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.     

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.     

Rorschach assessment of borderline children

Projective testing may provide the clinician with a valuable context in which childhood borderline conditions may be investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine if Rorschach scores could be useful in diagnosing borderline disorders. Rorschach scores from a group of 13 borderline children and 10 conduct disorder children were compared using a step-down discriminate analysis. The results indicated that children in these two groups could be correctly classified beyond chance levels using Rorschach scores. Three variable, content analysis, human movement, and animal movement were the strongest contributors in separating the two groups. The Rorschach measure of form quality (i.e., adequacy of perception) was notable in that it failed to produce any independent discriminatory power in this analysis. As in the case of adult borderline testing using the Rorschach, novel scoring procedures, used in conjunction with standard scoring procedures may lead to further clarification of childhood borderline disorders.     

Japanese Americans and mental health

This is a personal account by a second-generation Japanese American of the special problems faced by certain minority groups and their effects on the mental health of individuals and families in these groups. It discusses the cultural and historic forces in traditional Japanese life whose interaction with American customs produces emotional stresses and delineates the barriers to seeking professional help that originate in the Japanese emphasis on avoidance of family shame. It reports on studies indicating an increase in intermarriage and emphasizes the commonality existing among groups and races that can serve to fuse the special uniqueness of each into the larger human family.Based on an address given on June 16, 1978 to the Japanese American Citizens League and reprinted here with permission from theNew York Nichibei.     

The future of Rorschach in personality assessment

This article considers the Rorschach and its prospects for the next century in the context of two broad issues in psychology, as well as some test specific challenges confronting those interested in the Rorschach and its applications. The broad issues are the matters of personality as a topic of study in psychology, and the relation of findings about personality to treatment planning. The specific issues concern the definition of the Rorschach, research about the test stimuli, and the expansion of information concerning the interpretive usefulness of some structural variables that are poorly conceptualized or for which interpretation may be overly generalized. Some recommendations concerning collaborative research efforts are also offered.     

Rorschach assessment of purging and nonpurging bulimics

Research in bulimia has flourished in recent years, and yet minimal attention has been devoted to explorations of the bulimic's basic personality organization. We utilized the Rorschach to differentiate between purging and nonpurging bulimics and controls. There were 15 subjects in each group. The Comprehensive System (Exner, 1986) was used for the scoring of the protocols. Statistically significant differences were not found between the two bulimia groups, but interesting trends were detected in the areas of depression, anger, and self-preoccupation. Results appear to be constrained by the low rate of purging behavior. Comparisons between the combined bulimia groups and the controls resulted in solidly characterizing the bulimics as displaying perceptual inaccuracies, disordered thinking, a vulnerability to interpersonal problems, a damaged self-image, and a pessimistic outlook. The strengths of the study were its use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) nonpatients bulimic subtypes and a control group that was comparable in terms of demographics. Future Rorschach studies with bulimics displaying higher frequencies of binging and purging behaviors are suggested.     

The Response of African Americans to the Rorschach: A Review of the Research

Studies exploring the performance of African Americans on the Rorschach were reviewed. The review revealed the limited number of studies done in this area of study, as well as the fact that the research paradigm for all of this research has been limited to comparing the Rorschach performance of African Americans to that of Whites. However, no one has offered a rationale for such a research paradigm. Without a scientific reason to expect personality to be a function of race, another research design was recommended, one that explores the effect of a variety of aspects of living conditions on the development of the personality of African Americans.     

Personality assessment and Native Americans

Personality assessment services for Native Americans have been culturally inappropriate and historically underutilized as a consequence. A framework for personality assessment is presented including components of relevant cultural knowledge, assessment techniques, assessor characteristics, and relationship style. Emic and etic approaches are described as serving different assessment functions. Acculturation measures and awareness of acculturation effects on different instruments provide temporary palliatives. A biopsychosocial model for service-delivery with linkages to family, tribal, county, state, and federal resources would be desirable and potentially effective. Ameliorations in techniques and service-delivery cannot substitute for genuine professional commitment to recruitment and training of indigenous assessment service-providers.     

Constructivism and the projective assessment of meaning in Rorschach administration

Constructivist perspectives on the Rorschach are outlined. I discuss ways in which constructivism complements and adds to existing Rorschach methodologies. It is suggested hat the constructivist emphasis on personally and socially constructed meanings is very consistent with many of the ways the Rorschach has been used and resonates with recent emphases on the Rorschach as a representational task. Furthermore, constructivist perspectives on Rorschach also provide an opportunity to supplement Exner's (1993, 1995) efforts to standardize and norm the Rorschach in a way that maintains the instrument's historic and admirable attention to relational elements of assessment and psychotherapy. I present a variety of meaning-based techniques for conducting Rorschach assessment, incorporating both the constructivist and social constructionist perspective.     

Perceptions of Women Condom Proposers Among Chinese Americans,Japanese Americans,and European Americans1

This study was a comparison of the judgments made about a sexually active female condom proposer by men and women of 3 ethnic groups: Chinese Americans, European Americans, and Japanese Americans. Results indicate that Chinese Americans reacted more negatively to the female condom proposer than did European Americans. Japanese Americans could not be distinguished between either of the groups on most measures. However, Japanese Americans did perceive the female condom proposer to be less sexually attractive than did the other 2 groups. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing among subgroups of Asian Americans, especially when considering issues related to gender and sexuality.     

Aging and terminal changes in Rorschach responses among the Japanese elderly

The Rorschach Inkblot Test was used to examine how personality changes among the elderly and whether significant changes precede death. Six measurements were conducted over 10 years. The original subjects were 236 healthy Japanese elderly with an average age of 76.4 years; 52 subjects survived throughout the 10-year study. Age-related changes were reflected in the number of responses; responses regarding rejection, shading, and popular; poor form level (F-%); and content range. The changes in these variables suggest that productive and creative thinking, cooperativeness, and concerns for and interests in society lessen with advancing age. Over the 4 to 6 years preceding death, the popular responses and content range declined, and the decline accelerated before death. Tests within 2 years of death showed less animal movement response (FM), and higher form (F%), F-%, and human content (H%) compared to the survivors. These results suggest that productivity, vital energy, and ego strength become reduced prior to death, whereas interest in and sensitivity to others is maintained to the end.     

Value changes in third generation Japanese Americans

Summary: To compare the acculturation of third generation Japanese Americans with a contemporary Caucasian college student population 275 Japanese Americans (106 males, 169 females), and 346 Caucasian American college students (136 males, 210 females), were given the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, which describes personality in terms of 15 needs. The results indicated that while accuituration has taken place among the Japanese Americans, when their scores are compared with a contemporary Caucasian college sample, the Japanese Americans still express a significantly higher need for order, succorance, and abasement, and a significantly lower need for change and heterosexuality.     

Rorschach assessment of psychological functioning in sexually abused girls

We measured psychological functioning in a group of 79 Black females between the ages of 5 and 16 and a comparison group of nonabused girls using the Rorschach. In addition to Exner's (1985) Comprehensive System, the Elizur (1949) Rorschach Content Test Scale (RCT), the Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MOA; Urist, 1977; Urist & Shill, 1982), and the Barrier and Penetration Scales (Fisher & Cleveland, 1968) were used. Sexually abused girls were found to show more disturbed thinking, to experience a higher level of stress relative to their adaptive abilities, to describe human relationships more negatively, and to show more preoccupation with sexuality than the comparison group. The distress experienced by the victimized children was more related to internal mediating variables then to abuse characteristics. Sexually abused girls who are cognitively and emotionally active also experienced high levels of distress compared to abused girls who are psychologically constricted.     

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.     

Rorschach assessment of malevolence in sexually abused girls.

Clinical samples of sexually abused and nonabused girls were compared on COP/AG, a proposed Rorschach index of malevolence. Defined as the co-occurrence of COP and AG in a single response, this variable is introduced as a Rorschach analog of a measure of malevolence devised for use with narrative material. Sexually abused girls scored significantly higher on COP/AG than did nonabused girls (p < .01), with no group differences emerging for either COP or AG alone. These findings provide empirical support for the salience of malevolence in the interpersonal perceptions and expectancies of victims of childhood sexual abuse. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Rorschach assessment of primitive defenses: a review

The Lerner & Lerner Scale for assessing primitive defenses is reviewed. According to its conceptual roots, initial studies assessed the scale's efficacy in distinguishing groups of borderline patients from groups of other diagnostic entities. Later studies extended the use of the scale to assess various clinical groups assumed to have a borderline personality structure. Results from several studies indicate a high level of reliability as judged by degree of interrater agreement. In a host of studies, the scale was found to be valid in distinguishing borderline patients from other types of patients, eating disordered patients from normal controls, and gender disturbed children from normal controls. Another Rorschach scale for assessing primitive defenses was also reviewed and compared.     

Conceptual and empirical perspectives on the Rorschach assessment of psychopathology

Conceptual and empirical perspectives on the Rorschach assessment of psychopathology are described and placed in a complementary perspective that stresses the value of conceptual formulations and the necessity of empirical data. Empiricism without concepts fails to explain adequately why Rorschach assessment yields useful information; conceptualization without empirical support fails to document adequately the psychometric soundness of Rorschach inferences. Used in tandem, explanatory concepts and supportive data enhance the scientific stature and professional utility of Rorschach assessment.