An Indicator of Suicidal Ideation on the Rorschach Test

We examined the impact of patient- and therapist-rated alliance developed during psychological assessment on the subsequent alliance measured early and late in formal psychotherapy. We hypothesized that a working alliance developed during psychological assessment conducted from a collaborative therapeutic model of assessment (TMA; Finn &; Tonsager, 1992, 1997; Fischer, 1994) between the patient and therapist would carry into formal psychotherapy. We also hypothesized that alliance for those patients receiving a TMA would be significantly greater than patients receiving psychological testing as usual. To test this hypothesis, we administered the Combined Alliance Short Form-Patient Version (Hatcher &; Barends, 1996) and the Combined Alliance Short Form-Therapist Version (Hatcher, 1999) to a sample of outpatients and their therapists at the end of the assessment feedback session, early, and late in psychotherapy. The hypotheses were supported as alliance scales rated at the assessment feedback session demonstrated positive and significant relationships with alliance throughout formal psychotherapy and in relation to a control group. The clinical utility and research implications of these findings are discussed.     

An Application of the Rorschach INK Blot Test to Three Clinical Types of Dementia Praecox

At the beginning of an introductory course in psychology, 227 students were asked to define ordinary everyday English words and to guess the technical psychological concepts represented. In the final examination for the course, questions were inserted that required the students to understand the concepts and to know the terminology. From a comparison of responses at the beginning and end of the term it seems that negative transfer was not involved or, if present, was well overcome.     

Anatomy Responses in the Rorschach Test

Investigated medical and psychological help-seeking attitudes and behaviors as a function of liberal-conservative attitudes toward women. Subjects participated in a structured interview concerning their attitudes toward and experiences with physicians and psychotherapists, and completed the Attitudes toward Women Scale. Compared to conservatives, liberals readily seek mental health services, stay in psychotherapy longer, and have relatively negative attitudes toward physicians in general. Conservatives endorse positive attitudes toward seeking psychological help but are less likely to visit a psychotherapist for psychological problems and more likely to have a physician available to consult about medical problems. The study suggests differential help-seeking tendencies among liberals and conservatives for medical and psychological problems, and affirms the utility of the Attitudes toward Women Scale in predicting such tendencies.     

Intra-Protocol Plate Failures: An Investigation of Rorschach Card Meaning

Thirty-three Ss were found who had IQs of average or better, but who nevertheless exhibited exactly two failures on the Rorschach. Analysis of the pairs of card rejections revealed a disproportionate number of card IX failures and a clustering among plates IV, VI, VII and IX.     

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.     

On the Existential Interpretation of the Rorschach Test

This is an analysis of the Rorschachs of two subjects, a boy and a girl, from the longitudinal research programs of the Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley. Rorschachs had been obtained from these subjects prior to their becoming seriously ill, one with a kidney condition, the other with leukemia. On the basis of the thematic content of the Rorschachs, it was postulated that Rorschach responses may, like dreams, be considered endoscopic in that they may reveal the actual functioning or disfunctioning of the organism, particularly at the onset of somatic illness. Data, from anthropological, mythological, and literary sources, as well as research on the body image concept, were utilized to amplify the hypothesis and to suggest directions for further research.     

Predicting suicide using the Rorschach Inkblot Test

Three hundred and seventy-five Rorschach protocols were scored blind and then divided into three groups: psychiatric controls, suicide attempts, and suicide effectors. Using the stepwise procedure of multiple discriminant analysis a trio of formulas, composed of six weighted variables each, and a constant, were constructed to apply to each of the three groups based on a test sample of 100 subjects in each group. Cross validation results on a new sample of 25 subjects in each group predicted classification with 52% overall accuracy at step six (chance .33). Internal reliability tests showed all values significant beyond .001. Discussion integrates the test data into the literature on suicide, and attends to the problem of overlap of predictability which occurs with most prediction scales.     

On the use of symmetry in the Rorschach Test.

Rorschach's justifications for the use of symmetry in his inkblots are evaluated in the light of recent empirical research concerning the perception of symmetry. The role of symmetry in response facilitation, in the production of whole and movement responses, in the creation of similar conditions for left- and right-handers, and as a response determinant, is discussed and re-evaluated.