scoring errors may exist in the field use of the CS. Training standards may need to be devised to insure scoring competence.     

Extending Color Psychology to the Personality Realm: Interpersonal Hostility Varies by Red Preferences and Perceptual Biases

The color psychology literature has made a convincing case that color is not just about aesthetics, but also about meaning. This work has involved situational manipulations of color, rendering it uncertain as to whether color‐meaning associations can be used to characterize how people differ from each other. The present research focuses on the idea that the color red is linked to, or associated with, individual differences in interpersonal hostility. Across four studies (N = 376 undergraduates), red preferences and perceptual biases were measured along with individual differences in interpersonal hostility. It was found that (a) a preference for the color red was higher as interpersonal hostility increased, (b) hostile people were biased to see the color red more frequently than nonhostile people, and (c) there was a relationship between a preference for the color red and hostile social decision making. These studies represent an important extension of the color psychology literature, highlighting the need to attend to person‐based, as well as situation‐based, factors.     

Color preferences, extraversion, and neuroticism of art students.

Color preferences of 190 art students (G?tz & G?tz, 1974, 1975) were compared with the corresponding scores on extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N). It was found that the preferences of a group of 27 highly gifted young artists were different from preferences of average and less gifted Ss who had little or no artistic practice. In the latter group extraverts and ambiverts mainly preferred primary and secondary colors (light clear and dark clear tones included), while introverts preferred tertiary colors (earth colors) and achromatics. However, in the group of highly gifted Ss no significant differences between positive and negative rankings in both color categories were found. Neuroticism had no effect on color preferences; this holds for introverts and extraverts and for each single color.     

颜色偏好研究进展

颜色偏好是人在心理上所喜爱或偏好的颜色。人们对抽象颜色、具体物色都会表现出偏好;性格、性别、年龄、文化等因素会影响颜色偏好。以往研究者在研究内容、研究材料、研究条件尚存不足,这正是今后研究的方向。     

Symposium: Research In Projective Techniques

Psychotic and nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients were tested on the Rorschach. "Reality-testing" was measured by four form-level scoring systems designed by Beck, Mayman, Becket, and Wilensky, The psychotic subjects were dichotomized on three diagnostic dimensions: schizophrenia, paranoia, and premorbid social adjustment. No significant differences were found for the Beck system. With the other systems, psychotics showed significantly poorer reality testing than nonpsychotics. No differenced were found for the schizophrenic and paranoid dimensions. The Phillips premorbid adjustment score was negatively correlated with all four measures of "reality-testing." The conclusion drawn was that Rorschach measures of "reality-testing" are associated with psychotic and poor premorbid functioning, but do not differentiate schizophrenic from nonschizophrenic psychotics or paranoid schizophrenics from nonparanoid schizophrenics.     

Multimethod Assessment of Depression in Sexually Abused Girls

This study measured depression in sexually abused Black girls using the Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs & A. T. Beck, 1977), the Internalization scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983), and the Rorschach Depression Index (Exner, 1986). There were no significant correlations between these self-report, behavior observation (by parental report), and projective measures. The abused subjects had high scores on the behavior observation and Rorschach scales. Consistent with past research, negative results were obtained with the self-report instrument. We suggest that the low scores on self-report measures of distress produced by sexually abused children may be the result of guardedness or defensiveness rather than a genuinely low level of dysphoria in this population. There were no significant relations between abuse characteristics and scores on the depression measures. Scores on Rorschach measures of organizational activity (Zf) and available coping resources (EA) were generally positively related to depression within the abuse group and negatively related to depression within the control group.     

Alexithymia and sociocultural factors in a Japanese sample: a study with the Rorschach

We reexamined the Japanese version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, a self-report sc ale for measuring alexithymic characteristics, by comparing the scores on three factors and the total scores with variables of the Rorschach in a sample of 40 (originally 48) Japanese college students. Based on prior studies, our aims were to further validate the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale by comparing its scores with those on a projective technique. We also investigated whether sociocultural factors, such as repression of hostility. are associated with scores on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (especially Factor 3). None of the seven Rorschach Alexithymia Variables were significantly related to the factors and total scores of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. However, scores for Factor 1 (difficulty identifying feelings) of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale correlated positively with scores on Sum C' (reserved responses to emotional stimuli) and Adj es (stimulus demand), suggesting that individuals who score high for Factor 1 experience gloomy, depressive feelings but in constricted ways. Scores for Factor 3 (externally oriented thinking) correlated positively with the D scores (stress tolerance) and negatively with m (situational stress) responses, suggesting that Factor 3 may reflect a psychological defense that enhances stress tolerance. There was a nonsignificant negative correlation between Factor 1 and Factor 3 scores, but, unlike our hypothesis. Factor 3 was neither related to AG (aggression) nor S (space responses reflecting oppositional tendency), indices of aggression or hostility in the Rorschach Comprehensive System. It may be that the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Rorschach measure quite different aspects of personality, but further research is necessary.