Searching for Projection in the Rorschach

The issue of assumptions concerning projection and the Rorschach is discussed in relation to the Rorschach response process and the process of projection. Some data suggest that some minus answers may evolve because of projection, but the limited nature of the findings indicate that these types of projected answers will be difficult to identify in most cases. Findings concerning passive and aggressive movement responses, morbid content responses, and movement answers, coded using a new special score for positive cooperative interaction (COP) in human and animal movement responses, suggest that most projections will manifest in responses that depart from and/or embellish the stimulus field. Caution is recommended about attempting to interpret single answers that appear to be projections, because most any might be the product of simple stimulus classification.     

Research on the clinical usefulness of the Rorschach: 2. The assessment of cerebral dysfunction

A review of research on the use of the Rorschach in the assessment of cerebral dysfunction indicated that the Rorschachs of patients with cerebral dysfunction do not manifest any characteristic response in terms of percentages, ratios, or any unique response to any one of the stimulus determinants of the blots (color, shading, the stimulus for movement). The patient with cerebral dysfunction does manifest a unique style of thinking; responses tend to be concrete, perseverative, and stereotypic. This finding is similar to that found with schizophrenics where research, summarized by Frank in 1990, also indicated no uniquely 'objective' response style but reflected a unique cognitive style. These two reviews taken together suggest that the better way to use Rorschach data in clinical work is as an opportunity to assess patients' thinking as opposed to the Rorschach being used as a psychometric device, yielding 'numbers.'     

Response selection on the Rorschach Test

After discussion of some theoretical speculations concerning the nature of the Rorschach process, two experimental manipulations of the Rorschach task are presented. Three groups of normal (n = 6) and schizophrenic subjects (7 paranoid and 7 nonparanoid) participated. Their mean age was 30.7 yr. In the first experimental version of the Rorschach, simplified inkblots (sections of the standard cards) were used to verify the influence of stimulus complexity on response for the three groups. In the second, an experimental version of the Rorschach task was created to highlight the influence of the selection process among different associations to blots. To this end, a list including responses both of positive and negative form quality to each card, was provided each subject. Data are discussed, highlighting the minimal differences obtained by the experimental manipulations and relating these to theoretical speculations.     

Extraversion and accuracy of aspects of memory for pain in the cold water pressor test

The role of Erlebnistypus personality features were investigated in 40 healthy subjects, as defined by the Rorschach Comprehensive System by Exner, in determining accuracy in recollecting acute tonic experimental pain, induced by the Cold Water Pressor Test. Multiple-regression analysis revealed that the difference between the number of movement answers and the number of chromatic answers in the Rorschach test, an index of general Extroversion, predicted accuracy in recollecting the qualitative features of pain, defined as affective and evaluative pain scores on the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Also, Extratensive subjects were less accurate than Introversive and Ambitent participants at recollecting sensory scores. The data suggest that general extroversion may have a role in individual differences in the higher cognitive processing of pain comprising pain memory.     

Rorschach Stimulus Modification

The major Rorschach stimulus dimensions were varied by E. E. Baughman in a 1954 study leading to the conclusion that only form affects responses. In 1958 his review of the literature in this area led to the same conclusion. The next year he reversed his position on the basis of the most definitive study of Rorschach stimulus modification yet published. However, close examination of the 1954 study demonstates that, contrary to Baughman's original conclusion, it, too, supports the effect of stimulus characteristics.     

罗夏墨迹测验中“装好”与诈病反应的研究与进展

传统观念认为罗夏测验具有投射测验的性质,因此受测者无法在其测验中故意“装好”和诈病。但相关研究发现,受测者的“装好”反应对于罗夏测验结果没有产生实质性的影响,不能改变罗夏测验的基本数据特征和结构汇总性量表;而诈病反应的研究结论不尽相同,受测者有可能造成罗夏测验变量得分的改变,伪装成相应精神病理症状。如果联合使用MMPI和罗夏测验,则可以精确地评估受测者的伪装反应。目前已有的研究存在被试取样单一、研究数量偏少、无法确定临界值等问题。罗夏测验“装好”和诈病反应研究还处于初步阶段,需要继续深入研究并建立专门的“装好”和诈病量表。     

Might the Rorschach be a projective test after all? Social projection of an undesired trait alters Rorschach Oral Dependency scores

The degree to which projection plays a role in Rorschach (Rorschach, 1921/1942) responding remains controversial, in part because extant data have yielded inconclusive results. In this investigation, I examined the impact of social projection on Rorschach Oral Dependency (ROD) scores using methods adapted from social cognition research. In Study 1, I prescreened 85 college students (40 women and 45 men) with the ROD scale and a widely used self-report measure of dependency, the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (IDI; Hirschfeld et al., 1977). Results show that informing participants who scored low on the IDI that they were in fact highly dependent led to significant increases in ROD scores; I did not obtain parallel ROD increases for participants who scored high on the IDI or for participants who received low-dependent feedback. In Study 2, I examined a separate sample of 80 prescreened college students (40 women and 40 men) and showed that providing low self-report participants an opportunity to attribute dependency to a fictional target person prior to Rorschach responding attenuated the impact of high-dependent feedback on ROD scores. These results suggest that projection played a role in at least one domain of Rorschach responding. I discuss theoretical, clinical, and empirical implications of these results.     

Research on the clinical usefulness of the Rorschach: 1. The diagnosis of schizophrenia

Research on the use of the Rorschach in the diagnosis of schizophrenia is reviewed. The analysis of this research (from that done by Rorschach to the most recent) indicates that schizophrenics do not respond in any unique fashion to any particular determinant or any particular card. The research also indicates that the computation of percentages and ratios, no matter how complex, does not facilitate the identification of a schizophrenic process. What the research does demonstrate is that schizophrenia, in its overt as well as latent and borderline forms, is detectable on the Rorschach through an analysis of the patient's thinking. The thinking of the schizophrenic reveals highly personal, illogical, and bizarre associations to the blots. This analysis of thinking is not accomplished through assessment of the formal properties of the blots, e.g., the analysis of response to color, movement, shading, the color-to-movement ratio, or form level (low form level proves to be a function of psychoticism, not schizophrenia, per se) but more in terms of the phenomenology of the responses.     

Projection, transitional phenomena, and the Rorschach

This article sheds light on the theoretical foundations of projective testing. Drawing on the psychoanalytic perspective, especially Winnicott's works, it elucidates the nature of projection and transitional relatedness, with particular reference to the Rorschach. This conceptualization of the Rorschach task is compared with Exner's more cognitive-behavioral orientation, which holds that the Rorschach is not a projective test. I suggest that Exner's Comprehensive System could become more truly comprehensive if it were integrated with a more complex understanding of the response process, allowing more importance to the role of stimuli from the inner world to counterbalance its focus on the processing of external stimulation. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Predicting Institutional Adjustment With the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form and the Antisocial Features and Aggression Scales of the PAI

This article sheds light on the theoretical foundations of projective testing. Drawing on the psychoanalytic perspective, especially Winnicott's works, it elucidates the nature of projection and transitional relatedness, with particular reference to the Rorschach. This conceptualization of the Rorschach task is compared with Exner's more cognitive-behavioral orientation, which holds that the Rorschach is not a projective test. I suggest that Exner's Comprehensive System could become more truly comprehensive if it were integrated with a more complex understanding of the response process, allowing more importance to the role of stimuli from the inner world to counterbalance its focus on the processing of external stimulation. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Subjective confidence in one's answers: the consensuality principle

In answering general-information questions, a within-person confidence-accuracy (C-A) correlation is typically observed, suggesting that people can monitor the correctness of their knowledge. However, because the correct answer is generally the consensual answer--the one endorsed by most participants--confidence judgment may actually monitor the consensuality of the answer rather than its correctness. Indeed, the C-A correlation was positive for items with a consensually correct answer but negative for items with a consensually wrong answer. Results suggest that the consensuality-confidence correlation may be mediated by 2 internal mnemonic cues that are correlated with consensuality: Consensual answers are reached faster and are selected more consistently by the same person on different occasions than nonconsensual answers. The results argue against a direct-access view of confidence judgments and suggest that such judgments will be accurate only as long as people's responses are by and large correct across the sampled items, thus stressing the criticality of a representative design.     

Defensiveness in Exhibitionists

Focuses on the excessive defensiveness and the psychodynamic factors that typify many exhibitionists. After reviewing some of the literature describing the marked guardedness of these offenders, a detailed discussion follows of the Rorschach protocol of an exhibitionist revealing his core emotional conflicts. These test results illustrate the value of the Rorschach in eliciting material that in many cases would be difficult to obtain because of these patients characteristically suspicious and defensive stance concerning their offense and their personal lives. The case demonstrates the significant role of psychological testing in the forensic process, particularly for defensive, less verbal, and unpsychologically-minded offenders.     

Mirroring Activity in the Brain and Movement Determinant in the Rorschach Test

Human movement (M) responses to the Rorschach are related to cognitive sophistication, creativity, and empathy. Recent studies also link Ms to EEG-mu suppression, an index of mirroring activity in the brain. In this article, we further investigate the link between Ms and mu suppression by testing some clinical interpretative distinctions. Previously collected EEG data recorded during the administration of the Rorschach were reanalyzed. We hypothesized that (a) among several responses investigated, only M would be associated with mu suppression, and (b) Ms with active movement, ordinary form quality, or whole human figures would be most strongly associated with mu suppression. Hypothesis 1 was fully confirmed, thus supporting that the traditional interpretation of M has a neurobiological foundation. Hypothesis 2 was partially confirmed; that is, active Ms were associated with mu suppression more strongly than passive Ms (p < .05), but no other significant differences emerged. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Defensiveness in exhibitionists

Focuses on the excessive defensiveness and the psychodynamic factors that typify many exhibitionists. After reviewing some of the literature describing the marked guardedness of these offenders, a detailed discussion follows of the Rorschach protocol of an exhibitionist revealing his core emotional conflicts. These test results illustrate the value of the Rorschach in eiliciting material that in many cases would be difficult to obtain because of these patients' characteristically suspicious and defensive stance concerning their offense and their personal lives. The case demonstrates the significant role of psychological testing in the forensic process, particularly for defensive, less verbal, and unpsychologically-minded offenders.     

The HEXACO–60: A Short Measure of the Major Dimensions of Personality

According to Jung anima and animus are functions, themselves largely unconscious, mediating between the ego and the deeper unconscious. Their manifestations in projection (also in dream, myth, etc.) are called the soul image. The soul image and the functions which it represents usually have sexual characteristics contrary to those of the conscious personality and are compensatory and complementary thereto.

Kinaesthetic responses in the Rorschach test are generally regarded as carriers of projections from the unconscious. Therefore, when personality imbalance and increased liability to projection occur as in neurosis, the proportion of contrasexual Ms should be larger in neurotic than in normal groups. Using four groups containing each 100 adult subjects: healthy women, neurotic women, healthy men and neurotic men, the hypothesis was tested and confirmed, affording some confirmation to Jungian theory.     

Comments on "the Rorschach M response: a return to its roots"

These comments address three interrelated issues posed in Kramer's article concerning Rorschach's definition of the M response and the criteria for M that is applied in the Comprehensive System, the possibility that M may be overscored by the criteria for the Comprehensive System, and the issue of whether the Rorschach is amenable to quantification and empirical scrutiny. Kramer has oversimplified and misconstrued statements by Rorschach, Beck, and Bohm; in reality, the criterion for the scoring of M responses in the Comprehensive System differs very little, if at all, from that suggested by Rorschach. The accumulated history of the test seems to confirm that it is amenable to quantification and empirical scrutiny.     

Clinical utility of the Rorschach with African Americans.

In this study we sought to identify Rorschach differences between African Americans and White Americans and to understand these differences within a social and cultural framework. Data from the Exner (1993) Comprehensive System normative sample (N = 700) was used to form a group of 44 African Americans and 44 White Americans matched for age, sex, education, and socioeconomic status. Twenty-three Rorschach variables were chosen a priori and group differences were analyzed. The only clinically significant difference found was that African Americans offered significantly less cooperative movement. This lower frequency of cooperative movement may suggest African Americans do not anticipate cooperative interactions with others as a routine event. This may reflect a shared feeling among African Americans that most members of our society are less likely to be sensitive to or responsive to their needs relative to others. However, the study demonstrates a striking similarity between the groups, supporting the clinical use of the Rorschach with African Americans.     

The Rorschach in the context of performance-based personality assessment

In this article, I draw on literature concerning the current status of the Rorschach Inkblot Method (Exner, 2002), performance-based personality measurement, direct versus indirect personality assessment, and dual-process models to suggest a reconceptualization of the Rorschach. The goal is to offer an updated conceptual framework for thinking about the Rorschach that can potentially be used both to enhance the image of the method and to provide direction for future research on the validity of specific Rorschach scores.     

The relationship between the Rorschach whole response and level of cognitive functioning

Investigated the relationship between children's level of cognitive development and their production of whole responses (W) on the Rorschach, Both quantitative and qualitative variations in W were examined, and level of cognitive functioning was assessed by Piagetian techniques. The findings indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between children's stage of cognitive development within the Piagetian framework and the number and complexity of whole responses they produce on the Rorschach. The strength of this relationship appears to be significantly influenced by the stimulus complexity of the inkblots, and the findings suggest that production of highly articulated W on the more complex broken blots requires the abstracting and synthesizing abilities associated with formal operational thought.