An Approach to Use of Color on the Rorschach through Individual Color Preferences

More must be learned of color and its possible relationships with the Rorschach before its interpretation may be taken with assurance. Twenty Ss were administered the Rorschach and a Color Battery of four tasks chosen to tap color preference. Preferences were analyzed for use of the color on the Rorschach plates; color response scores and form-level scores; relationship with color meaning for the subject. Significances were found between: (1) preference and use of color; (2) preference and CF and C scores; (3) plus form-level and preferences. Color meanings varied with each subject. Color preference may influence the subject's use of color on the Rorschach, as well as scores, regardless of what the preferred color may be or the amount available. Generalizations are not warranted on the basis of color or color use, especially as regards differential diagnosis.     

Psychodiagnosis of personality structure: psychotic personality organization.

Recent developments in Rorschach psychology, including nomothetic approaches focused on scores, ratios, and indices and idiographic approaches focused on content emerging from psychoanalytic theory, offer the Rorschach clinician a rich and potent interpretive methodology. This article examines the structural diagnosis of personality organization with a focus on psychotic personality structure. Rorschach approaches to the differential diagnosis of psychotic personality organization are presented. The Rorschach is viewed as indispensible in the differential diagnosis of personality organization, especially in the so-called "borderline" cases.     

Socioeconomic Status and the Diagnostic Significance of Healthy and Unhealthy Group Rorschach Content

Three hypotheses were put to test, using group Rorschach protocols and a content scoring approach: (a) when neutral content is disregarded, upper social class subjects (Ss) will report predominantly “healthy” group Rorschach content while lower social class Ss will report predominantly “unhealthy” content; (b) perceiving “unhealthy” content will prove an abnormal diagnostic indicant only among upper social class Ss; (c) these findings will hold across racial identity. Rorschach content data and independent measures of personality were obtained from five samples of adolescent Ss differing in race and social class. The experimental hypotheses were supported. A theoretical interpretation making use of social class values is presented to explain the findings.     

Differentiation of Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory Employees at Goodwill Industries with the Hand Test

This study examines the legitimacy of thinking that certain perceptual contents in the Rorschach are pathognomic indicators. Group Rorschach responses, sociometrics, and scores on a personality measure constituted the primary data. Five data collections are reported, sampling 562 pre- and post-pubescent Ss residing in different areas of the country and coming from different socio-economic levels. The findings indicate that most young people in the age range of 11 to 18 years give at least one so-called unhealthy response per ten to the Rorschach, and, where this relative frequency increases it is either of no consequence or probably a healthy sign. Both popular Ss and those who score high on personality test dimensions suggestive of adequate to good personal adjustment report notable amounts of content considered pathognomic in the general Rorschach literature.     

Development of Objective Scoring Methods for Longitudinal CAT Data

Previous research has suggested that content analysis of the Rorschach may be a useful tool in diagnosing homosexuality. The present study selected three groups of 15 Ss as: Heterosexual, sex-role disturbed, and homosexuals. A content analysis of the Rorschach protocols using Schafer's signs was performed. The results indicated that the signs were highly successful in differentiating the three groups. Implications for further research were discussed.     

A Normative Rorschach Study of Athenians

The Rorschach Test was given to 200 Athenian adults. The sample was representative of the greater Athens, Greece area according to known proportions of sex, age, education and income. Productivity, location, human movement, color, F%, F+%, content, cards rejected, and popular responses were reported. Except for greater productivity in females, no other sex differences were found. Age, education or income were not sources of Rorschach variation. Experience balance was introversive. Similarities and differences between American and Greek Rorschachs were discussed.     

Biased expectations of burned or traumatized children and adolescents as revealed through predictions of Rorschach responding

This study examines helper bias through predictions of burned and traumatized children's and adolescents' Rorschach responding on ten content variables: human, fictional human, animal, anatomy, blood, clothing, explosion, food, fire, and sex. Two groups of helpers consisting of 139 inexperienced individuals and 48 members of the American Burn Association who worked directly with patients were asked to predict Rorschach content responding for children and adolescents who had been severely burned (n = 86) or traumatized (n = 75). Inaccurate and inconsistent predictions are interpreted as evidence of biased expectations which could influence the therapeutic relationship between helpers and patients. To control for the confound of Rorschach knowledge, 11 psychologists with Rorschach expertize also made predictions. An analysis of Rorschach responding in the two groups of children and adolescents is also presented.     

A Rorschach Comparison Between Best and Least Adjusted Girls in a Training School

Abstract

Editorial Note: The following article uses the traditional Rorschach scoring including Binder's shading categories. It affords a valuable opportunity to compare the efficiency of the different scoring systems. To enhance this opportunity the interpretations of the two cases following this article utilize every nuance in the refined scoring system and combine that procedure with the most careful response-by-response analysis, adding significant symbolic meanings of the content to the formal nuances of the scoring system. It may be emphasized that this procedure should not be confused with an unbridled misuse of Rorschach records for analytical interpretations without knowledge of or reference to the Rorschach method of personality diagnosis.     

On the Attention — Demand Value of Rorschach Stimuli

The attention-demand value of the Rorschach stimuli was investigated by measuring free looking time elicited by each card. Reports of content were not given by Ss. There were significant differences between cards in amount of looking which they elicited. This was closely related to judged complexity of the cards (r = .78) and response productivity of the cards under normal administration of the Rorschach test (r = .72). A comparison of looking times under two instructions, non-defensive and defensive, showed that the instructional variable tended to produce greater differences in looking time for some cards than for others. Cards low in complexity showed relatively longer looking times under the defensive conditions.     

An empirical approach to the study of defense mechanisms: I. Reliability and preliminary validity of the Rorschach Defense scales

Despite widespread use of the Rorschach for the study of defense mechanisms, few recent Rorschach scales have been developed for the study of defensive functioning. We critically review previous empirical research and describe the Rorschach Defense scales. These scales provide criteria for rating both lower level defense mechanisms, such as splitting and primitive idealization, as well as higher level defenses, such as intellectualization and isolation. The scales utilize a broad range of content including all Rorschach responses, associative content, and verbalization of the tester-patient relationship. Data on interrater reliability and preliminary validity are presented.     

The Effect of a Direct Inquiry on Rorschach Scores

33 Ss were administered the Rorschach and had a traditional, nonleading inquiry. An equal number of Ss took the Rorschach and had a direct inquiry in which they were asked specifically whether or not a certain determinant had been relevant. The results indicated no significant difference in the numbers of determinants produced by the two groups. It was suggested that a standardized, direct inquiry would be of considerable value in administering and understanding the Rorschach.     

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.     

A Rorschach study of attachment and anxiety in inpatient conduct-disordered and dysthymic adolescents.

We investigated the constructs of attachment and anxiety in inpatient conduct-disordered and dysthymic adolescents. Texture, diffuse shading, and pure human content (Exner, 1986) Rorschach indices were compared between 48 subjects who met the criteria for conduct disorder and 30 subjects who met the criteria for dysthymia, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987). We also compared mild, moderate, and severe conduct-disorder groups on the three selected Rorschach variables and investigated certain family characteristics for the two groups. We found a lower frequency of texture and pure human content responses in conduct-disordered subjects and a greater frequency of diffuse shading responses in the dysthymic subjects. The conduct-disordered subjects also came from homes in which the mother figure was significantly less present. Our psychometric findings of lessened attachment and diminished anxiety in the conduct-disordered adolescents are similar to adult psychopaths. We urge that an attachment or socialization disturbance criterion be reintroduced into the forthcoming DSM-IV conduct-disorder diagnosis.     

Trends in research on the Rorschach: Review and recommendations

Meta-analyses have shown that the Rorschach and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) have roughly equivalent psychometric properties. Assessment continues to be stressed in psychological training, and the Rorschach continues to be emphasized in courses on assessment. The most frequently used test battery includes the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised or Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, the MMPI, and projective devices such as the Rorschach or Thematic Apperception Test. A survey of the literature from 1983 to 1991 showed that research on the Rorschach concerns mainly issues of formal diagnosis and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the instrument. Such research does not evaluate the Rorschach as it is usually employed to arrive at decision about individuals. More appropriate research models are recommended, in which Rorschach data are added to or deleted from other assessment information in order to evaluate the influence of the inclusion of the Rorschach on judgments made by competent clinicians about relevant issues in individual cases.     

A Rorschach study of oral dependence in alcoholics and depressives

Despite the strong association between alcoholism and orality in psychoanalytic theory, use of the Rorschach Inkblot Test to provide empirical support for such a link has yielded decidedly mixed results. However, Masling's Rorschach Oral-Dependency (ROD) scale has shown twice that people with alcoholism give more oral-dependent responses on the Rorschach than matched comparison groups (Bertrand & Masling, 1969; Weiss & Masling, 1970), which is supportive of classical analytic theory. In this study, we investigated alcohol groups, depression groups, and "normal" undergraduates with the ROD scale and found that the 2 clinical groups produced higher ROD scores than the undergraduates. In addition, recent studies by Duberstein and Talbot (1993) and Fowler, Hilsenroth, and Handler (1996) provide evidence for an object relations model of dependency that suggests that a balance between anaclitic dependence and complete independence, in which dependency needs are acknowledged but are not overwhelming, is most adaptive. This model of dependency was evaluated; it was found that a simple difference in group means provided a better fit with the data, although some evidence of an object relations model also was found. Finally, Rorschach and MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) levels of general defensiveness and primary process manifestations in Rorschach content were investigated to assess whether participants were responding defensively to the testing and whether there were any differences in the nature of oral-dependent responses between the clinical groups.     

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.     

Personality Judgment at Zero Acquaintance: Agreement,Assumed Similarity,and Implicit Simplicity

Measures of frequency of dream recall for 47 Ss and of amount of dreaming for 18 Ss, as determined by the Dement-Kleitman method, were available as part of a larger investigation of the influence of personality factors on dream recall. Rorschach Test indices obtained from these Ss were intercorrelated among themselves and correlated with the appropriate dream variable in order to assess the presumed affinity of dream phenomena and Rorschach response processes. The results were: (1) indices of fantasy predominance correlated positively with both amount of dreaming and frequency of dream recall; (2) indices of associative productivity correlated positively with frequency of dream recall; (3) an index of introspective constriction correlated negatively with frequency of dream recall. Further exploration of this area seems promising.     

Putting your eggs in the content analysis basket: a response to Aronow, Reznikoff, and Moreland

A response is made to the essay by Aronow, Reznikoff, and Moreland (this issue) on the superiority of the content analysis approach to the Rorschach. Their argument is seen as giving insufficient emphasis to the importance of information obtained from empirically based, quantified methods of Rorschach interpretation. Content analysis without score-based interpretation is not sufficiently reliable for clinical use. Also, the argument of Aronow and colleagues that the Rorschach is predominantly a projective technique is refuted. Rorschach interpretation that deemphasizes empirically based scores is as insufficient as interpretation that excludes content analysis.